Former Transport Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, has taken a stand on the perceived impunity of politicians in Nigeria, highlighting that they often evade accountability due to a lack of public scrutiny and confrontation. Speaking at the 2023 TheNiche Annual Lecture, Amaechi emphasized the pressing need for enhanced political responsibility and transparency.<\/p>\n
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Amaechi’s remarks came during a special guest appearance at the event, themed “Why We Stride and Slip: Leadership, Nationalism, and the Nigerian Condition,” held in Lagos. He expressed concern that despite the widespread acknowledgment of politicians’ lack of honesty, Nigerians still vote for them during elections.<\/p>\n
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According to him, Nigerians know most politicians are not honest but they still go ahead to vote for them during elections.<\/p>\n
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He points out that politicians often make claims about their integrity, education, and qualifications, leaving citizens in a state of uncertainty.<\/p>\n
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The former Governor of Rivers State said “What is new to say, Nigerians don\u2019t react to anything. Has any politician told you he is not a thief? Which politician told you he went to university, which politician told you she served in NYSC, and which politician told you he has his certificate?”<\/p>\n
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“Nigerians choose who to believe and who not to believe, Nigerians choose who to vote and who not to vote. Even if you come to a Nigerian man\u2019s house and kill his mother, the father will continue his life. Nothing bothers you, nothing, so why should I waste my time?\u201d Amaechi said.<\/p>\n
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The former Minister also criticized a former Managing Director of the Nigeria Ports Authority, (NPA), Hadiza Usman, for allegedly putting out false narratives in her book titled: \u201cStepping on Toes: My Odyssey at the Nigerian Ports Authority.\u201d<\/p>\n
“The lies were too many. For instance, she claimed she was not invited by the panel. I even came with the memo of the president, where the president endorsed her removal,\u201d the 58-year-old said.<\/p>\n
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\u201cCount one is in the question of the fact that the panel says she is guilty; count two is due to the fact that a Managing Director of NPA with an N2.5m approval limit can approve N2.8b contract with no appropriation.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Two years ago, then-President Muhammadu Buhari asked Hadiza Usman to step aside from her role while an Administrative Panel of Inquiry, headed by Rotimi Amaechi, investigated the management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Transport Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, has taken a stand on the perceived impunity of politicians in Nigeria, highlighting that they often evade accountability due to a lack of public scrutiny and confrontation. Speaking at the 2023 TheNiche Annual Lecture, Amaechi emphasized the pressing need for enhanced political responsibility and transparency. Amaechi’s remarks came during […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-3889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3889"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3891,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3889\/revisions\/3891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}