By Bayo Akinloye
In a leaked tape that has gone viral online, the Director General of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Campaign Organisation, Rotimi Amaechi, has declared that Nigeria is a “hopeless and helpless” country and in his outburst pointed out that the only condition to redeem it from the current situation will require that “everybody is killed.”
This is just as the former governor of Rivers State, in another audio clip, appeared to have said that a proposed university of transportation to be sited in Daura (Buhari’s village) in Katsina State was to please the president.
In the leaked tape, Amaechi also expressed his frustration about the inability the federal government to bring about the change Nigerians are yearning for, the former Rivers State governor allegedly said in another tape: “This country cannot change. The only way this country can change is if everybody is killed. This country is going nowhere.”
He added: “No, I am not joking. When Magnus Abe was my SSG (secretary to the state government), I told him this country is hopeless and helpless. He said, ‘No, stop this now! This one shouldn’t be coming from a governor.’ But after two months as a senator in Abuja, he said: ‘Oga, this country is hopeless and helpless.’ And I said ‘why?’ He said, ‘You are right; the only thing they do in Abuja is share money. They don’t work.”
Reliable sources told National Wire that the minister’s outburst was an obvious indication that all is not well within the Buhari camp as the 2019 presidential race heats up.
In a video posted by a former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri, Amaechi was also heard lamenting that his principal does not listen to anybody and pointed out that the president does not bother about what the media says.
“The president is not listening to anybody. Does he read?” he quipped. Speaking about the leaked tape, Omokri said, “In fact, he hero-worshipped former President (Olusegun) Obasanjo in the tape and said he is the only worthy Nigerian leader. They know the truth, but hide it!”
Though there are efforts to discredit the statements attributed to the minister, Omokri tweeted: “We have more of the secretly recorded audios of Chibuike Amaechi, DG of the Buhari campaign, saying terrible things about Buhari’s government. I hear Amaechi wants to lie that he was referring to Goodluck Jonathan. Let him do that and I will release part two, which clearly shows he referred to Buhari.”
Amaechi, the current Minister of Transportation, in another audio clip had described the plan by the federal government to establish a transportation university first established in Buhari’s village as “charity beginning abroad”.
The institution which is expected to gulp at least N18 billion is seen by critics of the government as a political patronage as they argued that there was no basis for establishing the university in Daura “because Daura has no economic relevance and geographical expediency”.
“These are not things you should publish. If you published it, you would never sit with me anywhere. I have written to the governor of Katsina to give us land in Daura for the university. I don’t know why he has not replied. That’s one – the university in Daura. The next one will be in my village. Why are you all laughing? All of you are graduates of universities. There is a common saying – when I was small – that ‘charity begins at home.’ But my own begins abroad (Buhari’s village),” Amaechi had told a number of individuals which might have included some journalists.
“It is clear from the minister’s statement that important institutions are established and sited primarily because of political patronage. There is no sign to show that deliberate and pragmatic steps are taken before institutions are sited in certain places.
“This government isn’t about the people. It is those who walk in the corridor of power. Their decisions often reflect personal desire and aggrandisement. It is evident that the university in question will be sited first in Daura because Amaechi wants to curry favour from his principal. On the other hand, the second of such university would be sited in the minister’s village so that the president can continue to enjoy his loyalty,” a source claimed.
He urged the government to make public the yardstick used in reaching the conclusion to establish the universities in the villages of an incumbent president and a serving minister.
The source argued further: “Why can’t the university sited somewhere else? What is economic value of having the university in Daura? Will that not be an economic liability? Must the university be sited in Amaechi’s village? What standard procedure did they follow to arrive at that decision? Is this reckless political patronage that Nigerians are yearning for as change?”
The construction of the N18 billion-institution, Amaechi had told journalists last September, would begin in 2019.
No comments:
Post a Comment