Rotimi Amaechi, former governor of Rivers State, has said Nigeria’s political landscape would have taken a different trajectory if his generation of governors were still in office.
Speaking on Tuesday at the public presentation of former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido’s autobiography, Being True to Myself, Amaechi reflected on the political climate during their tenure, describing it as an era marked by bold opposition and strong oversight of the federal government.
The former transport minister, who chaired the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) during Lamido’s second term between 2011 and 2015, recalled the governors’ willingness to confront presidential decisions and assert their independence.
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“I asked you (Lamido) this morning, what is going on currently in the country, in Nigerian politics, would it have happened when we were governors? You said no. And the answer is no,” Amaechi said.
“We would confront the government, confront the president. That’s how radical we were, that’s how our governors forum operated, that’s how determined we were to change things.”
He noted that while disagreements existed among them, including Lamido’s initial resistance to his emergence as NGF chairman, their bond was forged through shared principles and an activist approach to governance.
He also recounted their eventual political divergence, particularly during the build-up to the 2015 general elections. While a group of governors, including Amaechi, coalesced around the All Progressives Congress (APC) to challenge then-President Goodluck Jonathan, Lamido broke ranks to pursue an alternative path with the Social Democratic Party (SDP), a move Amaechi believes would have weakened their electoral chances.
The former Rivers governor said the shared struggles of that political era should not be forgotten and pledged to privately contribute his reflections to Lamido’s memoir, underscoring what he described as their radical legacy.
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“At the end of the day, he went to find a new party, the SDP. We said, ‘If we go to the SDP, we will lose the election. Let’s hang on to this one called the APC.’ He disagreed and left us. That’s where we parted ways.
“The last one before we broke ranks was when we all agreed to go against President Jonathan. We formed a committee of governors and others,” he said.
