NEWS
Amaechi Traces Electoral Flaws to Political Opposition
Nigeria’s former minister of transportation and a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Rotimi Amaechi, is of the opinion that opposition politicians should be held accountable for weak electoral processes.
He bared his mind at a public lecture in a video clip that trended on Friday, in which Amaechi said Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu “is not invincible.”
In his view, the opposition parties remained Nigeria’s main problem.
His remarks came amid the lingering internal crises rocking opposition political parties, which have splintered into factions and weakened their ability to mount a formidable challenge to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
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As the infighting deepens, several opposition figures have accused President Tinubu and the APC of fuelling the crisis by sponsoring defections from their parties.
Amaechi, however, dismissed such claims, blaming the opposition for the country’s political woes.
“Tinubu isn’t invincible; the opposition is the problem. I don’t see him as invincible, The problem is the opposition,” the former Rivers State governor said.
He argued that opposition parties were consumed by ethnic and regional power calculations rather than conversations about governance and national renewal.
“I tell the opposition party that you’re the problem. Nobody’s saying, ‘Oh, things are bad. How do we change the candidate? Do you want to do one term or not one term?’ That’s all. Nothing else is discussed.
“So, while the elites are busy discussing how to get to power, the voters, the citizens, are helping the elites to achieve that objective,” he said.
Recall that in July 2025, the ADC emerged as the coalition platform adopted by opposition leaders seeking to challenge President Tinubu in the 2027 general election.
Amaechi joined the party in July, followed by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in November, while former Anambra State governor, Peter Obi, joined on December 31.
The trio all made public their intentions of contesting the ADC’s presidential ticket.
In the trending footage, Amaechi also revealed that he has been holding meetings with political actors ahead of the 2027 polls.
“If you ask those who meet with me, they will tell you that I have been having meetings and talking to them about the possibility of winning the 2027 election,” he said.
Amaechi criticised the inability of past administrations to deliver meaningful electoral reform, citing the experience under former President Muhammadu Buhari.
“The problem with elections in Nigeria is that there is no incumbent government that can achieve electoral reform. None! Buhari tried it and failed. In fact, the National Assembly passed the law and dropped it on his table, and the man held his pen to sign,” he said.
He claimed that fears of foreign interference, including claims that “Russia will rig the election,” stalled the reform process.
“I wish I were there. I would have told him that everything has an antidote. So, if there’s a Russia, there’s an America,” Amaechi said.
He explained that efforts to amend the electoral law in 2019 were frustrated, but that Buhari became determined by 2023, viewing electoral reform as the legacy he wanted to leave behind.
However, Amaechi said entrenched interests ultimately blocked the reforms.
“When they got to the National Assembly, they did not come back. By the time they realised that they had omitted people like us who were automatic delegates by being former speakers, Buhari refused to sign.
“People around him made sure he did not sign it into law and got what they wanted. Now, those same people are back here, shouting electoral reform,” he said.
Drawing from his experience managing Buhari’s campaigns, Amaechi stressed the power of citizen mobilisation in safeguarding elections.
“We made it difficult for any Nigerian governor to go to his state and come out freely. Any day Buhari was coming to any state, the governor was on the run because the madness of the citizens chased them away,” he said.
Recalling incidents in Bauchi and Jos during the 2015 campaign, Amaechi said his team mobilised Nigerians to resist electoral manipulation, warning that any attempt to rig elections would provoke resistance.
“If you rig us out, you rig problem. As far as we were concerned, they were going to rig the election, so show them that there will be what? Fire. And the whole world knew there would be fire,” he said.
Amaechi also criticised voter apathy, stressing that citizens, not the government, hold the key to electoral reform.
“Government won’t give you electoral reform. The first solution to electoral reform is the people. Don’t be shouting electoral reform, electoral reform. You are the problem.
“The more you say they have written the result, the more you have voter apathy. Voter apathy will make Tinubu return to Aso Villa with 30-something per cent,” he warned.
He urged Nigerians to prioritise competence over regional or ethnic considerations in choosing leaders.
“Get the best material that can govern the country. If you say you want a president, make sure the president is qualified. The first qualification is that he must change the country when he becomes president.
“The second is that he must have the capacity to say, ‘I will be mad with you. You see, this election, all of us will die,’” Amaechi said.
He also cited opposition missteps in previous elections, including their inability to campaign in parts of the North due to extensive mobilisation by his team.
“Ask the PDP, could they campaign in Kano? They couldn’t. When they went there, what did they hear? ‘Bamaso, bamaso.’ Because we had mobilised Nigerians,” he said.
President of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, has revealed that the much-awaited initial public offering of the Dangote Refinery will open within the next 10 to 12 days.
Dangote disclosed this on Friday while speaking with investors and analysts in Botswana, according to Reuters.
The $20bn Lagos-based refinery is expected to raise about $5bn through the IPO, which could become the largest public offering on the African continent.
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Dangote said the planned listing would support the group’s ambition to further expand the refinery’s capacity.
He said, “Our dream is that we want to make sure we double the capacity of the refinery… which will take us to 1.4 million barrels per day. The IPO will open in the next 10 to 12 days.”
