The Federal government has knocked former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi for criticizing Nigerians for not protesting against the federal government in the face of a bad economy.
Amaechi had in an interview said he was disappointed Nigerians have not protested against the government with the latest increase in fuel price.
He called on the youth to embark on a peaceful protest to make the government improve the economy.
“I expected more agitation, especially from the youth. I thought we would see protests in the streets, but it seems people are not expressing the kind of anger I expected,” Amaechi had said.
However, while reacting, the federal government through Special Adviser on Information to the President, Bayo Onanuga, in a statement described Amaechi as ‘unpatriotic’.
“From the lavish comfort of his “proverbial glass house”, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, former Minister of Transport and Governor of Rivers state, in a recent interview, berated Nigerian youth for not protesting “high cost of living” in the country to his morbid satisfaction.
Amaechi’s comments are insensitive, god-awful and unpatriotic, coming from one of Nigeria’s longest serving and highest ranking political freeloaders – a two-term Speaker of the Rivers state House of Assembly, a two-term Governor, and a two-term Minister of Transport.
For almost all of his adult life, Amaechi has been a leechy dependent on state resources, a voracious beneficiary of official patronage, and a leading participant in the generational devastation of our country’s economy.
Attempting to hoodwink Nigerians into his web of false empathy and incitement to violence is hypocritical, provocative and dangerous,” the statement stated.
It added: ” If those in power “steal money” as Amaechi mischievously alleged, how come he can’t afford “to buy diesel” barely two years after “stealing” for over 24 years in power as Speaker, Governor and Minister?
The only real anger that Amaechi and his fellow tribesmen of naysayers of the likes of Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, must feel is that they are not in the saddle of government today. But that was a decision made by Nigeria’s ultimate political authority – the electorate.
Nigerians are highly perceptive, discerning, demure, and mindful that economic discomforts associated with the administration’s inevitable reforms are transient and will pale into insignificance in comparison to the enduring transformative dividends which are already beginning to manifest. Nigerians will not be cajoled into taking back through street violence what they handed to the administration through the ballot, as Amaechi and his partisan tribesmen would wish.
It is nauseating to think that these naysayer tribesmen who did absolutely nothing to improve the economy or living conditions for Nigerians while they were in office, now pontificate, endlessly, about what and how things should be done but didn’t and couldn’t do while in power.
It’s as though they only regain their senses and discover their talents for governance when they are out of power. A tribe of naysayers, is what they are, who never see any good, only gloom, filled with bile and disdain for the determined strides of APC-administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to transform our country’s economy for the benefit of present and future generations of Nigerians.
One would expect Amaechi to keep busy trying to solve the crippling crisis in Rivers state that he once governed. Instead, he has chosen to stoke anarchy on a national scale. Weaponizing protest and exploiting citizen’s economic discomfort for selfish political objectives, as these partisan tribesmen are doing, is irresponsible and decidedly unpatriotic.
We urge Nigerians to dismiss the call to anarchy by Amaechi and his partisan tribesmen and to remain patient and continue to support President Tinubu’s bold effort to transform our country’s economy once and for all.”