The All Progressives Congress (APC) has seized on recent remarks by former Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, about his personal finances, saying they show he is unfit to be vice president and describing him as a loafer who cannot earn a living outside public office.
APC, in a statement on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, first prayed for the repose of the soul of Dame Ezinne Mary Oduah Amaechi, the mother of the vice-presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC). It also wished her son good health of mind and body.
The APC noted that Amaechi, a former two term Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, two term Governor of Rivers State and two term Minister of Transportation, had said he could not afford medications for his mother’s treatment. Amaechi was also a presidential aspirant.
The party said Amaechi’s recent confessions must not be overlooked.
It recalled that he had earlier said he had become so broke and hungry that his wife was feeding him, and that he has now stated that his inability to afford medications led to his mother’s death at the age of 89.
According to the APC, Amaechi spent four decades at the highest levels of public office, during which he was never hungry and could afford medications for himself and his family.
It said that just three years after leaving office he has become destitute and unable to care for his loved ones.
The party said that unless he is struggling with some form of Peter Pan syndrome, he must be a loafer, aimless and irresponsible, for failing to be productive and earn a living outside the patronage of public office.
The APC accused Amaechi of asking Nigerians to make him vice president in 2027 so that he can continue to live off the public treasury and keep the lifestyle he has grown accustomed to. It said the presidency is not a soup kitchen and will not become one for him.
The party also expressed the wish that employers in his hometown of Ubima, in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State, would find him suitable for a job that pays enough for him to feed and buy medications for himself and his family for the rest of his retirement.
The APC concluded that no one can speak better of Amaechi’s unfitness for the office of vice president than Amaechi himself.
