Rotimi Amaechi: Is he the anointed candidate?
Rotimi Amaechi: Is he the anointed candidate?
Abubakar MS
In terms of Nigerian politics, these are fascinating times. The most intriguing aspect of the 2023 presidential election is that it will commemorate the 30th anniversary of the SDP/NRC June 1993 elections that was annulled by General Ibrahim Babangida. Everyone expected Moshood Kashimawo Olanwale (MKO) Abiola to be elected president, whether by accident or design at that time. For those who are unfamiliar with MKO Abiola, he was essentially what Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been trying to personify today. Abiola endeared himself to people from all walks of life, regardless of region or religion; he built bridges and got along with everyone. Abiola never took anyone for granted. His failed ascension to the presidency was a calculated move. But, alas, Abiola’s election to the presidency was not in God’s plan. While I still hold IBB responsible for the election annulment, which I believe was unjustified and will forever be a stain on his reputation, I also believe that God, who decides who gets power at any given time, never intended for Abiola to rule Nigeria. What I don’t understand is why God never intended for the man to be the ruler of Nigeria. Perhaps it was because Abiola believed that it was his goodwill, war chest, contacts, and close ties to the military, not God, who would determine whether or not he would rule Nigeria.
Already we have seen the handwriting on the wall as far as the 2023 presidential election is concerned: gung ho-ambition, tension, aggression, treachery, greed, selfish interest and vendetta. Then a conspicuous absence of patriotism and love for the country; most of those who have started scheming to take over from President Muhammad Buhari don’t really care about Nigeria’s survival and well-being. What they are after is simply power and the glamour that comes along with it. A few among them want it because they rightly or wrongly believe that now is their turn. In this issue of “It is now our turn,” no particular section of the country is innocent. What the southerners are clamouring for today was what the northerners also clamoured for in 2015. The north dared former President Jonathan Goodluck and did everything it could to remove him from power because the North felt that it was their turn. The irony of the whole thing is that the return of power to the North in 2015 didn’t actually change the life of the ordinary man in Daura or Maiduguri. The majority of those who are poor in Nigeria still reside in the north. The north still leads in the areas of maternal and infant mortality, ignorance and insecurity index.
The Nigerian presidency is an important entity in the whole of Africa. I must say that the desire of some Nigerian politicians to occupy Aso Rock is behind some of the insecurity Nigeria is passing through at the moment. Some disgruntled politicians encourage and even sponsor criminal gangs to kidnap, kill and destroy Nigerians and their livelihoods so that the present government will appear weak and incompetent thereby compelling Nigerians to run down the government so that the politicians can have an edge. It is a matter of fact that Nigerian politicians see politics as a do or die affair. Let us not forget that it was Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who first introduced this slogan into Nigerian politics. From what is happening in the ruling APC today, it is glaring that the 2023 presidential elections are going to be tough. This election is what will make or mar the APC. If selecting or electing a national chairman for the APC is becoming a very serious challenge, only God knows how the party will get its presidential flagbearer. If APC stalwarts will agree with the decision of the APC governors to zone the office of the national chairman to the north-central, which by implication means that people like Sen Ali Sheriff, Danjuma Goje, Abdulaziz Yari and Yahaya Bello have been schemed out of the contest for the chairmanship, and even the presidency for Gov. Bello, there are strong indications that APC stalwarts will not easily agree with the governors when it comes to the party’s presidential flagbearer. My fear for the APC is that a vocal minority within the party had already made up their mind that the flagbearer of the party must be Bola Ahmed Tinubu or they sink the party down into the murky waters of politics. As far as they are concerned President Buhari must anoint and support Tinubu. The fact that the man is not medically and physically fit is not their concern. Since the APC had zoned the position of its national chairmanship to the north-central, then there is every tendency that the party will also zone its presidential flagbearer to the south. That way, the party will find it easy to handle tension and friction that might likely arise from aggrieved members.
I want to make it clear that the 2023 general elections will not break Nigeria because this country is greater than any individual or group of persons. The 2023 elections will come and go, and Nigeria shall overcome. I hear that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Senators Rochas Okoroacha, Orji Kalu, Governors Dave Umahi and Kayode Fayemi, Rotimi Amaechi, and even former President Jonathan Goodluck are interested in contesting for the presidency under the flagship of the ruling APC. I understand that Governors Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, Nyesom Wike, Bala Mohammed, Atiku Abubakar, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim are also interested in contesting under the People’s Democratic Party. There are others but I think these names are the ones that I consider worth mentioning. For those who still don’t believe that former President Goodluck is interested in contesting under the APC, I want to make it categorically clear to them that the man is interested in contesting under the APC but he is still unable to get the blessing of President Buhari even though some northern APC governors and stalwarts had assured him of their support. This is because they rightly or wrongly believe that if Dr Goodluck can come back as president for the second time, he will simply rule for a single term and then return power to the north. From the look of things, there is no guarantee that Dr Goodluck will allow that to happen. But there are strong indications that President Buhari might likely endorse and anoint him to succeed him. The man has gathered so much goodwill of recent and some close associates of the President see him as someone that can be trusted.
