By Mick Oseji, Asaba
Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide, has slammed former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, for backtracking on his Igbo identity.
The Daily Crucible reports that Amaechi had in a recent comment disavowed his Igbo identity, declaring that his earlier claim of being Igbo was merely a political correctness.
The Daily Crucible further reports that while speaking to a crowd of supporters at the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign in Aba, Abia State, in 2015, Amaechi enthusiastically blurted out, “I am a bona fide Igbo man. My name is Amaechi, but President Jonathan, who says his name is Azikiwe, cannot speak the Igbo language.”
However, 10 years after, he swallowed his assertion in an interview on Arise Television’s Prime Time on Tuesday, dismissing the earlier statement and declaring he is an Ikwerre man from Rivers State.
Amaechi said he elected to identify as Igbo at the time out of sympathy and to nudge Nigerians address the cries of marginalization of the Southeast geopolitical zone.
However, responding to the remark on Friday, the National President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide, Okwu Nnabuike, in a statement made available to newsmen on Friday, said the comments clearly showed that Amaechi is in the league of Nigerian politicians bereft of character.
Nnabuike said it was regrettable that someone who currently parades himself as a lover of Nigerians and an advocate for the masses could put on such a public show of shame.
He further urged Nigerians, and politicians, especially the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party(LP), Gregory Peter Obi, to beware of any association with Amaechi.
The leader of the youth wing of Igbo apex sociocultural organisation also urged everyone, identifying with the coalition involving Amaechi ahead of the 2027 election, to beware of him, stressing they have seen he has no capacity as stated by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike.
He said, “We were shocked to the marrow to listen to Rotimi Amaechi make such a U-turn on national television.
“This is the same man who accused former President Goodluck Jonathan of not being an Igbo man, simply because he (Amaechi) needed the votes of Ndigbo for his party, the APC, in 2015.
“Fast forward to 2025, the same man, 10 years later, has now told Nigerians that he lied to them.
“What this clearly shows is that Amaechi is a man who can do anything for politics; who can say anything just to get what he wants politically.
“How can we explain the fact that someone who personally declared that he is an Igbo man 10 years ago, now shamelessly tells the whole world that he did that all for politics.
“What this clearly shows is that he is in the league of politicians who have no character, who believe that all is fair in politics.
“Particularly, we advise Mr Peter Obi to be wary of such a man. He should not be seen to be associating with a man who is making a caricature of Ndigbo.
“Such a person is not to be trusted and we now see why Nyesom Wike clearly said that Amaechi has no capacity.
“How can such a man have capacity when he is living a life of treachery, when he is telling lies to get what he wants.
“However we want to make it clear to Amaechi and his likes that Ndigbo are not looking for people like him. We know genuine Igbo men and women when we see them, and we have a handful of them.
“We are waiting for Amaechi in 2027 when he will come to any state in the South-East to open his lies-filled mouth. He will hear from us at the appropriate time, because we know he shall surely need Ndigbo again. We have had enough from people like him and we say never again.”
