Former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi has expressed regrets that the current crop of governors in the country are weak.
While lamenting the state of things in the country, Amaechi, a member of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), said he and another former governor, Sule Lamido would not have tolerated the situation if they were still serving as governors.
Amaechi, who chaired the Nigeria Governors Forum during Lamido’s second tenure as Jigawa governor, said their era was marked by bold opposition and a commitment to holding the federal government accountable.
Amaechi, who is also a former Minister of Transportation, spoke in Abuja on Tuesday at the public presentation of Lamido’s autobiography, Being True to Myself.
He said: “I asked you (Lamido) this morning, what is going on currently in the country, in Nigerian politics — would it have happened when we were governors? You said no. And the answer is no.”
“We would have confronted the government, confronted the president. That’s how radical you were. That’s how our Governors Forum operated. That’s how determined we were to change things.”
He reflected on his political relationship with Lamido, noting that although they were allies in government, their paths diverged over strategy in opposing then-President Goodluck Jonathan.
According to him, “We were quite good friends in government. We had our bad times when we disagreed. I made the mistake of assuming he was as radical as I was. So, he was one of the governors I clung to when it came to radical decisions.
“The last one before we broke ranks was when we all agreed to go against President Jonathan. We formed a committee of governors and others.
“At the end of the day, he went to find a new party, the SDP. We said, ‘If we go to the SDP, we will lose the election. Let’s hang on to this one called the APC.’ He disagreed and left us. That’s where we parted ways.”