APC knocks Amaechi for inciting protests amid economic hardships

APC knocks Amaechi for inciting protests amid economic hardships

JOEL OLADELE, Abuja 

The All Progressives Congress (APC), has criticized former Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, for his recent remarks urging Nigerians to protest against the government’s handling of the economy. 

In a statement signed on Friday by the APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, he denounced Amaechi’s comments as “insensitive, god-awful, and unpatriotic,” branding the ex-governor as a “political freeloader” whose long tenure in various public offices has failed to yield any substantial benefit to the Nigerian populace.

Recall that in a recent interview, Amaechi expressed discontent with the apparent complacency of Nigerian youth in the face of escalating living costs, suggesting they should take to the streets in protest. 

Reacting to the remarks, Morka said Amaechi “attempting to hoodwink Nigerians into his web of false empathy and incitement to violence is hypocritical, provocative, and dangerous.”

The APC Spokesperson pointed out that Amaechi has enjoyed the privileges of political office for over two decades, serving as a two-term Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Governor of Rivers State, and Minister of Transport. “For almost all of his adult life, Amaechi has been a leechy dependant on state resources, a voracious beneficiary of official patronage,” Morka added.

Highlighting the irony in Amaechi’s demands for action against corruption, Morka asked, “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?” 

Morka asserted that the current criticisms by the former Minister of Transport and others like him stem from their inability to secure governmental positions in recent elections. 

“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,” he noted.

Morka further criticized those who were in power for years, yet could not proffer solutions to the challenges bedeviling the nation but are now quick to point out errors in the current administration.

“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,” he said.

The Spokesperson therefore urged Nigerians to reject what he called a “call to anarchy” from Amaechi and his allies. 

“We urge Nigerians to remain patient and continue to support President Tinubu’s bold effort to transform our country’s economy once and for all. The economic discomforts associated with the administration’s inevitable reforms are transient,” he assured, encouraging citizens to have confidence in the transformative dividends that are beginning to manifest.