How Amaechi gave Tinubu a taste of his own medicine — Soyinka
By Jeffrey Agbo
Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has praised former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, for his boldness during the 2022 presidential primary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), where he refused to step down for now-President Bola Tinubu.
Speaking on Saturday in Abuja at an event marking Amaechi’s 60th birthday, Soyinka said he admired Amaechi’s unwavering spirit, particularly during the heated primary contest.
Amaechi, a two-term governor of Rivers State (2007–2015), came second in the APC primary, trailing Tinubu.
Tinubu secured the APC presidential ticket with 1,271 votes. Amaechi got 316 votes, while then-Vice President Yemi Osinbajo finished third with 235 votes.
“The main reason why I had to be here today — it’s first of all that I admire Rotimi Amaechi’s fighting spirit,” Soyinka said.
“And it’s a very consistent one, but the most memorable for me, because I watched this event live on TV from Abu Dhabi. I wanted to see the drama of all the primaries going on during the election. I wasn’t here, but I said I wanted to watch this contest, and I’m glad I did.”
Soyinka described the moment as deeply satisfying, saying it felt like Tinubu was given “a dose of his own medicine.”
He recalled how Tinubu, during the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency, stood alone in resisting efforts to amend the constitution for a third term — a stance Soyinka respected. But, he added, it was ironic and fitting that during the APC primary, Tinubu himself faced a similar kind of resistance.
“Let me explain this. For somebody we knew as the last man standing when he fought to a standstill, a former president who was manoeuvring himself into a position of changing the constitution and obtaining a third term,” the literary icon said.
“He keeps denying it, but he and I know for a fact, and so do others. And towards that goal, he was sort of emasculating the powers of the constituent elements of the federation.
“And by the end, this president was the last man standing and resisted that effort. All the others had sort of cowed down because their statutory allocation had been stopped, contrary to the Constitution.
“But one man — he was the last man standing. Well, he obtained a dose of his own medicine from Rotimi Amaechi during the primaries. I enjoyed that very much.”
Soyinka lauded Amaechi for not bowing to pressure when others were withdrawing from the race.
“While everybody was, you know, falling over one another conceding, there was one individual who got on the podium and he said ‘No, I’m not conceding. I didn’t come all the way here to commit ‘lúlẹ̀’.’ And that man was Rotimi Amaechi. And I said this is what democracy is all about,” he said.
