AMAECHI JOINS PRESIDENTIAL RACE

Minister of Transport, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, has joined the 2023 presidential race.

While Amaechi has yet to make a formal declaration of his presidential bid, THISDAY at the weekend sighted a brochure prepared to sell This candidacy to Nigerians.

Ameachi, a former governor of oil rich Rivers State in southern Nigeria, has been rumoured to be nursing ambition to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari, in whose government he has been serving for almost seven years as transport minister.

In line with the power zoning arrangement, agreed among political leaders since 1999, which rotates power between North and South, the presidential ticket of the ruling APC will move to South, as President Buhari who is serving his second term hails from the North.

The 86-page brochure filled Qualified to serve, has on its cover a quote from Amaecht: "I believe that the desting of Nigeria can only be best actualized in the context of one indivisible and united nation. What is required is for us to continue to work towards a nation in which doors of opportunity are open to all our citizens irrespective of ethnicity, creed, class or circumstance.

On the back page of the brochure is another quote from the minister. "We must give meaning to democracy so that every Nigerian can find a place and a voice in a land of free men and women. We must deploy our diversity to increase our strength. We must make our streets and highways, and now forests and farmlands, sale again for all Nigerians to fulfill their individual dreams of a good life so that, together, we can actualize the manifest destiny of this blessed land."

Also in the brochure are photographs of the minister in different Nigerian attires, a picture of him and his wife, photographs with president Buhari on various occasions, photos with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, General Overseer of the RCCG, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, and photos of the minister with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who is also reported to be aspiring to succeed Buhari.