A former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has said that the only way to stop President Bola Tinubu from returning to power in 2027 is for citizens to take their fate into their own hands.
According to him, Nigerians cannot achieve meaningful change through wishful thinking.
Amaechi spoke on Thursday at the public presentation of the 2025 Nigeria Social Cohesion Survey Report by the Africa Polling Institute in Abuja.
He said, “The only way you can stop Tinubu from being the president of Nigeria in 2027 is to run an election of Nigerians versus the bandits.
“If you think you will just sit down and do that, may God be with you.”
Amaechi criticised the citizens for grumbling in private while remaining passive in the face of what he described as elite domination.
He said, “The elites who are stealing Nigerian money are not up to 100,00 but you have 200 million Nigerians who can fight 100,000 men.
“You sit down in your house and complain and grumble. What makes you think the elites would move their hands completely? Who told you the elites don’t know how you are feeling?
“They know you are not happy. But you are helpless not because the elites made you helpless, you made yourself helpless.”
He also cited examples of countries like Bangladesh, Peru, and Kenya, where mass protests forced unpopular leaders out of office.
“Go to Bangladesh, right? The day they got tired of that woman, what did they do? They chased her out. Go to, is it Peru or Chile? Nigeria is the most docile society I’ve seen in my life.Please tell me, has there been any revolution without blood? Any revolution without blood is a failure,” he said.
He said if not for his wife, he would have left the country.
” I told my wife, I want to Japa like you people do. They will give me official visa to come and stay in their country, any country. “She said, no, we can’t leave Nigeria. Because Nigeria is lovable. It’s lovely,” he said.
Recalling how NANS, NLC, and ASUU once joined forces to pressure the government, he said the NLC is now shying away from protests.
He said, “There was a joint meeting between ASUU, NLC, and NANS. Where would I go? Who would be president of ASUU? Who would be president of NLC? Who would be president of NANS? So that when NANS spoke, ASUU would give the government one week, and NLC would give two weeks before joining in.
“Now, NLC can’t even mobilise their people. Why? Ethnicity. I’ve spoken to them before. I even told them, I will join you in the protest. They said they can’t. So, Nigeria is totally collapsed.”
He said the political class has outperformed the military in worsening citizens’ suffering.
“We pushed away the military and brought in the politicians. The politicians have shown they are worse than the military,” he added.
Backing his argument with socioeconomic insight, he recounted how, as governor, he monitored crime levels as indicators of economic distress.
He said, “I was once a governor. The moment I see robbery, kidnapping, I know that there is no money in society. So the Commissioner for Finance pays contractors, pays those who are owing. When you pay, what happens? The base is workers.
“The base is people who are suppliers who are supplying goods. They in turn go to the market. They buy goods. They pay the tailor, they pay the doctor. The money goes around. And then the crime rate will reduce.”
The Executive Director of the Africa Polling Institute, Professor Bell Ihua, presented survey data showing that 83 percent of Nigerians have little to no trust in the Tinubu government, while 80 percent distrust the National Assembly, and 79 percent distrust the judiciary.
He said, “This report has very telling information. Citizens are united in shared struggle based on economic realities. The government needs to act based on this scientific data to rebuild public confidence.”
He urged policymakers to see the results as an opportunity to reorient governance.
NAN