BY SEGUN ADEBAYO – Vice-Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, has declared that a second term for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2027 will trigger a mass retirement of Nigeria’s opposition heavyweights from the political space
Delivering a strict warning about an existential threat to their political survival, Ameachi’s chilling forecast bluntly indicates that a Tinubu victory would serve as the final whistle, ultimately sending a vast swath of the current political class into forced and early retirement.
Addressing ADC-National Women League Conference in Abuja, on Wednesday, the ADC Vice Presidential candidate said the risk of political extinction is real for most opposition figures in the country, and referenced how the All Progressives Congress (APC) defeated the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the centre in 2015.
Ameachi, who dropped the bombshell while assessing the country’s political elite and their future ahead of next year’s general elections, challenged the women to return to the grassroots, their states, constituencies, and wards where they can mobilise and and bring in votes, stressing that such massive engagement and mobilisation remains the best option for the ADC to upset the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) come 2027.
Upping the ante on an already urgent battle cry, the former Rivers State governor pulled no punches, saying: “If you are not from FCT, go home and campaign, me I am going on Wednesday, I will not wear suit, I will dress like a young man. Let me tell you what will happen. We the crop of leaders you see here. If APC wins 2027 elections, we are retired from politics. So if you don’t want us to retire from politics, we must go home.
“If you bring two thousand votes per ward, don’t win your ward. Just bring two thousand votes we have won the election. Men are controlled by their wives don’t let your husbands sleep, because if we win, you have won. We will not take any election lightly, you will see me in Kebbi, Yola, Rivers, Delta fighting for the governorship elections, because the Presidential candidate cannot govern without the governors.”
The former Minister of Transportation, who explained that the APC deployed women to outsmart the PDP during the 2015 elections, said: “When we were in APC and we wanted to remove your government, you saw what we did. We brought out the women, in every state we went to, women were in front. We spoke to them, we met with them at night, and we made sure that we told them that if they did not come out to vote, we would not win. And they came out. We fought the war, and we won.
“That time, Nigeria was not as hungry as it is now. Nigeria could afford some food, right? Now, how many of you can afford the food? How many of you can pay school fees without texting, texting to Dino (Senator Dino Melaye) or somebody else to give you some money for school fees. Every week, 10 Nigerians move into poverty. If they tell you how many Nigerians have died, you’ll be shocked.
“By the time I left government in APC, I’m giving you figures now: 10 and 12 million out of school children. Today there are 20 million out of school. That means every day Tinubu is taking Nigerians, 20 million Nigerians, 80% from the north, into poverty.
“If you’re a northerner and you’re sitting here, you shouldn’t even be singing at all. Reason, Tinubu is taking you more every day into poverty. The thing you need to do is to take the battle in your hands. If all the women in the north come out to vote, Tinubu cannot announce any result.”
In her remarks at the engagement meeting, Hajiya Titi Atiku Abubakar, said the time has come to work for the betterment of Nigeria, charging the women not to be intimidated, but go out and convince their friends, neighbours and others to vote for the ADC at all level of the 2027 polls.
According to her, “If you go to the market, you cannot buy anything, even medicine. Yesterday I sent them to buy medicine for me. Medicine that we used to buy for 400. It is now a thousand. I couldn’t believe my eyes. So where is the money? And we are in a cashless society, that even all the monies are being taken away.
“People work, the contractors work, they refuse to give them money. Because of ADC, because they don’t want people to support us. We, ADC, don’t have money. Let me tell you, we have to get it by force. We have to get it.
“Most of our children are not in schools because the cost of living is so expensive. So, women, I implore you. Women, I beg you. Don’t let them come and buy you food. And we have to go to all the corners of this Nigeria, especially to the people in the villages.”
