I Don’t Steal Money, My Simplicity Sweeps People Off Their Feet — Amaechi
By Akanni Toba
Former Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, has said that he sees politics as service to humanity and not a means for pecuniary gain stressing that his unusual simplicity, as a politician, often sweeps people off their feet.
Amaechi noted that his transparency stands him out among other Nigerian politicians adding that it’s a rare quality he posseses in a corruption-ridden space like Nigeria
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) chieftain made this claim during an interview with media personality, Chude Jideonwo, on Saturday.
He said: “I’m the simplest politician you can meet in Nigeria. When they meet me and see how simple and ordinary I am, it sweeps them off their feet.
“When I say I won’t steal money, 80% of the time I’m serious. Is it easy to swear to God and say in your life you won’t steal?
“Transparency is not an easy thing in terms of corruption. Have you really gone to take people’s money, no.
“Most of the things you have, you really have to say that the office helped you to influence it, so there are a lot of loans some of us took, if it weren’t the government they wouldn’t give you.”
Amaechi became a household name when he became Speaker of Rivers State House of Assembly at the age of a relative young age of 34 in 1999 when Nigeria returned to civilian rule after sixteen years of military interregnum.
He later became the Rivers State governor in October 2027 after a landmark Supreme Court verdict which declared him as the rightful winner of the primary of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) ín the state. The verdict ordered Celestine Omehia, who had occupied the state’s governorship seat for almost six months, to vacate the position for Amaechi.
The ex-speaker served as Rivers governor for eight years and his tenure ended in 2015.
Amaechi defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the PDP in 2015.
He would later be appointed as Minister of Transportation during the Muhammadu Buhari administration, a position he held for another eight years.
Going by his political trajectory since Nigeria returned to democracy, Amaechi has been in either elective or appointive positions for twenty-four of the twenty-seven years of the country’s civilian dispensation.
