My fears for 2019 elections – Amaechi
The Minister of Transportation and Director General of the Buhari Campaign Organisation (BCO), Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, in this interview with bares his mind on the 2019 elections, President Buhari’s chances and his roles as the campaign DG, among other issues
What should electorate from the campaign train?
the expect APC
There is nothing new you should expect because I have drummed out the message, and if you look at the strategy, it is almost clear. The PDP strategy is clear. Our strategy is clear. PDP says our people are hungry and the economy is bad. We have two replies. The first is that Nigerians are hungry because PDP carted away all the money. If they left the money, we would have managed it in a way that Nigerians will have food to eat. What creates food is what creates jobs. If you create jobs, you create food. But you don’t create jobs when there are no resources. The year we came into government, our budget was to be based on $45 per barrel. The oil price crashed to $28 per barrel. So the budget for that year was $28 per barrel. That is the least price I can remember as an adult. The following year was about $50. It’s now that we are seeing about $60 per barrel. But PDP operated when the oil was about $140 per barrel, what did they do with the money? It is a big question. The next thing we are putting forward to PDP is that they should show evidence of what they utilised the resources for while in power. But we can show what we have done in three years. We are working on virtually all federal roads. There is no major road you will complete in three years except it’s one kilometre. But if it’s the over 100km type of roads that we are currently doing, you cannot fix it in a short time. But what is important is that we are on site and working. That means we are able to pay our contractors too.
On railways, you heard of the accident that happened in Lagos on Thursday. That is because of the poor quality of the narrow gauge. But if we say they should stop using it until we complete the standard gauge we are currently building from Lagos to Ibadan, they will complain. But the right thing to do is stop the narrow gauge so that we can rehabilitate it. Right now, we are running it at 17km per hour because it is bad, but that is what the PDP did. They didn’t maintain the facility. It’s in Nigeria that you don’t maintain railway facility for 20 years. But the maintenance culture is changing with this government. I have just ordered that we should do maintenance on the AbujaKaduna rail project. We will change the ballast. It is supposed to be changed every year. I have called the permanent secretary and the Director, Rail, to call for a public quotation so we can change the ballast; that is maintenance.
When we came, we had to complete the Kaduna-Abuja railway. We had to approve more money to complete it. PDP borrowed $500m from China to start that project. But we had to still pay about $200m to complete it.
In 2015, there were three points that the president drove his campaign on: security, economy and anti-corruption. He hasn’t deviated from it and will never deviate from it.
In what ways would you say the 2019 elections will be different from 2015?
We will do better. Part of the 2015 elections was rigged by PDP, but this time we are closing rigging against ourselves. If you speak to the president, one of the things he says is that he wants to bequeath to Nigerians the ability to choose their leaders and be held accountable for the weaknesses and strengths of their leaders. So you don’t elect a leader for them and say they are held responsible for the failures of the leader. The president is determined to do that.
But security seems to have relapsed. How would you say this government has fared on security?
Haba! The press is being unfair to this government. We never told you that insecurity has disappeared. But we have improved security in a way that Boko Haram has been pushed to Sambisa Forest. On one or two occasions, they left Sambisa into towns. But always do a flashback. Daily Trust on Sunday, What’s the flashback here? During the PDP, they had access to police headquarters and bombed it. They bombed the United Nations Office under Goodluck Jontahn. The police, army and others had barriers around their offices, but it is no longer the case. Tell us thank you now! Before, even roads to churches had to be closed. But now we take a lot of things for granted.
Some commentators have said the APC isn’t campaigning as much. What’s your take on that?
We are campaigning even more than the PDP. Where have they gone? Oyo, Kwara, Sokoto, Niger, and one other state. But we have gone to Uyo to begin our campaign. I was in Ilorin, Plateau and Adamawa. They have done five states and we have done four in two weeks. But PDP started before us. Look at their rallies and ours, which ones are better? The president hasn’t even stepped out yet apart from the Uyo rally. If the president had gone to Plateau, you can imagine the crowd. In 2015, the only place I was afraid for Mr. President was Plateau. The surge of the crowd was huge. In fact, I had to escape because following the president was causing me attacks. The crowd wanted to touch the president regardless of whether they would hurt him.
In Kano, I said we won’t go out of the vehicle. But when Tinubu came out of the vehicle, then Mr. President joined. Some of us still didn’t, myself, Bukola Saraki and chairman of the party.
As DG, I will write a book about the campaign. PDP is making all the noise now, they should wait. There is nowhere in the North we went in 2015 that people weren’t collapsing because they wanted to see Mr. President. Those who collapsed were happy they collapsed because of the popularity of Buhari.
Is there no confusion in the campaign structure; what is the role of Tinubu and yourself as the campaign DG?
Tinubu is the co-chairman and I remain the DG of the campaign. The president said he might not be available to deal with all campaign issues thus the buck stops on the table of Tinubu. So all the approvals that should have gone to Mr. President for the campaign will now go to Tinubu so that Mr. President can concentrate on governance. Mr. President said the DG is in charge of all, not some, but all of the campaign. The chairman is in charge of all the approvals. So all the powers of the president on the campaign is vested in Tinubu who is the co-chairman of the campaign.
But it seemed the campaign took off rather very slowly, why?
Because there is no money. If you give me N2bn now, I will dance for you. Tomorrow, I will move the president out of the office for campaigns all over. The case is even worse as the president has said no one should go near public funds for campaigns. Again, private funds will also be difficult to come by now.
Will the president be on the campaign train?
Yes, and he will go everywhere. We will campaign in all states.
Will he also be debating?
No! But we have agreed to a town hall meeting which will enable the president to sit with the ministers; which is better than a debate, because in a debate, some young man may forget that Buhari is the president and may even insult him.
Any fears for the elections?
I hope the PDP don’t rig the elections.
Can the PDP rig the elections with you having incumbency advantage?
But the president has declined the use of the incumbency factor. Incumbency doesn’t sleep. If you say you won’t use it, you must be careful so that your opponent doesn’t appropriate it. We are like an opposition party now because we are not using any instrument of authority. If we use it, PDP will know that we have used it. The fact that PDP can abuse it is because we believe in the rule of law.
What’s your take on the court case in Rivers?
I won’t comment. I have been avoiding that. Suffice it to say we are appealing. My lawyer has said I shouldn’t comment on it, so I won’t comment, just like what you people say is trending in the press. My chief press secretary told me I shouldn’t comment, so I won’t comment. I’m obeying everybody now. If not, on the day the judgment was passed and the so called tape appeared, I would have fired back. If I tell you my own side of the story, you would want to find the person and kill the person. My press secretary also said I’m a minister with a boss and once my boss is satisfied with my position, there is no need escalating the issue. And my boss is more than satisfied with my position.