One of the leading presidential aspirants on the platform of the opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC), Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, has expressed his willingness to abolish the principle of federal character and indigenship and replace it with citizenship if he becomes President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
He stated this on Wednesday while fielding questions from journalists after being screened by the party’s presidential screening committee.
The former governor of Rivers State spoke on the matter while urging Nigerians to choose the next president based on records of performance at previous positions held, instead of place of origin.
Amaechi, while making a concluding statement on his response to a question on his plan for the youth, said, “Assess us by what we’ve done and reach a conclusion rather than hearing I am from North. I’m from South. I am from East. I am not from South, East or West. I am a Nigerian. If I become president, I will not bring indigeneship. There will be citizenship. You are first and foremost citizen of Nigeria. All these I am West, I’m North, I’m East, and you are calling people to vote for you based on religion.”
Following this remark, another reporter asked him whether he would abolish federal character based on the statement.
Thereafter, Amaechi said, “There will be no federal character. A very good Nigerian will be a member of the Federation. Federal character is there because the system is unfair. So, it is one way to manage the system. Let me give you an example. If everyone is employed, would that be armed robbers? I used to say it in Port Harcourt. I say If all us are working in Shell, will you have time to rob? This is because by 6am, you are at work, 6pm, you have closed from work. You are too tired to wake up to carry a gun. The reason why you are seeing people carrying guns to kidnap people is because the system is bad.”
The former Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly reiterated his position of not accepting to be the running mate to any presidential candidate.
When asked if he truly said that he did not collect a nomination form for president to be anybody’s vice, Amaechi said, “I don’t want to be vice. Simple. I didn’t speak Igbo, Ikwerre, or Hausa. I spoke English.”
On whether he would abide by the decision of the party on a consensus candidate, he said, “You said the party, I am a member of the party now. If that’s the party decision, once it is a process that all of participate in.”
On his assessment of the screening exercise, he said, “I assume it was successful. That is my assumption because I have been governor before. I don’t know what I would have done that would make them disqualify me. I assume it was successful.”
When probed further to give an insight about the screening exercise, he said, “Nothing much, I said I have been governor before. The requirements for governorship are almost same requirements for the presidency.”
Amaechi cited his successes in the education and health sectors while serving as governor of Rivers State as good examples to show that he would uplift Nigerian youth.
When asked about what he had mapped out for Nigerian youth, he said, “I thought you said I am a youth. I’m 60. You should be asking what you you have for us? It is not what you have in mind for the youth but what you have in mind for Nigerians. Look at education, Nigeria has virtually divided education into two, for the rich and the poor. The rich go to private schools, the poor go to public schools. Again, I always say let’s make this a referendum. All of us have been part of it. We have held one position or the other. Let’s go back to positions where we served and assess us by that. I was governor of Rivers State and I rebuilt education to standard such that people were leaving from private schools to government schools. You can ask. I’m ready to sponsor people to go to Rivers State and ask.
“We built health infrastructure and employed 400 doctors. We add 200 to make it 600. And then, we pursued free healthcare. Free healthcare does not mean that government won’t pay. The doctors were told to see you, assess you, and charge government.
“At the end of the month, it is the government that has to pay the money to the government hospitals. And on primary healthcare, we have primary healthcare centre in every village. And every primary health care has a doctor and two nurses. So, we pay the money to the primary healthcare based on the number of patients. And then, we use that money to run the health centres.”