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The Imperative Of Rotimi Amaechi’s Presidency
The Imperative Of Rotimi Amaechi’s Presidency.
The clock is ticking fast towards the much-anticipated presidential primary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the gladiators are not leaving any stone unturned to ensure their interests see the light of the day. But the most significant interest in the equation is the teeming masses of Nigeria who are itching for hope, progress, and stability in their beloved country.
Expectedly, the ruling APC has a long list of both contenders and pretenders for the party’s ticket to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari, who will serve out his constitutional two terms of eight years by 2023. With the long collection, it is pretty easy to take for granted the concepts of proficiency, vision, intelligence, tenacity, passion, diligence, teamwork, among other leadership traits.
But these attributes, and more, conceptualise what true leadership is all about in any formal system, especially for a country like Nigeria which is on a tenterhook. As such, whoever will take over from 2023 as president must be wired with these qualities for any appreciable progress to be seen and felt in the country.
The probing question will now be how do we identify such a leader? The simple answer is that the measure by which such a leader can be identified is largely through their antecedents, both in private and public responsibilities.
This is where the immediate past Minister of Transport, Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, comes to focus as a perfect fit for the template of both the APC and the Nigerian masses.
Amaechi has been zeroed on by political pundits as the most sellable and prepared aspirant within the ranks of the APC. Besides meeting the benchmark of outstanding service as a minister, many also averred that he stands as a fitting bridge between the old and younger generation and that at 56 years, he can birth the much-talked generational shift in the political leadership of Nigeria.
Regarded as a home-grown leader who has a breathtaking background as an astute politician and an achiever in public service, Amaechi, a pan-Nigerian administrator, has convincing records showing his capacities and past achievements in fixing spiraling youth unemployment, lethargic educational system, insecurity, economy, uniting ethnics and regions, crises in the power and energy sectors, among others.
Since pitching tent with partisan politics, Amaechi has held many positions, both at the state and national levels. He was Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly for two terms, governor for two terms and he just served his second term as minister, having just resigned last Monday to concentrate on his presidential bid. With his experience and exposure in holding key offices in government for the last 23 years, his supporters believe it is time for him to run for the highest office in Nigeria – the presidency.
Earlier in the year, the conferment of Amaechi with the prestigious Dan Amanar Daura (the trusted son of Daura) by President Buhari’s kinsmen in Katsina, amplified the impression that the former Minister of Transportation is the chosen one by the president and the APC.
For those in the know, the honour was one well deserved given the level of development the minister had attracted to the state as well as the North, and by extension for the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. Some of the infrastructural development that influenced the honour was the monumental railway project that connects the North and most recently, the University of Transport sited at Daura.
As a core party man, Amaechi has put his heart and passion into the affairs of the APC. He served twice as the Director-General of the Buhari-Osinbajo Presidential Campaign Committee for both 2015 and 2019 presidential elections.
After Buhari emerged in 2014, the permutations appear to be in favour of Amaechi as the running mate to Buhari, but a then little known Prof. Yemi Osinbajo was eventually picked. However, Amaechi was not daunted by this as he dutifully conducted his task as the campaign director-general, mobilising funds and support for Buhari, especially in the South-South region, which is a PDP stronghold
Staying loyal to the president and the party, Buhari rewarded the former governor with a juicy appointment – Minister of Transportation. As Minister, Amaechi implemented the president’s policy of reviving the rail sector. He did this by encouraging the president to obtain controversial but low-interest loans from China worth about $3bn. Several rail projects were launched in different parts of the country, while those started by Jonathan’s administration were completed. He also supervised the construction of a railway from Nigeria into the Niger Republic, a move which the president has commended on several occasions.
