JUST IN: “My Wife Doesn’t Even Have a Car, She Drives My Back-Up Car” – Amaechi Reflects on His Simplicity

According to Daily Sun, former Minister of Transportation and two-term governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, has spoken about the principles that undergird his private and public life as he turns 60. Highlighting the virtues that have kept him grounded in 38 years of being in politics, without scandals to his name, he asked his interviewer, “As you entered here, did you see posh cars?,” adding for effect, “My wife doesn’t even have a car. I have to provide my back up car. That is what she drives.”

Since leaving public office, Amaechi has immersed himself in academics. In just six years, he has racked up an impressive collection of degrees — two LLBs (one from Baze University and another from the University of London), a Master’s in Law from King’s College London, and a call to the Nigerian Bar.

Why so many qualifications, especially abroad? “So that nobody will say, oh, you got an LLB in Nigeria because you are Rotimi,” he said. “In London where they don’t know you, let me also get another LLB.” His academic drive doesn’t stop there — a PhD may be on the horizon, though he’s torn between that and writing a book. His life today is structured around study, prayer, and family. There’s no clubbing, no alcohol, and no distractions. “Instead of going to nightclubs and looking for women and driving around, you sit down in your house and read your books,” he explained.

Though he could afford luxury, Amaechi seems indifferent to it. “Material things don’t govern me,” he said, reiterating his long-standing claim: “I don’t like money.” It’s not just rhetoric. He rarely buys himself anything, lives in a modest setting, and takes pride in personal simplicity — a trait he attributes not to ideology but to upbringing and personality. He grew up in Port Harcourt in stark poverty — a fact he recounts with a mix of humility and humor. “I wore a shirt and a trouser for nearly four years,” he said, adding that former classmates still remember. “You see, one of you could have been Mrs. Amaechi now… but because we were very poor, you didn’t give us attention.”

Those early struggles shaped a man who today jogs daily and stops mid-run to enroll children in school. “I will train them,” he said of five kids he encountered while exercising. “I said to their father, don’t get your wife pregnant again ooo. He has two new children. I said these two, I will not train them.” His philanthropic gestures are deliberate, targeted, and often unannounced. No foundation, no fanfare — just direct impact. “I am the foundation itself,” he declared. Despite being in politics for nearly four decades, Amaechi boasts a clean slate on corruption. “Have you heard, oh, Amaechi stealing money? Amaechi is this?” he asked. “Simple!”

On betrayal, something inevitable in politics, he’s learned detachment. “You trust everybody you meet, but always have at the back of your mind that that man will betray you the next day. It is a better opportunity.”

At the core of his story lies a devotion to family and faith. He is proudly Catholic, credits his father for his principles, and holds loyalty as a personal virtue — never forgetting those who helped him rise. “Dr. Peter Odili had a huge influence in my life,” he recalled, describing him as an instrumental mentor. As he clocks 60, Rotimi Amaechi said he focused on staying grounded, grateful, and — most of all — relevant in ways that don’t require office, protocol, or applause.