I agree that it is Nigerians that will eventually go to the polls to elect who will rule the country after Buhari but let it be clear that the APC will also determine the options that Nigerians have to choose from. I hear too much talk about competence, track record, contacts, war chest, tolerance and acceptability as critical factors in determining who emerges as president of Nigeria in 2023. This is not out of point because even in 1979 and 1999, some factors were used to determine who got the party’s nomination and eventually emerged as president. I can remember an interview that the late Mallam Adamu Ciroma granted to the Daily Trust where he said that although he had a degree in English from the University of Ibadan, party stalwarts and members of the NPN preferred to elect the late Alhaji Shehu Shagari as flagbearer of the NPN because he was more acceptable. He made it clear that what the party used was acceptability and not competency. From the look of things, what President Buhari will use as a criterion for anointing and supporting a successor is one thing: trust. Other things like competence, contacts, war chest, acceptability, tolerance and so on are all secondary. I repeat the major criterion is trust.
If we use this major criterion of trust as a yardstick, many of the so-called APC political gladiators who are hell-bent on succeeding the president will fall by the wayside. I think we will only be left with three or four people, namely, Goodluck Jonathan (if he eventually joins the APC), Rotimi Amaechi, Kayode Fayemi and VP Osinbajo. VP Osinbajo can’t go far because his religious extremism will work against him. No party that is serious about winning the 2023 presidential elections will agree to have a pastor or a sheikh/Ustaz as its presidential flagbearer in August 2022. This is because Nigeria is religiously divided today that some people in some people in the north will reject the APC if it fields Pastor Osinbajo as its flagbearer. Nigerians from the north have no problem giving their votes to a Christian but I strongly believe that they will not support a pastor to rule Nigeria. This is a fact. So let it be clear to all of us that Pastor Osinbajo won’t get the APC ticket. Also, reliable sources say that Tinubu will never support Pastor Osinbajo to become president because it took the intervention of Ibikunle Amosun and Rauf Aregbesola to convince Tinubu to accept the nomination of Osinbajo as a vice presidential nominee to President Buhari in 2015. Let him not waste his time and resources. Same with Governor Fayemi; he is a man that the President trusts and he enjoys so much goodwill across the nation, especially from his brother-governors. Nevertheless, Tinubu and his minions will do everything to sabotage him and his ambition. It is a fact that Gov. Fayemi doesn’t have the kind of political structure that Tinubu has in the south-west, and also, Tinubu doesn’t want anyone from the south-west to emerge as the flagbearer of the APC otherwise he will do the honourable thing and support someone who is physically fit, middle-aged and more competent. That person could have been Gov. Fayemi.
We are left with one individual who the President, APC governors and stalwarts and many Nigerians believe can be trusted with power. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi. Not only that the President trusted Amaechi, the man is also very competent, has the experience to rule the country, and has performed excellently well as a minister. If you ask me for my opinion, no minister in President Buhari’s cabinet has performed like Amaechi. The evidence is there for all to see. We have been fed with lies for years about rail transport since the Abacha era just like we are now being fed with lies about the power sector. The history of the Nigerian Railway will now be categorized into two: before and after Amaechi. Anyone who thinks that the Buhari administration has not performed well will automatically have a rethink if he visits any of the numerous railway terminals in the country and takes a ride in one of the couches. In fact, this is one area that Nigerians will remember President Buhari long after he is gone. I want to say that if other ministers and government appointees of President Buhari had also performed like Amaechi, Nigerians will have no reason to criticize and insult the President. This same Amaechi put all his eggs in one basket to support the President in 2015 and 2019, and his performance as the Director-General of the President’s campaign was simply excellent. The mere fact that the President agreed to allow him to serve as DG of his campaign in 2019 speaks a lot about trust and loyalty. There are those who think that Amaechi won’t be a good flag bearer for the APC because he couldn’t deliver Rivers State in 2015 and 2019; I don’t think this is a factor that can work against him because most Nigerians knew the kind of obstacle he confronted on behalf of the APC.
Recently, Amaechi was in Daura to be turbaned as the Dan Amanar Daura by the Emir of Daura, Alhaji Faruk Umar Faruk. The number of high profile individuals that accompanied him to Daura to receive the prestigious traditional title is a clear signal that this man is the anointed of President. The conferment of the title, according to the emirate council, is in recognition of the achievements recorded by the minister in the transport sector. Not long afterwards, the first lady went to the residence of Amaechi to congratulate him for the traditional title. President Muhammadu Buhari described the conferment of the title of “Dan Amana,” (the trusted one) on Amaechi as a clear commitment to the harmonious relationship between the nation’s diverse cultures. The President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu quote the President as commending Amaechi “for working with enormous energy to make the CHANGE we promised Nigerians a reality,” saying “the change we are witnessing in the transport sector is an extraordinary legacy.”
Dan Amana is a term used in everyday Hausa to refer to someone who is trustworthy, a person of noble character and bearing, a confidant, or an honourable gentleman whose words can be trusted.
In conclusion, Amaechi is of Ikwerre extraction which is closely linked to the Igbo ethnic group. Amaechi might be able to assuage the hostility of the south-east and make them support the APC more than Dave Umahi whom most Igbos reckon as a traitor.
Rotimi Amaechi might likely be the flagbearer of the APC, and our next president if God permits.
