Rotimi Amaechi, minister of
transportation, has fired yet another shot at former President Goodluck
Jonathan. This comes less than a week after
the minister said the time to stop blaming Jonathan had come.
Speaking with NAN in Lagos,
Amaechi said former President Olusegun Obasanjo left $65 billion in the excess
crude account but it was frittered away.
WHAT IS EXCESS CRUDE ACCOUNT?
Amaechi said the wastage in the
PDP era was alarming.
“When Obasanjo was leaving, he
left about 65 billion dollars in the excess crude account, but this money was
frittered away and we wonder where the money is,” he said.
“As at then, the price of crude
oil during the President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration hovered around 140
dollars with this, they did not leave anything for the incoming government.
“With that kind of money, we
should be thinking of connecting Nigeria through rail system. The rail between
Ibadan to Kano would have been completed.
“Also the rail gauge between Port
Harcourt to Maiduguri and Lagos to Calabar, but all the excess crude money was
frittered away, we need to ask questions.”
Amaechi said his pursuit for
change made him to leave the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the All
Progressives Congress (APC).
He added that he would have used
his position as the then chairman of PDP governors’ forum to fight the
situation but he felt there was a need to cross over to APC because of his
belief in President Muhammadu Buhari.
“I moved from PDP to APC because
I am tired of what is happening in the party, I have the option to stay because
of my position as the chairman of the governors then,” he said.
“I can use my position to fight
them (PDP) and get what I want because I believe Nigeria was not going in the
right direction by then.
“My attention and belief shifted
to Buhari which was the viable alternative, I believe in the change mantra
because it is the only way to improve on what is on ground.
“He has not disappointed because
the economy is now back on track and is growing. This is evident in the current
prices of food items because it’s getting lower.”
Amaechi said that prices of food
would further crash because of the efforts of the government at making the
country self-sufficient in food production.
“With the change going on, the
price will further crash because before this government came in, the price were
soaring because we were importing food items, things we can grow here,” he
said.
“Now the policy of government is
working which banned the importation of rice, the price is now about N16,000,
but before now, we are importing about
N3 billion worth of rice.
“Before now too, we were
importing another N3 billion worth of poultry products, we are importing
tomatoes but with the ban, we are now concentrating on our local production.
“Many states in the northern part
of the country are now growing rice in large quantities though by right, the
south-south geo-political zone should be doing that because they are the ones
in the swampy area.”
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Amaechi said the wastage in the PDP era was alarming.
ReplyDeleteQuestion:Where you part of the PDP ERA??
Youths are getting wise by the day. One day they will burn all of you to ash the way Ghana did,i think after then, we will have good leaders. Authority stealing is worst than armed robbery