*Pleads with PMB to give Rivers and Lagos States second Ministerial Slot
The running campaigns of calumny allegedly deployed to de-market the immediate former Minister of Transportation, the Rt Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, have been described as a waste of time and an effort in futility.
Giving the thought in a statement issued and circulated in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the South-South region, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, also described Amaechi as the star in the immediate past executive council of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, whose performance, both as a minister and election campaign lead, were starling and unbeaten.
It would be recalled that there have been anxiety over some negative media campaigns, targeted against the former Minister and believed were being sponsored by the duo of the Rivers state governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, and the immediate past senator representing Rivers South-East Senatorial District, Senator Magnus Abe, in a ploy believed to force President Buhari’s hand against re-appointing Dr. Amaechi.
However, Eze in his statement, said all opinions of Nigerians as well as key figures within and outside government have placed the former Governor of Rivers state several miles ahead of his traducers, whom he said had been wasting Rivers’ tax payers money to hire hatchet men to malign and insult Amaechi through various media outlets.
Eze alleged that Governor Wike and Senator Abe had engaged the services of some media influencers to be issuing out press statements and appearing as guests on some national television stations and be buying advertorial pages in some national dailies, all requesting President Buhari not to renominate Hon. Amaechi into his cabinet.
He, however described all these efforts as acts of witchcraft, diabolical, wicked, unjust and unacceptable, noting that Amaechi, by his patriotic zeal and commitment for a new Nigeria, merits to be reappointed into the yet-to-be constituted cabinet of President Muhammad Buhari.
“Besides the fact that Amaechi served as the Director General of the Buhari Presidential Campaigns, a role he had previously played in 2015 and happily delivered on both mandates as the President won his re-election in February, coupled with the revolution that he brought into the rail system in Nigeria, he has beaten his enemies to their game.
“He has performed creditably well in the transportation ministry; the former minister completed some ongoing railway projects like the Kaduna-Abuja road, the Abuja rail and Warri-Itakpe rail. The Lagos-Ibadan railway will be completed early next year and for continuity, which has been one of the hallmarks of the President Buhari’s administration, Amaechi’s nomination is a foregone conclusion.
“Assuming that all that Amaechi achieved on behalf of Nigeria and President Buhari do not guarantee his renomination, then the acceptance by majority of Nigerians that Amaechi was not only the best minister in the immediate past federal executive cabinet, but the most outstanding among his colleagues, which they indicated in the various media surveys, will ensure his nomination.
“If merit and position of majority of Nigerians will not earn Amaechi a renomination, then the spiritual angle to his political career will come to play. This is a man who always have a second chance in all his political career”, Eze said.
He supported his positions by stating that Amaechi is the only Nigerian who have become a two-time Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, two-time Governor of Rivers state, two-time Chairman of the Speakers Forum and Governors Forum of Nigeria, adding, “apart from all these spiritually induced appointments, he is the only African that has piloted a presidential campaign organisation two consecutive times and won on the two occasions.
“With all these, it is not in the character of Amaechi not to be renominated again to serve out his second term as a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”, he said.
Eze quoted Prince Zeeyan S. Kudu, a well known new breed politician as saying, “Despite our differences in politics, honestly, Amaechi is doing a wonderful job, let him keep the lamp burning he is surely going to the Next level, he is the only Minister I respected in this administration”.
In the same vein, the Railway Contractors describes the Minister as a man full of strength and a workaholic.
Speaking at a steering committee meeting of the Lagos-Ibadan Railway project in Papalanto, Ogun State, Mr. Xia Lijan, who is the Project Manager, Chinese Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) said , Amaechi has without doubts, demonstrated leadership skills in championing the construction of the Rail projects in Nigeria.He said, from the track laying works to the production of beams in the Lagos-Ibadan project, the Minister conformed with the contract agreement and demonstrated honesty in totality.
On his part, Mr. Akinwoye Abdulraouf, Public Relations (PR) consultant, to CCECC, “Amaechi has performed wonderfully well. He is a great man , the history of Standard Gauge in Nigeria will not be complete without the mention of his name. He is a quintessential leader, visionary and wonderful Minister. He never gets tired of working and he puts his job first”.
In the same vein, Eze pleaded with President Buhari to consider giving a second ministerial slot to Rivers and Lagos states considering, considering the special roles both states had played in giving a sure footing to the APC in the last close to seven years, adding that the case of Rivers is especially deserving because of the number of members of the party who had lost their lives in the course of fighting to sustain the legacies of the party in the South-South region.