When he took over as the Minister of Transportation, his first approach, as is usual of him, was to carry out “human capacity audit” to ascertain the strength and weakness of each staff, especially within the senior and managerial workforce. Secondly, he determined the policy framework and target goals of the Ministry, as envisioned in the Mandate and Agenda of Mr. President. Immediately, the Ministry established its own Strategy for achieving the target goals and then setup a Roadmap for implementing the Strategy. Automatically, everyone knew his role and those who could not fit into the roadmap and speed of the Ministry found their way out, without necessarily causing a feud with either the Minister or the Permanent Secretary, as appeared the case in some other ministries. His third step was the liberalization of communication channels; Directors and Deputy Directors could access the Honourable Minister, including other staff, but in a manner that did not undermine established official reporting lines. The sole aim was to fast track and ease communication within the Ministry and amongst the comprising parastatals.
For analysts, the secret of Amaechi’s success as Minister, perhaps, was the fact that he had been a Governor, who not only did exceptionally well in terms of infrastructural development but also knew how to drive growth and development. Between 2008 to 2015, the period when Amaechi held forth in Rivers State, the State was described by both national and international observers as “huge construction site”, with the construction of over 200 Health Centres, 500 Primary Schools, 9 Secondary Schools etc, all state of the art, and went on at the same time. These were outside the Roads (including a dualised network 1500km of roads, 23 bridges, 2 major flyovers, 2 interchanges, etc), Agriculture (including rehabilitation of the over 30,000 hectares of Rivers State Oil Palm plantation -moribund RISONPALM, the Songhai Farm, over 2,000 hectares of Banana Farm at Tai; commercial-scale Fish Farm at Buguma, etc), Waste Management, Entertainment infrastructures all of which went on simultaneously.
Amaechi’s Security Architecture for the State was also second to none, as the State became a Security Model in the country: kidnapping, armed robbery, and cult-related activities all reduced to less than one percent. Under his watch, Rivers State established and set up an integrated Security Network, with a central Command, Control, Communication, Computer and Intelligent (C4I), a 24hours Camera System that watched over Port Harcourt City. And to close the final loop, the Rivers State Government had ordered for the delivery of two Civilian Security Bell Helicopters before he exited Office in May 2015. The slogan in his time was Rivers State where “you sleep with your two eyes closed”.
According to Wikipedia, Rt. Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi was born on May 27, 1965. He previously served in Rivers State as Governor of Rivers State from 2007 to 2015 and Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly from 1999 to 2007.
Amaechi, who holds the national honour of the Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON), belongs to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He had his early education at St Theresa’s Primary School from 1970 to 1976 and earned his West African Senior School Certificate in 1982 after attending Government Secondary School Okolobiri.
Amaechi received a Bachelor of Arts degree (Honours) in English Studies and Literature from the University of Port Harcourt in 1987, where he was the President of the National Union of Rivers State Students (NURSS).
He ompleted the mandatory National Youth Service Corps in 1988, and thereafter joined Pamo Clinics and Hospitals Limited owned by Peter Odili, where he worked until 1992. He also a director of several companies, including West Africa Glass Industry Limited and Risonpalm Nigeria Limited.
His incursion into politics began during the transition to the Third Nigerian Republic as he was Secretary of the National Republican Convention in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Between 1992 and 1994, he was Special Assistant to the Deputy Governor of Rivers State, Peter Odili – his boss believed in Amaechi as a young man with potential in politics, and brought him under his wing.
In 1996, he was the Rivers State’s Secretary of the Democratic Party of Nigeria (DPN) caretaker committee during the transition programme of General Sani Abacha. In 1999, he contested and won a seat to become a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly to represent his constituency.
He is married to Judith Amaechi, and they are blessed with three boys.
Clearly, Rotimi Amaechi is literally a colossus in the race to succeed President Buhari. He has the pedigree, network, resilience, and capacity to win against the opposition and also reinvent the fortunes of Nigeria. If anyone can lift the needle for APC in the 2023 general elections, then it is the former Minister of Transportation.
Comrade Odeyemi Odeyemi, a youth activist, security analyst and counter terrorism expert, is also an aspirant for House of Representatives on the APC platform in Oyo State.
By Comrade Oladimeji Odeyemi.
Why Babangida’s Hilltop Home Became Nigeria’s Political “Mecca”.
