Politics in Nigeria has always been a game of high-stakes chess, where trust is a rare currency and strategic alliances dictate survival. For years, former Rivers State Governor and Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, stood as one of the closest loyalists to former President Muhammadu Buhari. He managed Buhari’s triumphant 2015 presidential campaign and walked shoulder-to-shoulder with him through the corridors of power.
However, behind closed doors ahead of the June 2022 All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primary, a profound political miscalculation took place. One that Amaechi is only now laying bare!
In a startling revelation, Amaechi bared it all, revealing how a written promise from the then Nigeria’s number one citizen ultimately led to his political undoing.
“Don’t Campaign, I Will Announce You”
According to Amaechi, trusting Buhari’s word was his “first and greatest mistake” heading into the primary.
“The first mistake that I made at that primary was that I listened to President Buhari. He said to me, ‘Don’t campaign. Don’t do anything. I will announce you as my candidate.’ He told me that. He put it in writing. When I write my book, I’ll put it out,” Amaechi disclosed.
Relying heavily on the presidential imprimatur, Amaechi sat back. He trusted that the backing of the sitting commander-in-chief was enough to clear the path, rendering aggressive grassroots mobilization or backroom political deals unnecessary.
The Power of “Deals” and the Rise of Tinubu
While Amaechi stayed his hand under Buhari’s directive, his formidable competitor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was hard at work.
Amaechi candidly admitted that he refused to play the traditional Nigerian game of political horse-trading, refusing to promise juicy government positions like the Vice-Presidency or the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) to powerful governors and kingmakers just to secure votes.
- The Dealmaker vs. The Loyalist: While Amaechi waited for an anointed endorsement that never materialized in his favor, Tinubu built an extensive web of alliances.
- The Cost of Principle: Amaechi noted that by refusing to “do deals,” he left the field wide open for opponents to lock down the support of governors and power blocs.
“Now, I didn’t do deals. So I would have promised you vice-president, promised you SGF, and then would have gone for this primary, I would have possibly won. I would have had governors on my side. Because I didn’t do deals, Tinubu had the chance to do deals,” he lamented.
Rejecting Identity Politics
Reflecting further on his political philosophy, Amaechi defended his choice to steer clear of ethnic or religious mobilization, emphasizing that playing the identity card would fracture a fragile nation.
Pointing out the massive numbers of specific religious blocs like the 35 million Catholics in Nigeria, he maintained that leveraging pulpits for political endorsement crosses a red line.
- “It will cause confusion. It will cause problems in the country. That makes me a nationalist,” he asserted.
Looking Ahead
Now positioning himself on a new political track as the vice-presidential candidate to former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar under the African Democratic Congress (ADC) for the upcoming 2027 elections, Amaechi’s retrospective confession offers a rare, unfiltered look into the internal fractures of Nigeria’s ruling party politics.
The written note from Buhari may yet find its way into a memoir, but for now, it stands as a stark reminder of how absolute trust in political godfathers can crumble in the face of raw, calculated ambition.
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