It was a comment about his dead mother. It has become a political war.
Former Rivers Governor and ADC Vice-Presidential hopeful, Rotimi Amaechi, is under ferocious fire from his old party, the APC, and his arch-rival, FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, after he linked his mother’s death to hardship under President Bola Tinubu.
The Comment That Lit The Fire
Amaechi, who served as Transportation Minister under Buhari, said on television that his mother, Dame Mary Amaechi, 89, was healthy before Tinubu came to power. He claimed the soaring cost of medicines made her care impossible.
The APC did not take it lightly.
In a blistering statement yesterday, APC spokesman Felix Morka called Amaechi a “loafer” who cannot survive without public funds.
He condoled with Amaechi but said his own words exposed him.
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“First, he howled that he had become so broke and hungry that his wife was now feeding him. Now, he has stated that his inability to afford medications killed his mother at 89,” Morka said.
The party argued that a man who freeloaded for 40 years at the top of public office — Speaker, Governor, Minister — has no business begging for sympathy three years out of power.
“For four decades, Rotimi Amaechi free-loaded. He was never hungry. Just three years out of office, he has become destitute,” the statement read. “The Presidency is not a soup kitchen.”
The APC warned Nigerians against backing the ADC ticket in 2027, saying Amaechi has proven himself unfit.
Wike Goes For The Jugular: Where Is $308m?
For Wike, it was personal and it was double.
On Saturday, he accused Amaechi of politicising his mother’s death and demanded he account for $39m meant for Justice Karibi-Whyte Hospital and N58bn for a monorail.
Yesterday in Etche, at a town hall with Ogbakor elders, he raised the stakes again.
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“You sold the gas turbine power stations for $308 million. Where is the money?” Wike thundered.
He said the Justice Omereji Commission indicted Amaechi for the sale, and that Amaechi lost at the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court trying to quash it.
“When you were governor for eight years, what did you bring to our people? You were Minister for eight years, mention one Etche man you brought to limelight!”
Wike told Etche people to judge politicians by development, not loyalty, citing his own facilitation of Prof. Dimiri Mercury as RSU VC and the Faculty of Agriculture campus in Etche.
“Politics without development is meaningless,” he said, praising Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda for demanding transparency.
The 2027 battle lines are now clearly drawn — and Amaechi is right in the crossfire.
