Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation, has expressed
admiration for President Muhammadu Buhari, saying he wished he had his level of
self-control.
According to him, not many leaders can resist the urge to
regularly respond to negative criticism as Buhari.
He said this in an interview with The Punch, during which he
said his role models in politics are Peter Odili, Rufus Ada-George and Buhari.
“(I admire) the discipline of Muhammadu Buhari. I wish I was
that disciplined. People think it is easy to be disciplined but it’s not. If
you want to know what discipline is, try to stay hungry for one month. I’m not
talking about fasting. Or imagine someone craving chocolate (or any other
thing) and not taking it, even if it is right in front of you,” he said.
“President (Major General) Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) is so
disciplined that he is able to resist temptation to reply his critics when they
abuse him.
“Also, I admire his love for the country. That trait can
also be found in (former President Olusegun) Obasanjo. They have fierce love
for the country. However, the difference between both men is that Obasanjo
thinks his idea of growth for the country is better than anybody else’s own.
But there can always be alternatives. And maybe Buhari’s own could be another
one.”
He also spoke of his experience as a politician, saying he
had reservations about his son becoming active in politics because of the way
it is played in Nigeria.
“Nigerian politics is not something one would want one’s
child to go into because there are no rules. One can be easily destroyed. One
must have the grace to survive. I don’t know if he has that grace (and I’m not
talking about tact or sagacity) to survive because it is a man-eat-man world,”
he said.
“You can see what is going on in Rivers State now – young
men, who God used one to help rise in politics are now turning against one. If
God wasn’t by my side, I may not have been standing till now.
“There is a lot of betrayal and I don’t know if he can
survive that because he literally grew up in Europe. One has to be a hard man
to survive the betrayals in Nigerian politics.
“Imagine someone you used to sleep on the same bed with and
have given both financial and political assistance to selling you out because
of his ambition. One of them said he helped make me! Meanwhile, when we were in
court, he wasn’t there with us; he ran away. Meanwhile, these are men that used
to literally prostrate themselves on the floor for me. But because I’m a simple
man, I always told them not to do all that. I told them they should only do
that for God and not for people like us. So I ask myself, can my son withstand
these intrigues?”
When asked to comment on the recent demolition of hotels by
Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers state, Amaechi said he would prefer to “remain
quiet and focus on transportation”.
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