By Samuel Okechukwu,
Former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, has cleared the air on the meeting with the then opposition figures, held with American officials, saying it was only to press for a free and fair election.
The context of his statement is a defense against accusations, particularly from certain political figures, that he and other opposition figures had lobbied foreign powers to paint the Goodluck Jonathan administration in a bad light by exaggerating the security situation.
But speaking at the National Conference of Editors, in Abuja, yesterday, the former governor, who was a key figure in the administration of late President Muhammadu Buhari, said there were no such discussions between them and the Americans.
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Amaechi was accused of joining other opposition figures (during the lead-up to the 2015 general elections) in lobbying American officials and other international bodies to intervene in Nigerian affairs, specifically by labeling the mass killings in parts of Nigeria as “genocide” or a “Christian genocide,” thereby undermining the then-government.
Amaechi denied that the discussion was an attempt to influence foreign policy towards the Nigerian government negatively.
“There have been talks about some clandestine meetings in America. No, there was no meeting in America like that. There was absolutely no meeting in America like that. There was just one meeting, and we were invited to the meeting and the discussion. The question was from the Americans -look, we don’t want violence in this election and we should have trust that there would be no violence.”
He clarified that the meeting with American officials was solely intended to press for a free and fair election in 2015. He asserted that the opposition’s primary goal was to ensure that the electoral process was transparent and credible, believing that was the core solution to Nigeria’s rising security and political instability.
Amaechi’s defense is that his concern was fundamentally about democracy and process, not about fabricating or exaggerating the violence to attract foreign sanctions or specific “genocide” declarations.
Broader Context of “Genocide” Claims in Nigeria
Amaechi’s statement touches on a long-standing, sensitive issue in Nigeria’s political and security landscape:
There is an ongoing, heated debate within Nigeria and internationally about whether the killings perpetrated by various terror groups (like Boko Haram, bandits, and militias) in regions like the Northeast and the Middle Belt constitute genocide (a term with a specific legal definition under international law).
Nigerian governments, both past and present, have consistently rejected the categorization of the violence as “genocide” or “Christian genocide,” arguing that the attacks are driven by criminality and extremism and target people of all faiths, including Muslims.
The President Donald Trump and several international Christian bodies have, at various times, publicly characterized the persistent mass killings of Christians in parts of Nigeria as genocide, leading to diplomatic friction and prompting Nigerian officials to actively lobby against such a designation.
Amaechi’s statement essentially places his actions within the context of political advocacy for democratic fairness rather than an alleged bid to label his country’s internal conflict as a crime against humanity to gain political leverage.
He said, “I have friends who are editors. I said, are these not the same people that fought with us when we were fighting? They say they are. I said, so what has changed in journalism because they’re no longer fighting, and jokingly, I said that I think there was a difference between journalists under the military and journalists in a democracy
“This thing should not continue. We played a major role before the military was chased out.
“The politicians came. Are you satisfied with the politicians? Are you okay? I have friends in the media. I told my friends the reason for their silence is that the pot is bigger. The pot under the military was smaller, and the military alone was enjoying it.
“The portions became smaller and we needed to expand the pot. If not, compared to the military, are you better off now than that time?
“Please forgive me. I think another reasons, apart from the pot being large is ethnicity which has gone into politics and into what is called journalism.
“As journalists, nobody wants to write against their brother. Everybody’s enjoying, even if your brother is bad. I made a statement, I said Nigerians don’t hate bad government, is just that the bad president is from another part of the country.
“But if the bad president is from your area, he’s a wonderful man; he’s trying his best. We must, as a people, as Nigerians, agree to chase a government that is bad out of government through legitimate means of election.
“Nigeria should be a country where anybody who comes from any part of Nigeria can survive in any part of Nigeria that he goes to.
“That’s when we will become a country- when I can go to Lagos and survive in Lagos, when you can buy land in Port-Harcourt and survive in Port-Harcourt.
“Government is complaining about insecurity.You know the cause of insecurity. If you provide the people with poverty, if you don’t provide them with legitimate means of livelihood, they will provide for themselves an illegitimate means of livelihood.”
“The reason why Nigeria is like this is that they have denied the ordinary citizens the right to survive. So, if you refuse to create a legitimate means of livelihood for the citizens, they will create for themselves an illegitimate means of livelihood.”
“As journalists nobody wants to write against his brother. Everybody’s enjoying even if your brother is bad. I made a statement, I said Nigerians don’t hate bad government-this is just that the bad president is from another part of the country. If the bad president is from your area, he’s a wonderful man he’s trying his best.
“It’s like these people who were collecting money in the last election- five thousand two thousand. After five thousand you cook a pot of soup. Election is over, there is no more money and you start crying.
“We must as a people, as Nigerians agree to chase a government that is bad out of government through legitimate means of election.
“Nigeria should be a country where anybody who come from any part of Nigeria, can survive in any part of Nigeria that he goes to.
“That’s when we will become a country- when i can go to Lagos and survive in lagos when you can buy land in Port-Harcourt and survive in Port-Harcourt.
“Government is complaining about insecurity. You know the cause of insecurity if you provide the people with poverty if you don’t provide them with legitimate means of livelihood they will provide for themselves illegitimate means of livelihood
“The reason why Nigeria is like this is that they have denied the ordinary citizens the right to survive. So if you refuse to create legitimate means of livelihood for the citizens they will create for themselves illegitimate means of livelihood and those two of them are economy.”
Credit: Vanguard