The refinery, currently Africa’s largest, reached its full designed capacity of 650,000 barrels per day in February. It has since pushed production beyond that level, reaching 700,000 barrels per day during testing.
The IPO is part of a broader expansion strategy by the Dangote Group.
Dangote also disclosed that Dangote Cement is expected to secure a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange, potentially in October, in a move aimed at giving the company access to a wider pool of international investors.
The businessman further confirmed plans to establish a new refinery on Kenya’s coast in partnership with East African governments.
The proposed refinery is expected to supply refined petroleum products to Kenya and neighbouring countries while helping reduce the region’s dependence on fuel imports.
Construction of the Kenyan facility is expected to take up to three years and would represent the Dangote Group’s biggest refining investment outside Nigeria.
The planned refinery IPO and expansion projects underline Dangote Industries’ growing ambitions to strengthen its position in Africa’s energy and industrial sectors.
Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has raised the alarm over reports that some young Nigerians are resorting to selling their kidneys for as little as ₦1.7 million to cope with the country’s worsening cost-of-living crisis.
Atiku made the remarks in a statement on Friday, expressing concern that economic hardship was pushing young Nigerians towards increasingly desperate measures simply to survive.
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He described the reported development as “frightening,” stressing that young Nigerians should be using their talents, ideas and creativity to build better lives rather than being forced to consider selling their body organs.
“Young people should be selling dreams, ideas and innovation, not their body organs,” Atiku said.
According to him, the rising cost of essential goods and services, including food, transportation, rent, school fees, medicine and electricity, has placed enormous pressure on Nigerians.
He blamed the economic direction of the administration of President Bola Tinubu for what he described as the worsening hardship confronting citizens.
“In Tinubu’s Nigeria, almost everything required to live with dignity is becoming more expensive by the day: food, transport, rent, school fees, medicine and electricity,” he said.
Atiku said the reported sale of kidneys for as little as ₦1.7 million was evidence that the crisis had moved beyond ordinary economic hardship.
“When young Nigerians begin to see their kidneys as emergency savings, we are no longer talking about ordinary economic hardship. We are talking about desperation at its most frightening,” he added.
The former vice president noted that Nigeria already has laws prohibiting commercial organ sales and organ trafficking.
However, he argued that enforcement alone would not solve the underlying poverty and desperation exposing vulnerable Nigerians to exploitation.
“Laws alone cannot cure the poverty and desperation that make vulnerable young people easy prey for criminal networks,” Atiku said.
He called for economic reforms that would have a direct impact on the living conditions of ordinary Nigerians, including measures to make food and transportation more affordable, improve access to healthcare and create decent employment opportunities.
Atiku further urged the government to pursue policies capable of restoring hope among young Nigerians.
“Our young people should be selling their ideas, talents and innovation to the world and not their kidneys for ₦1.7 million just to survive at home,” he said.
His comments come amid reports of alleged organ sales and a police investigation into an alleged organ-harvesting and human-trafficking operation involving four suspects, including two nephrologists.
Atiku described the situation as a disturbing reflection of what he called the “human cost” of Nigeria’s cost-of-living crisis.
The Presidency has clarified that President Bola Tinubu is not on trial in the United States, describing the ongoing legal proceedings involving records linked to him as a civil dispute over access to government documents.
The clarification was made by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, amid renewed attention to the case before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
According to the Presidency, the matter arose from requests submitted under the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for records relating to Tinubu.
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“For clarity, the matter is a civil records-disclosure dispute under the United States Freedom of Information Act. It is not a criminal case against President Tinubu, nor has the court found him guilty of any criminal wrongdoing,” the Presidency stated.
The government explained that Aaron Greenspan submitted FOIA requests to several US government agencies in 2022, seeking records relating to the President.
After some agencies withheld certain records or declined to confirm or deny their existence, Greenspan commenced Civil Action No. 23-1816 before the US District Court for the District of Columbia in 2023.
The court subsequently permitted President Tinubu to participate in the proceedings as an intervenor.
The Presidency said some of the agencies invoked the “Glomar defence”, a legal position that allows US government agencies, under certain circumstances, to neither confirm nor deny the existence of particular investigative records.
It added that the court subsequently granted summary judgment in favour of the CIA, Executive Office for United States Attorneys, Department of State, Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service, effectively removing them from the proceedings.
However, aspects of the case involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration remained subject to further consideration.
The Presidency further disclosed that the FBI and DEA had produced 399 pages of records in compliance with court orders, although portions of the documents were redacted under exemptions provided by US law.
According to the government, the plaintiff challenged the agencies’ decision to redact parts of the documents and sought their release without the redactions.
The FBI and DEA, through the US Department of Justice, opposed the request, citing legal protections covering certain categories of information.
The Presidency said some of the records relate to grand jury proceedings, which are protected from public disclosure under US law.
It also cited protections covering information connected to certain court orders authorising pen registers or trap-and-trace devices, as well as documents protected by attorney-client and attorney-work-product privileges.
The Presidency’s clarification comes amid heightened political debate ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 general elections, with opposition figures continuing to scrutinise the President’s past and administration.
The government, however, maintained that the US proceedings should not be misrepresented as a criminal trial against Tinubu, stressing that the case concerns the disclosure and withholding of government records.
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