By George Omagbemi Sylvester | Published by SaharaWeeklyNG.com
Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s birthday visit to Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) in Minna (where he hailed the octogenarian as a patriotic leader committed to national unity) was more than a courtesy call. It was a reminder of a peculiar constant in Nigerian politics: the steady pilgrimage of power-seekers, bridge-builders and crisis-managers to the Hilltop mansion. Jonathan’s own words captured it bluntly: IBB’s residence “is like a Mecca of sorts” because of the former military president’s enduring relevance and perceived nation-first posture.
Babangida turned 84 on 17 August 2025. That alone invites reflection on a career that has shaped Nigeria’s political architecture for four decades; admired by some for audacious statecraft, condemned by others for controversies that still shadow the republic. Born on 17 August 1941 in Minna, he ruled as military president from 1985 to 1993, presiding over transformative and turbulent chapters: the relocation of the national capital to Abuja in 1991; the creation of political institutions for a long, complex transition; economic liberalisation that cut both ways; and the fateful annulment of the 12 June 1993 election. Each of these choices helps explain why the Hilltop remains a magnet for Nigerians who need counsel, cover or calibration.
A house built on influence; why the visits never stop.
Let’s start with the obvious: access. Nigeria’s political class prizes proximity to the men and women who can open doors, soften opposition, broker peace and read the hidden currents. In that calculus, IBB’s network is unmatched. He cultivated a reputation for “political engineering,” the reason the press christened him “Maradona” (for deft dribbling through complexity) and “Evil Genius” (for the strategic cunning his critics decried). Whether one embraces or rejects those labels, they reflect a reality: Babangida is still the place where many politicians go to test ideas, seek endorsements or secure introductions. Even the mainstream press has described him as a consultant of sorts to desperate or ambitious politicians, an uncomfortable description that nevertheless underlines his gravitational pull.
Though it isn’t only political tact that draws visitors; it’s statecraft with lasting fingerprints. Moving the seat of government from Lagos to Abuja in December 1991 was not a cosmetic relocation, it re-centred the federation and signaled a symbolic neutrality in a country fractured by regional suspicion. Abuja’s founding logic (GEOGRAPHIC CENTRALITY and ETHNIC NEUTRALITY) continues to stabilise the national imagination. This is part of the reason many leaders, across party lines, still defer to IBB: he didn’t just rule; he rearranged the map of power.
Then there’s the regional dimension. Under his watch, Nigeria led the creation and deployment of ECOMOG in 1990 to staunch Liberia’s bloody civil war, a bold move that announced Abuja as a regional security anchor. The intervention was imperfect, contested and costly, but it helped define West Africa’s collective security posture and Nigeria’s leadership brand. When neighboring states now face crises, the memory of that precedent still echoes in diplomatic corridors and Babangida’s counsel retains currency among those who remember how decisions were made.
Jonathan’s praise and the unity argument.
Jonathan’s tribute (stressing Babangida’s non-sectional outlook and commitment to unity) goes to the heart of the Hilltop mystique. For a multi-ethnic federation straining under distrust, figures who can speak across divides are prized. Jonathan’s point wasn’t nostalgia; it was a live assessment of a man many still call when Nigeria’s seams fray. That’s why the parade to Minna continues: the anxious, the ambitious and the statesmanlike alike seek an elder who can convene rivals and cool temperatures.
The unresolved shadow: June 12 and the ethics of influence.
No honest appraisal can skip the hardest chapter: the annulment of the 12 June 1993 election (judged widely as free and fair) was a rupture that delegitimised the transition and scarred Nigeria’s democratic journey. Political scientist Larry Diamond has repeatedly identified June 12 as a prime example of how authoritarian reversals corrode democratic legitimacy and public trust. His larger warning (“few developments are more destructive to the legitimacy of new democracies than blatant and pervasive political corruption”) captures the moral crater that followed the annulment and the years of drift that ensued. Those wounds are part of the Babangida legacy too and they complicate the reverence that a steady stream of visitors displays.
