May 04, (THEWILL) – The Minister for Transportation and 2023 Presidential Aspirant on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Chibuike Amaechi, has stated that until Journalists and indeed Nigerians begin to hold public office holders accountable, the country will not go forward.
Amaechi stated this in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, while giving his remarks as the Special Guest of honour, during the 2022 Press Freedom Day celebration organised by the Akwa Ibom State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, with the theme ‘Journalism Under Surveillance.’
Ameachi, who declared that Nigeria is broke, accused Goodluck Jonathan’s administration of inability to account for $68 billion, which the administration of General Olusegun Obasanjo left behind.
Recall that former president Goodluck Jonathan, who emerged the vice president in 2007, took over government as President of the Federal Republic in May 2010, occasioned by the demise of the then President, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
The former Governor of Rivers State claimed that the Buhari Administration inherited a paltry $2.5 billion from Goodluck Jonathan’s administration in 2015.
The Minister, who gave reasons for supporting President Muhammadu Buhari against Dr Goodluck Jonathan during the 2015 presidential elections, stated that though many labelled him a betrayer for not standing with Jonathan, a fellow Niger Deltan, his support for Buhari was for the survival of Nigeria.
“What worries me is the survival of Nigeria. I am worried to the extent that I begin to wonder if Nigerians know what the problem is?” he questioned.
He mentioned that there were no strings attached to the support he gave Buhari, “I did not give him any conditionalities.”
Amaechi, who is seeking an opportunity to take the number one seat of the country, declared that it is the right time for Nigerians to vote for the right people, calling on journalists to take the responsibility to present all the candidates before the electorate to make a right choice.
He confessed that Nigeria is totally broke and there is no longer what to share, hence the much agitations for restructuring, especially among the elites.
“The problem of Nigeria is not the poor man, but the elites, which include journalists, who have refused to see the truth and report same.
“I have been in government back to back for the past 23 years without a scandal, that is why no journalist can blackmail me”, he boasted.
The minister acknowledged that while there are good and bad journalists, some ugly ones blackmail people to the extent that their victims have to pay dearly to come out.
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