Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has praised former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, for his boldness and defiance during the 2022 presidential primary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), where he refused to step down for then-presidential aspirant, now President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Speaking at Amaechi’s 60th birthday celebration in Abuja on Saturday in a tape viewed by THE WHISTLER on Sunday, Soyinka described the former Rivers State governor as a fighter and a true democrat who reminded Nigerians of the spirit of resistance and integrity in politics.
“The main reason why I had to be here today — it’s first of all that I admire Rotimi Amaechi’s fighting spirit,” Soyinka said.
“And it’s a very consistent one, but the most memorable for me — because I watched this event live on TV all the way from Abu Dhabi.
“I wanted to see the drama of all the primaries going on during the election. I wasn’t really here, but I said I want to watch this contest and I’m glad I did.
“Because it gave me a great — most malicious pleasure, rascally if you like, pleasure — to see the incumbent president being given a dose of his own medicine.”
Soyinka drew parallels between Amaechi’s stance and Tinubu’s own political defiance during former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, particularly during the controversial third term saga.
“Let me explain this,” Soyinka continued. “For somebody we knew as the last man standing when he fought to a standstill a former president who was manoeuvring himself into a position of changing the constitution and obtaining a third term…
“He keeps denying it, but he and I know for a fact — and so do others. And towards that goal, he was sort of emasculating the powers of the constituent elements of the federation.
“And by the end, this president was the last man standing, resisted that effort. All the others had sort of cowed down because their statutory allocation had been stopped — contrary to the constitution.”
Soyinka noted the irony of Amaechi’s defiance against Tinubu, saying, “Well, he obtained a dose of his own medicine from Rotimi Amaechi during the primaries. I enjoyed that very much.”
“While everybody was, you know, falling over one another conceding, there was one individual who got on the podium and he said no, I’m not conceding.
“I didn’t come all the way here to commit lúlẹ̀ (a Yoruba word meaning ‘collapse or fall’). And that man was Rotimi Amaechi. And I said this is what democracy is all about.”
At the APC primary held in June 2022, Tinubu won the party’s presidential ticket with 1,271 votes, defeating 13 other aspirants. Amaechi came second with 316 votes, while then Vice President Yemi Osinbajo scored 235 votes.
Amaechi, who governed Rivers State from 2007 to 2015 and served as minister from 2015 to 2022, was widely commended for staying in the race despite mounting political pressure and elite consensus in favour of Tinubu.
