The All Progressives Congress (APC) has lashed out at Rotimi Amaechi, Atiku Abubakar and Nasir el-Rufai, describing their recent criticisms of President Bola Tinubu’s administration as a desperate ploy to return to power for personal gain.
In a statement issued on Monday and signed by Felix Morka, national publicity secretary of the APC, the party accused the trio of exploiting a birthday lecture organised for Amaechi in Abuja on Saturday to launch attacks on Tinubu’s government.
Morka said the claims made at the event — including allegations that Tinubu was “weaponising poverty” — were “baseless” and “hypocritical”, adding that those levelling the accusations failed to address poverty when they held office for over two decades.
Morka said: “These three individuals have occupied Nigeria’s highest political offices between 1999 and 2023, either as vice-president, governors, or ministers.
“In all 24 years, they could not and did not eradicate poverty in their states or the country. They did not even attempt to address, let alone tackle, the structural challenges and distortions that stifled the economy and worsened poverty over the years.”
Morka described the former officials as “displaced rent-seekers” who enriched themselves through state resources, and accused them of seeking a return to power purely for “self-aggrandisement”.
He singled out Amaechi, noting his 24 years in office as speaker, governor and minister, accusing him of having “absolutely no record of attempting to combat poverty in his Rivers state or the country”.
“When Amaechi declared, ‘I am hungry’, he must be understood to mean he is hungry and desperate to return to his felt-entitled dependency on state resources and patronage,” Morka said.
He also dismissed criticisms of the government’s economic reforms, particularly the removal of fuel subsidy and unification of exchange rates, arguing that the policies have triggered “historic” transformations in the economy.
“Indubitably, in two years, President Tinubu has demonstrated political will to tackle structural barriers to the country’s economic growth and development far more than any other president in Nigeria’s modern history,” he said.
He claimed that under Tinubu, the economy had recorded a 4.6 per cent growth in the last quarter of 2024.
According to the party, states that previously struggled to pay the N30,000 minimum wage are now paying as high as N70,000, which it described as evidence of the effectiveness of Tinubu’s reforms.
“Mr President is on course and will not be distracted by the selfish partisan ramblings of hardened political opportunists and economic exploiters only bent on preserving the old, inefficient and permissive economic system,” Morka said.
He added that those opposing Tinubu’s reforms are “uncomfortable” with a new reality where hard work, productivity and innovation are rewarded over patronage.
“Entrepreneurs, farmers and service providers are thriving, while rent-seekers like Amaechi and his coalition partners are left seething with rage at the disruption of their ability to milk the system for personal gain,” he said.