The Day Jonathan ‘Abused The Hell Out Of Me’ – Amaechi

“He asked me why and I explained that we were already in court on the issue of fuel subsidy. The (former) President abused the hell out of my life. I have huge respect for the President, but the only thing that made me disagree with him was on the issue of the management of the country’s treasury.”

Those were the words of former Rivers State Governor, Hon. Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, on Sunday night explaining the genesis of his open rift with ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.

Amaechi, who defected from Jonathan’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), was then the chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF).

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His refusal to support the bid sparked outrage in Jonathan, who thereafter poured abuses on him.

Amaechi made the disclosure at a dinner held in his honour by a group of friends in Abuja.

The chairman of the committee of friends was former Bayelsa State Governor, Timipre Sylva; while the members included an ally of Amaechi, Senator Magnus Abe; the APC governorship candidate in the last election, Dakuku Peterside; and the governors of Plateau and Bauchi states.

As a consequence of his intransigence, he added, the then President Jonathan told him not to seek re-election as chairman of the NGF.

The former Governor also accused the former President of superintending the tansfer of Rivers State’s oil wells to Jonathan’s home state, Bayelsa, a situation he said adversely affected the revenue base of Rivers.

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His words: “When the trouble between me and the former President started, as Chairman of Governors Forum, the oil subsidy was N300 billion under President Olusegun Obasanjo. It remained the same under (the late President (Umaru) Yar’Adua. Six months of President Goodluck Jonathan (administration), the oil subsidy rose to N1.9tr. Is it that the country now doubled its population or bought more machines or started manufacturing?

“As chairman of Governors Forum, I was in a position to get my own share of the N1.9tr but I chose the path of honesty and truth; you cannot catch me being dishonest.”

Amaechi said that he openly disagreed with Jonathan at another meeting where the issue of increasing fuel subsidy payment was tabled.

He said: “There was a time I walked into a meeting with the president (Goodluck Jonathan) and in the meeting, the argument was that they wanted more money for oil subsidy. As the chairman of Governors’ Forum, I stood my ground and told the president I was not going to support that.

The former governor challenged those who claimed that he betrayed the South-South with his support for the APC and President Muhammadu Buhari to tell the world how Jonathan’s presidency benefited the region in particular and Nigeria in general.

He pointed out that by his own admission, the former President while seeking re-election, appealed to the people of the zone to give him a second chance because he did nothing for them in his first term.

Amaechi alleged that the nation’s resources were looted by people from all the geo-political zones, saying such act was superintended over by a President from the South-South.

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