Former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has claimed that he and former Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido, would have taken a stand against President Bola Tinubu’s administration if they were still in office as governors.
Amaechi made this remark on Tuesday in Abuja during the public presentation of Lamido’s autobiography, ‘Being True to Myself’.
Reflecting on their time as governors, he noted that their era was marked by strong opposition and a commitment to holding the Federal Government accountable.
“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,” Amaechi said.
He also recounted their political relationship, acknowledging that while they were close allies during their time in government, their paths eventually diverged over differences in strategy when opposing then-President Goodluck Jonathan.
“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,” Amaechi recalled.
