2023: Amaechi In Bed With Atiku?

If recent revelations are anything to go by, former Rivers State Governor and current Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, may be scheming to increase his political relevance ahead of 2023 by courting former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

Amaechi, a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), is said to be making political capital out of the severed business relationship between the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and Atiku’s logistic services company, INTELS Nigeria Limited.

Even though Atiku was reported to have divested his stake in INTELS earlier in 2020, the former vice president is said to still be very much involved in the company.

Amaechi, as exclusively gathered by Per Second News, is working to restore NPA and INTELS’ business relationship, an alleged opportunist political move aimed at earning him Atiku’s trust and friendship.

The minister’s ultimate goal, however, is the actualisation of his long-term political ambition of becoming Nigeria’s vice president if becoming president was unattainable, the report said.

Amaechi’s alleged quest to gain Atiku’s trust and position himself as his vice presidential candidate in 2023, reportedly culminated in the recent suspension of Hadiza Bala Usman as Managing Director of the NPA.

THE WHISTLER had reported that President Buhari suspended Hadiza on Amaechi’s recommendation and ordered investigation of NPA’s activities under her tenure.

But sources who spoke to PSN claimed that Amaechi moved against Hadiza in order to restore INTELS’ multi-million-dollar pilotage contract with the NPA.

In an interview with Arise TV last year, Hadiza had revealed that apart from the fact that INTELS’ 15-year contract with NPA had expired, the firm was allegedly using its political influence to operate outside of the legal framework of the Nigerian maritime regulations.

But Amaechi was said to have sought a presidential approval to restore all contracts between the NPA and INTELS and suspend all court cases between both parties.

“This will not be too good for Ameachi who is not well liked by most party stalwarts including state governors and the leadership of the National Assembly,” an APC chieftain told PSN in reaction to the possibility of the minister leaving the party to achieve his aim.

“The calculation is that even the PDP will implode given the controversy surrounding Atiku’s candidacy and the opposition from within the party led by people like Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike.

“Then that popular saying that ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend’ philosophy will come into play and Atiku and Ameachi may emerge in a calculation that is bound to shock many Nigerians,” another party bigwig told the newspaper.