Max Siollun, a leading historian of Nigeria’s military era, has observed (provocatively) that the military’s “greatest contribution” to democracy may have been to rule “long and badly enough” that Nigerians lost appetite for soldiers in power. It’s a stinging line, yet it helps explain the paradox of IBB’s status: the same system he personified taught Nigeria costly lessons that hardened its democratic reflexes. Today’s generation visits the Hilltop not to revive militarism but to harvest hard-won insights about managing a fragile federation.
What sustains the pilgrimage.
1) Institutional memory: Nigeria’s politics often suffers amnesia. Babangida offers a living archive of security crises navigated, regional diplomacy attempted, volatile markets tempered and power-sharing experiments designed. Whether one applauds or condemns specific choices, the muscle memory of governing a complex federation is rare and urgently sought.
2) Convening power: In a season of polarisation, the ability to sit warring factions in the same room is not small capital. Babangida’s imprimatur remains a safe invitation card few refuse it, fewer ignore it. That convening power explains why movements, parties and would-be presidents keep filing up the long driveway. Recent delegations have explicitly cast their courtesy calls in the language of unity, loyalty and patriotism ahead of pivotal elections.
3) Signals to the base: Visiting Minna telegraphs seriousness to party structures and funders. It says: “I have sought counsel where history meets experience.” In Nigeria’s coded political theatre, that signal still matters. Outlets have reported for years that many aspirants treat the Hilltop as an obligatory stop an unflattering reality, perhaps, but a revealing one.
4) The man and the myth: The mansion itself, with its opulence and aura, has become a set piece in Nigeria’s story of power, admired by some, resented by others, but always discussed. The myth feeds the pilgrimage; the pilgrimage feeds the myth.
The balance sheet at 84.
To treat Babangida solely as a sage is to forget the costs of his era; to treat him only as a villain is to ignore the architecture that still holds parts of Nigeria together. Abuja’s relocation stands as a stabilising bet that paid off. ECOMOG, for all its flaws, seeded a habit of regional responsibility. Conversely, June 12 remains a national cautionary tale about elite manipulation, civilian marginalisation and the brittleness of transitions managed from above. These are not contradictory truths; they are the double helix of Babangida’s place in Nigerian memory.
Jonathan’s homage tried to distill the better angel of IBB’s record: MENTORSHIP, BRIDGE-BUILDING and a POSTURE that (at least in his telling) RESISTS SECTIONAL ISM. “That is why today, his house is like a Mecca of sorts,” he said, praying that the GENERAL continues to “mentor the younger ones.” Whether one agrees with the full sentiment, it accurately describes the lived politics of Nigeria today: Minna remains a checkpoint on the road to relevance.
The scholar’s verdict and a citizen’s challenge.
If Diamond warns about legitimacy and Siollun warns about the perils of soldier-politics, what should Nigerians demand from the Hilltop effect? Three things.
First, use influence to open space, not close it. Counsel should tilt toward rules, institutions and credible elections not kingmaking for its own sake. The lesson of 1993 is that subverting a valid vote haunts a nation for decades.
Second, mentor for unity, but insist on accountability. Unity cannot be a euphemism for silence. A truly patriotic elder statesman sets a high bar for conduct and condemns the shortcuts that tempt new actors in old ways. Diamond’s admonition on corruption is not an abstraction; it’s a roadmap for rebuilding trust.
Third, convert nostalgia into institutional memory. If Babangida’s house is a classroom, then Nigeria should capture, publish and debate its lessons in the open: on peace operations (what worked, what failed), on capital relocation (how to plan at scale), and on transitions (how not to repeat 1993). Only then does the pilgrimage serve the republic rather than personalities.
