Buhari Cost Me The 2023 Presidential Seat – Amaechi …I Regret Listening To Him

 

By Adesina Soyooye

Vice Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Rotimi Amaechi, has blamed late President Muhammadu Buhari for leaving the Presidential seat in 2023 to President Bola Tinubu.

But for Buhari, Amaechi said, he could have been Nigeria’s President because he would have won the Presidential Primary of the All Progressives Congress, APC in 2022.

Speaking during an interview with Mainland FM which was shared on its Instagram on Saturday, Amaechi said the then President Buhari promised him the seat, and instructed him not to waste his time to  campaign. Flowing from that, Amaechi said Buhari promised to publicly declare him his preferred candidate.

Amaechi who was the Minister for Transportation said his greatest Minister was to have believed Buhari’s promise which  prevented him from campaigning.

Otherwise, he said, he would have made deals or reached agreements with party stakeholders and State Governors.

Amaechi: “Anybody would have defeated anybody in that 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, and put it in writing; when I write my book, I’ll put it out.

“When President Buhari said that to me, I obeyed him because, one, he is my boss; two, if he actually announces anybody, that’s a plus for you, so I didn’t do deals. So, I would have promised the Vice President to this person, the SGF to another, and then we would have gone for this primary and I would have possibly won.

“I would have had Governors on my side. Because I didn’t do deals, Tinubu had a chance to do deals; that is one.”

Tinubu was declared the Presidential Candidate of the APC on June 8, 2022 after the  Presidential primary election. The now President  garneted a total vote of 1,271 votes to defeat 13 other presidential hopefuls.

Amaechi came second with a total number of  316 votes.

Recall, however, that Laolu Akande, former spokesperson to then Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, a couple  of weeks ago, disclosed Buhari promised to support Osinbajo clinch the ticket.

Akande: “On at least four separate occasions, President Buhari personally offered to support the Vice-President, telling him plainly: ‘If I don’t support you, who will I support?’ .”