Amaechi Tells Edo Voters Not to Back Tinubu in 2027 Election

Rotimi Amaechi, who is the Vice-Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress for the 2027 elections, had strong words for President Bola Tinubu on Thursday. He told people not to vote for Tinubu in next year's election.

Amaechi made this statement during the ADC town hall meeting in Benin, Edo State. The meeting brought together party leaders, candidates, supporters, and other guests to share their plans for Edo State and Nigeria as the elections approach.

The former Governor of Rivers State claimed that only thieves would support Tinubu. He said, “They are going about saying, vote Tinubu, vote Tinubu; only thieves will vote for Tinubu. In fact, I read on social media that it is in 2027 that we will know how many mad men we have in Nigeria because it is only a mad man that can vote for Tinubu.

“If Edo people vote for Tinubu, that means Edo people are mad. If you are not mad, Tinubu should not win here.”

Peter Uwadiae-Igbinigie, the Publicity Secretary of the Edo APC, responded to Amaechi's comments in a phone interview on Thursday. He said Amaechi is free to express his opinion but that it is the Edo people who will determine their sanity. He called Amaechi's statement trivial.

He said, “It’s not all statements that we must react to. If he likes, let him say that Edo people are mad. It’s Edo people that will know whether they are mad or not. It’s not all statements that we must react to, honestly. It is not every senseless statement they make that we must react to. Left for me, Edo people are not mad. Edo people are learned; they are very seasoned people who know the choices they make during elections.

“They have never made any wrong choice. They voted for Governor Monday Okpebholo, and that is to tell you the level of sophistication in terms of knowledge of the Edo people. They have been able to separate the grain from the chaff. ADC is a party that is made up of the chaff. We are a very seasoned set of people. Edo people have come to like the APC as a party and the people that make up the APC. Nobody in Edo you speak to will tell you that he does not like what Tinubu is doing.

“The kind of reforms that the federal government has carried out, coupled with the level of infrastructural development in Edo today, those ones are enough to show how sophisticated Tinubu is in terms of political sagacity. So, the man himself is an Iroko. And how can people leave an Iroko to go and vote for grass? ADC is made up of grass. We are made up of people of proven integrity, men who have tasted power, who have used power to change the lives of people in the country.

“So, Edo people are not mad. It’s the ADC people, selectively, who are mad because their sight has been affected by their level of political knowledge. They are no longer in tune with what is going on in Edo. Check the people who are their leaders. They are spent forces within the political arena.

“Edo people will massively vote for Tinubu, and we have promised him 2.5 million votes in Edo, and it is realizable. The people are happy that Okpebholo is developing Edo, and the only way they can say thank you is to vote for Tinubu because they know that the resources that we are using in Edo are coming from the federal government.