At 84, Ibrahim Babangida remains a paradox that Nigeria cannot ignore: a man whose legacy straddles NATION-BUILDING and NATION-BRUISING, whose doors remain open to those seeking power and those seeking peace. Jonathan’s visit (and his striking “Mecca” metaphor) reveals a simple, stubborn fact: in a country still searching for steady hands, the Hilltop’s shadow is long. The task before Nigeria is to ensure that the shadow points toward a brighter constitutional daybreak, where influence is finally subordinated to institutions and where mentorship hardens into norms that no single mansion can monopolise. That is the only pilgrimage worth making.
Ajadi Celebrates Juju Legend Femolancaster’s 50th Birthday in the UK
Nigerian Juju music legend, Otunba Femi Fadipe, popularly known as FemoLancaster, is being celebrated today in London as he clocks 50 years of age.
Ambassador Olufemi Ajadi Oguntoyinbo, a frontline politician and businessman, led tributes to the Ilesa-born maestro, describing him as a timeless cultural icon whose artistry has enriched both Nigeria and the world.
“FemoLancaster is not just a musician, he is a legend,” Ambassador Ajadi said in his birthday message. “For decades, his classical Juju sound has remained a reminder of the beauty of Yoruba heritage. Today, as he turns 50, I celebrate a cultural ambassador whose music bridges generations and continents.”
While FemoLancaster is highly dominant in Oyo State and across the South-West, his craft has also taken him beyond Nigeria’s borders.
FemoLancaster’s illustrious career has seen him thrill audiences across Nigeria and beyond, with performances in the United Kingdom, Canada, United States of America, and other parts of the world. His dedication to Juju music has projected Yoruba traditional sounds to international stages, keeping alive the legacy of icons like King Sunny Ade and Chief Ebenezer Obey while infusing fresh energy for younger audiences
He further stressed the significance of honoring artistes who have remained faithful to indigenous music while taking it global. “In an era where modern sounds often overshadow tradition, FemoLancaster stands as a beacon of continuity and resilience. He has carried Yoruba Juju music into the global space with dignity, passion, and excellence,” he added.
The golden jubilee celebration in London has drawn fans, friends, and colleagues, who all describe FemoLancaster as a gifted artist whose contributions over decades have earned him a revered place in the pantheon of Nigerian music legends.
“As FemoLancaster marks this milestone,” Ajadi concluded, “I wish him many more years of good health, wisdom, and global recognition. May his music continue to echo across generations and continents.”
celebrity radar - gossips
Gospel Songstress Esther Igbekele Marks Birthday with Gratitude and Celebration
Gospel Songstress Esther Igbekele Marks Birthday with Gratitude and Celebration
By Aderounmu Kazeem Lagos
Lagos, Nigeria — The gospel music scene is aglow today as the “Duchess of Gospel Music,” Esther Igbekele, marks another milestone in her life, celebrating her birthday on Saturday, August 16, 2025.
Known for her powerful voice, inspirational lyrics, and unwavering dedication to spreading the gospel through music, Esther Igbekele has become one of Nigeria’s most respected and beloved gospel artistes. Over the years, she has graced countless stages, released hit albums, and inspired audiences across the world with her uplifting songs.
Today’s celebration is expected to be a joyful blend of music, prayers, and heartfelt tributes from family, friends, fans, and fellow artistes. Sources close to the singer revealed that plans are in place for a special praise gathering in Lagos, where she will be joined by notable figures in the gospel industry, church leaders, and admirers from home and abroad.
Speaking ahead of the day, Igbekele expressed deep gratitude to God for His mercy and the opportunity to use her gift to touch lives. “Every birthday is a reminder of God’s faithfulness in my journey. I am thankful for life, for my fans, and for the privilege to keep ministering through music,” she said.
From her early beginnings in the Yoruba gospel music scene to her rise as a celebrated recording artiste with a unique fusion of contemporary and traditional sounds, Esther Igbekele’s career has been marked by consistency, excellence, and a strong message of hope.
As she adds another year today, her fans have flooded social media with messages of love, appreciation, and prayers — a testament to the profound impact she continues to make in the gospel music ministry.
For many, this birthday is not just a celebration of Esther Igbekele’s life, but also of the divine inspiration she brings to the Nigerian gospel music landscape.
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