By John Mayaki
Aspirants eying President Muhammadu Buhari’s seat are beginning to declare their interest and one of them has proven himself adept at divisive politics. I speak of the Minister of Transportation, His Excellency, Hon Minister Rotimi Amaechi, the Dan Amanar of Daura.
Two weeks before his declaration, at the grounds of the APC National Convention, he dodged questions from journalists of Channels Television who sought clarity on his rumored presidential ambition.
Days after, he would later organize and invite guests to a “thanksgiving” in Port Harcourt where he ambushed and shocked them with a declaration of his plan to vie for the presidency.
Throwing jibes at another aspirant, Minister Amaechi, in addition to a theatrical demonstration of his physical fitness with a run around the stadium, said his ambition was not personal unlike others running to fulfill a life-long ambition.
He said: “My aspiration is not about fulfilling any personal ambition. I am contesting for office because I believe that it is my moral duty to give what I can in the service of my country.”
Recall that the National leader of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu told Nigerians of his plan to vie for the APC ticket earlier in the year and that running for the President’s office is his “life-long ambition.”
One thing that’s yet unclear about Amaechi’s ambition and which he needs to clarify in the course of his prosecuting his ambitionless presidency is that if the presidency is not his personal ambition, whose ambition is it? That of my father or my mother?
Perhaps it’s the case that this Minister is merely a front for vested interests lurking behind the scene who seek to use him to actualize their own ambition.
Some persons have argued that anyone without ambition and whose contest is merely to further certain hidden interests is a failure and has no business contesting.
Amaechi’s duplicitous claim of not nursing a personal ambition also invites the larger question of why he is into politics. Politics is all about interest. Self-interest first before collective interest, and for someone seeking to govern a country like Nigeria which is already lacking in leadership, Amaechi should have commenced his project with an honest admittance of the fact.
And this is even more so since personal ambition would be the first and only motivating force he would require to see through the project, as is the case in other endeavors of everyday life.
Except to say Amaechi has no dream he intends to pursue to actualization. And if that’s the case, I do not expect people without ambition, people who can’t dream and people who derive pleasure in putting others down to clinch leadership positions in this country, because it is a fundamental flaw that reveals a lack of preparation.
Presidency is about practical actualization of hope and intentions. Anyone who declares to Nigerians that his aspiration is not borne out of personal ambition is a liar. Every aspiration begins with a personal ambition.
On this note, I think the Minister started with lies.
The second issue from that event is the divisive and deceitful invitation.
Tagged “Rivers State APC Thanksgiving” as decoy just to attract unsuspecting members of the public, especially the Christian Community, the “Trusted One of Daura” unfortunately commenced his journey to the presidency with lies and deceit.
It begs the question on whether with such open show of dishonesty, the people of Daura still see Amaechi as someone they can continue to trust.
Added to the dishonesty was the deliberate staging of the event to mislead prospective guests into believing the APC Chairman, Senator Abdullahi, would be present.
The third issue here is that the presidential aspirant ran around the stadium to show his fitness before going on stage to declare for Presidency. People say Amaechi was simply mocking Nigerians for electing an old, tired and sick man as president twice. Some others say he was mocking the newly elected national chairman of the party while others believe he was mocking the national leader of his party, the APC.
And the question that comes to mind is this – is running around the stadium part of leadership qualities or he was merely taunting the President? What manner of strategy is that?
Is it not true that many people who run are also not fit? We have heard cases of so many sportsmen and women that die on the pitch; does that imply a lack on fitness? Or is athleticism part of the qualifications for presidency?
These are numerous early pointers to the character of the person planning to rule us and this can help us make an honest choice of a leader to govern us come 2023.