Former Rivers State governor Rotimi Amaechi has said that Nigerian leaders and elites are not the country’s problem; rather, the problem lies with the followers.
Amaechi made the remarks at a public lecture themed “Weaponisation of Poverty as a Means of Underdevelopment: A Case Study of Nigeria,” held to commemorate his 60th birthday in Abuja on Saturday.
The former governor and ex-minister also blamed followers for not being proactive in holding their leaders accountable, which had allowed leaders to keep the people impoverished.
“Nigerian leaders and elites are not the problem of Nigeria; the problem of Nigeria is the followers.
“We say Nigeria is a capitalist country, but capitalists are those who invest in production.
“However, Nigeria does not produce anything; we just want to feast on the revenue gotten from crude oil.
He urged governments at all levels to create a viable environment for a productive economy instead of relying solely on revenue from oil.
Amaechi further said he was more concerned about advancing the country and respecting people with the necessary knowledge.
“I was ashamed of one of my appointees when I was Minister of Transport. I appointed her to improve and turn things around, but unfortunately, she was more interested in speaking Hausa/Fulani to the President.
“Nigeria is where it is today because many Nigerians vote based on religion and ethnicity.
“An ordinary northerner who is Muslim has no problem with an ordinary southerner who is Christian. The issue arises only during elections when religion is politicised.
“Let me tell you, no Nigerian leader cares for the poor because they know Nigerians can do nothing to them once they are in power,” Amaechi said.
On why he refused to work for President Bola Tinubu, Amaechi said he had already told the President that he would neither vote for nor work for him.
“I met President Tinubu in Yola and told him, ‘I will not work for you and I will not vote for you.’
“People say I do not work for either the All Progressives Congress (APC) or the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but that is because I was convinced there was an issue.”
He called on Nigerians to stand up and hold their leaders accountable to reduce poverty and insecurity.
Recalling his days as a student union activist with the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Amaechi said he and his colleagues used to meet in Kano under the cover of night and move about the city without fear.
He noted that this was no longer possible due to abductions and other crimes, which he attributed to multidimensional poverty.
Earlier, the guest lecturer, Dr Chidi Amuta, observed that democracy in Nigeria had remained stunted because post-colonial parliaments were established on the backs of poor people.
“The form of political organisation preceded the content of the lives of the people. An unproductive political elite imposed formal democracy on a mostly poor population.
“This is why democracy has remained stunted in much of Africa.”
Amuta also pointed out that the categorisation of poverty in Nigeria as “multidimensional” unsettled politicians.
“While politicians often say Nigeria has about 100 million poor people, the new National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) categorisation puts the poverty population at a staggering 133 million.
“This represents 65 per cent of the fictional total population of about 220 million. In simple terms, those who are not poor have now been overwhelmed by the poor.”
He said the future of democracy in Nigeria depended on the fight against the expanding frontier of aggressive poverty.
Amuta stated that the immediate challenge for democracy in Nigeria and Africa was to recalibrate its relevance from the perspective of the poor majority.
He emphasised that democracy should be measured by how well it improved the welfare and rescued people from the “republic of poverty.”
“Let us, therefore, define democracy by the living conditions of the poor,” he added.
