4th August, 2015
Former governor or Rivers state, Rt Hon. Rotimi Amaechi has stated that under the government of Goodluck Jonathan the money for fuel subsidy rose from N300 billion to a staggering N1.9 trillion, noting that, the administration was going to milk Nigeria dry.
“The fuel subsidy was N300 billion under former President Olusegun Obasanjo and it remained the same under President Umaru Yar’Adua.
“Within six months under President Goodluck Jonathan, the fuel subsidy rose from N300 billion to N1.9 trillion,” he said in Abuja on Monday at a reception organised for him by the Committee of Friends at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.
He said he fell out with Jonathan because he wanted more money. “Yet, Jonathan wanted more money for fuel subsidy. This prompted the trouble between me and the Jonathan administration,” he explained.
Amaechi noted that the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in this year’s general elections was engineered by God.
He said God engineered the victory by giving the APC a good and credible presidential candidate, which enabled the party to win the last election.
He thanked all members of the party for working hard during the campaign, saying that the victory was for all party members.
“Gov. Amaechi did not contribute more than you did. We all worked together; in fact, it will be unfair for us to claim the glory.
“This is because I believe that the victory of APC was engineered by God.
“And I saw it coming and told my friends that we would win. People thought I was a political mathematician.
“The more I prayed, the more God gave me the confidence that we would win.
“One of my prayer points was; ‘God, do not tell me you will protect me after we lose; protect me now by making sure that we win’; and we won.”
Amaechi, however, stressed that APC must deliver, as the citizens would hold it accountable in 2019.
“We will not disappoint Nigerians. We believe APC governors are progressives and therefore, they cannot afford not to deliver.”
The former governor said that the struggle had been quite challenging since he joined APC, adding that the state’s allocation from the Federation Account had reduced grossly.
“From 2013, we were receiving N6 billion; by the time I left office, our wage bill monthly was N9.2 billion.”
Amaechi recalled that when the state was receiving about N20 billion monthly, he employed more teachers for the university, college of education, polytechnics as well as secondary and primary schools.
He said that the increased wage bill of N9.2 billion was because more people were employed in the state.