Nigerians miss Buhari; life was better under him — Amaechi

By Adegboyega Adeleye Former Minister of Transportation and Vice Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Rotimi Amaechi has said Nigerians are missing former President Muhammadu Buhari because, in his assessment, life was better under the late president than under the current APC-led administration. Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, Amaechi challenged Nigerians to compare their lives under the two administrations as he made the case against President Bola Tinubu’s re-election.

He cited the exchange rate, fuel prices and alleged corruption, and urged Nigerians to compare their lives under Buhari with their circumstances today. “I always like to quote the former president, Buhari. He will say, ‘People will call me back.’ Nigerians will say, ‘We miss former President Buhari’; are they not saying that now?” Amaechi said. “The reason why they are saying that is: compare your life when President Buhari was alive and was the president of Nigeria, and your life now; which one will you choose?” He said the dollar was about ₦600 and fuel cost less than ₦300 by the time the Buhari administration left office and also argued that allegations of stealing under Buhari did not compare with what he said was happening under the current government.

“By the time we left office, dollar was at 600, by the time we left office, fuel was below 300, the stealing in Buhari’s government, if there was stealing in Buhari’s government, can you compare it to what is going on now?” he said. “What is going on now is what I call ‘Alibaba and the 40 thieves’.” Amaechi further alleged that contractors in the Ministry of Transportation had been arrested as authorities looked for evidence of wrongdoing during his time as minister.

“They have arrested almost all the contractors in the Ministry of transport, looking for what I have done in the ministry,” he added. Addressing the coastal road project, Amaechi said: “The president chose to construct the coastal road because of the benefits he will get.” When asked whether some of the problems the Tinubu administration is trying to resolve stemmed from decisions taken under Buhari, citing Buhari’s refusal to remove fuel subsidy as an example, Amaechi authoritatively dismissed the claims.

“Name one,” Amaechi replied. Amaechi also defended the ADC’s plan to reintroduce fuel subsidy if elected, saying the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, had proposed a system tied to domestic production. He said the ADC believed Buhari was right not to remove the subsidy, even though Amaechi himself had been among those who urged the former president to do so at the time.

“We (the ADC) have said we will re-introduce fuel subsidy because the fuel subsidy he removed was wrong, Buhari refused to remove fuel subsidy because he told us clearly. In fact, thank God he didn’t, I was among those pushing that he should remove fuel subsidy, he said no, it was wrong,” he said. Amaechi also said Atiku had proposed a different way to manage the subsidy, with payments tied to local production and the policy would encourage investment in refineries by making domestic production a condition for receiving support.

“Atiku has come up with a better procedure to manage fuel subsidy. We are reintroducing production fuel subsidy. If you don’t produce in Nigeria, we will not give you subsidy. It encourages the establishment of refineries,” he added.