Amaechi attributes politicians’ shadiness to the fact that “Nigerians don’t react.”

Rotimi Amaechi, a former minister of transport, claims the docility of Nigerians is to blame for the country’s lack of effective leadership.

On Thursday in Lagos, Amaechi was a featured speaker at the 2023 TheNiche Annual Lecture, which explored the topic of “Why We Stride and Slip: Leadership, Nationalism, and the Nigerian Condition.”

He claims that most Nigerians are aware that their politicians are dishonest, yet they continue to vote for them anyhow.

What’s fresh to say is that Nigerians have zero reaction to any statement. When did you last hear a politician claim he was not a thief? Which candidate said he attended college, which candidate said she participated in National Youth Service, and which candidate showed you his certificate?

Nigerians are aware of this, but they continue to cast ballots for them anyhow. To which I respond, “Why should I speak when there is already nothing new?”

People in Nigeria can pick and choose who they trust and who they don’t, just as they can pick and choose who they vote for in elections. If you go to a Nigerian man’s residence and murder his mother, he will still go on living. If there’s nothing bothering you, then why should I bother? Amaechi declared.

Hadiza Usman, a former Managing Director of the Nigeria Ports Authority, (NPA), was criticised by the ex-governor of Rivers State for spreading “false narratives” in her book, “Stepping on Toes: My Odyssey at the Nigerian Ports Authority.”

There had been too many lies. For example, she argued that the panel had not invited her to participate. The 58-year-old also claimed that she had brought a presidential memo endorsing her dismissal.

It has been stated that “count one is in the question of the fact that the panel says she is guilty; count two is due to the fact that a Managing Director of NPA with an approval limit of N2.5m can approve N2.8b contract with no appropriation.”

Hadiza Usman was requested to stand down from her position as the head of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) by then-President Muhammadu Buhari two years ago, while an Administrative Panel of Inquiry led by Rotimi Amaechi looked into the agency’s operations.

Amaechi argued that Mrs. Usman was just as guilty of pandering to the powerful as he was of the crimes she was accusing him of.

Why isn’t the material being made public if it involves high-profile Nigerians? But she was brave enough to publish a book or is it a pamphlet and Nigerians are following her, launching the book, so how would Nigeria progress? She provided waivers to notable Nigerians, which she has no power to give; these are dollars accruable to Nigeria’s economy.

Let’s wait till they bring the original copy, though, because I know you’d deny its authenticity if I handed it up now. Because it contains the names of the notable Nigerians accused by the panel, I will show you the original but won’t let you read it. Leave those well-known Nigerians alone; they didn’t ask for my attention in the first place.

The ex-minister has confirmed that Usman has been indicted by the tribunal and has refuted allegations that he was the driving force behind her dismissal as NPA chief.