Amaechi’s account of how I avoided death during my mobilization against Jonathan

Former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, was a guest speaker at the ninth edition of Akinjide Adeosun Foundation, AAF, Annual Leadership Discourse organised in Lagos.

Speaking on the theme: ‘Fearless Leadership: A Panacea for Sustainable Development,’ the former Minister of Transportation discussed various topical issues, including why he mobilised against former President Goodluck Jonathan, who was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2015 polls.

Jonathan, with 12,853,162, came second at the polls, having lost to Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress, APC, who won with 15,424,921.

Jonathan

On mobilising to remove Jonathan as president, Amaechi said: “The reason for removing Goodluck, I will say this in my book, is that I didn’t agree with his leadership style. You may agree that his leadership might have been better than Buhari, but do not forget that by the time he was leaving office, the dollar had started rising to between N150 and N200.”

Troubles

Revealing the dangers he faced under Goodluck and reasons the church, civil society organisations and pressure groups should revolt against oppression, the former governor said: “I was governor, right? So you say I have immunity, and I could do whatever I liked. But other people were also governors, but they were all scared. I brought out my neck to sacrifice it. How many of you knew that I was told not to enter Ekiti? I was governor and I was stubborn. I was governor at the age of 42, so I was stubborn. I said I must go there (Ekiti). We were there with the soldiers, struggling whether I would enter or not, until 5pm.

A good man (soldier) then told me: ‘Sir, what I am doing to you now is not law, it is wrong. But in our profession, we must obey the last order. What I am about to do to you now is not part of my mandate, but I will do it. Sir, start now and leave here. Do not let darkness catch you anywhere because I can not account for your life. Wherever you are going, don’t let darkness meet you’. At that point, I was carrying, I think, Dr Ogunbiyi, who obviously panicked.

He said: ‘let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.’ So, we drove to the airport. We went to Akure Airport where I boarded the plane. Then the airport manager walked in and said: ‘Sorry sir, the airport is technically closed’. Then I asked: ‘What do you mean by the airport is technically closed?’ An airport is technically closed when a non-civil authority closes the airport. So we went to the tarmac where I saw one air force vehicle with a machine gun on top blocking the runway.

What came to my mind at that time was: ‘do not be found in any dark place’. This was as a governor. So, I walked into my car, reversed and sped straight to Lagos.

“When we went to install the Emir of Kano. When we had succeeded, but it had not been announced, we told the governor of Kano State that we were leaving. He said: ‘okay.’ So, we went to the airport. I boarded my plane. I had chartered the plane, an Indian pilot, by the way. We took off. We were going to Abuja, but the weather was bad and I am always afraid of weather.

“So, we came back. Instead of landing in Kaduna, I said we couldn’t land in Kaduna because the governor of Kaduna was a member of the PDP and he was hostile. So, I said Let’s go back to Kano. We got to Kano where they didn’t let us land for 20 minutes. However, we eventually landed. When the weather improved, they called us to inform us that the weather had improved. We boarded the plane and were about to leave Kano when they told us we could not leave Kano. I asked why.

They said it was an order from above. So, I called the former governor of Kano State, Kwankwaso, and informed him that there was an order from above that I shouldn’t leave Kano. He said: ‘come to the Government House’. And luckily for us, Aero Contractors landed. When Aero Contractors landed, we said: ‘Thank God, thank God.’ I told my staff: ‘ go and buy Aero Contractors tickets; wherever they were going, let us go’.

Having gone to purchase Aero Contractors tickets, they returned to me to say: ‘Sir, they said we cannot buy Aero Contractors tickets.’ I asked: ‘Why? I thought they said only commercial aircraft could go. Private jets couldn’t go.’ However, they said: ‘No, you can’t go.’ So I said: ‘Then we will go to Government House.’ As I was talking, the director of SSS walked in and saluted me. He was the director of SSS in Rivers State before he was transferred to Kano. He said: ‘Oga, you must leave Kano now.

Even if it means sleeping in Bichi.’ At the time, I didn’t know where Bichi was. I said: ‘why?’ He said: ‘I can’t account for your life.’ I told him: ‘But the governor has told me to come to the Government House.’ He said: ‘Don’t you go near there.’

So, I requested for security, which he gave me. We bought fuel. He said: ‘Switch off your phones.’ We switched off our phones. By the time I left Kano, the people with me – Goje, who was about to cry, had slept off. Baraje and Professor Gambari had slept, and I was the only person who drove. By the time I got to Zaria, I needed to ease myself. I came down, eased myself. From Kaduna, God drove us because I was sleeping. In fact, I came down in Kaduna where I bought six cans of Red Bull. It didn’t work. So God drove us from Kaduna to Abuja.”

On President Bola Tinubu’s policies and the lack of sustained resistance, he said the church was also part of the problem, adding: “While brothers were dying and people were committing suicide, the president removed oil subsidy, which is a wonderful policy. If I was the president, I would also have removed the oil subsidy, but I would have approached it in a different manner. If people were hungry, yet you removed oil subsidy, then you have made them hungrier. Before such an action can be be taken, there are things to be done. For instance, create employment. How do you create employment? Social housing. If I build 200,000 to 300,000 houses in the 36 states, I would have created 200,000 carpenters. I would have created 200,000 bricklayers. You can imagine the person who supplied the cement or the person who supplied the roofing sheets.

“Imagine the person who dug the foundation. If you did this 200,000 to 300,000 houses in the 36 states of the federation including Abuja, you would have put money in the hands of people in such a manner that if you removed oil subsidy, they would not know because they would have money to pay for the fuel. Now, that was not done. You took the money they had. You added money on top. Weekly, I pay one million Naira for power. For four weeks, four million, and I earn nothing.

“If it is my church and my priest preaches that (I don’t talk), I walk out of the church. They know. That is why in the Catholic Church, we have liberation theologists. Those are the people who have been speaking to President Bola Tinubu, saying he is not doing the right thing. And they say it every day in the church. Listen to the bishop of Nsukka On Sundays. He calls all politicians thieves.”

NANS

On the National Association of Nigerian Students and the Nigerian Labour Congress, he said: “Those in their 60s will recall that in 1983, we (students) were on the streets everyday, even though they were shooting. We were taught in the university that there is no revolution without blood. Any revolution without blood is a rebellion.

“I am not telling you to rebel against government before they say I am inciting people. I am telling you about what we did when we were students. And I was between 18, 19 and 20 years old. Let me give an example, the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, had ideological leanings. There were capitalists in NANS and the Marxists. I was a member of the Marxist Movement of Nigeria. We had lecturers like Professor Nzimiro, Professor Claude Ake, who would talk to power in the classroom and say it in public. Now, which lecturer is talking? Now you have NANS owning cars, with complimentary cards and police.

“Take the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, for instance, is there any NLC now? When we were in university, for Christ’s sake, we (NANS) used to meet with NLC. If the NLC had a problem with the federal government and they wanted to declare a strike, we would hold a meeting. We would meet with the Academic Staff Unions of University, ASUU, we would meet with the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, NASU, in one room, somewhere in Benin or Lagos or Kaduna or Sokoto. We would all agree and the NLC would declare a strike.

“As soon as the NLC did that, we would send a warning, saying if government didn’t listen, we were coming. And if that day, the NLC gave them had expired, NANS would declare student’s protest. At the time, government knew what we were capable of, so it would respond.”