Rotimi Amaechi, former governor of Rivers state and ex-minister of transportation, says standard of living in Nigeria has become worse under the administration of President Bola Tunubu.
Amaechi spoke on Tuesday during a protest against the
rejection of real-time transmission of election results at the national
assembly.
The demonstration, which is being led by civil society
groups and political figures, is calling for amendments to the Electoral Act,
particularly the inclusion of mandatory real-time electronic transmission of
election results ahead of the 2027 general election.
Addressing protesters and journalists at the venue, Amaechi,
who defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the African Democratic
Congress (ADC), criticised Tinubu’s administration for worsening economic
conditions and alleged corruption.
“Is life easier now than when I was in the APC? Life is
worse now than during the former President Buhari regime,” Amaechi said.
“In Buhari’s time, at least, even though we were planning to
remove subsidy, we had better plans for citizens.
“The corruption here is too much. They are stealing. I heard
there’s a $16 billion road project awarded without due process. I left APC
already and they will not win.”
“I don’t know whether there was corruption back then, but
the corruption here… let’s see if Tinubu will win again in 2027.”
The protests at the national assembly complex began on
Monday, with Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the
2023 election, leading one group of demonstrators.
On Wednesday, the senate retained the provision for the
electronic transfer of election results as contained in the electoral act 2022.
During the consideration of the bill, the red chamber also
rejected proposals for real-time results transmission and a 10-year ban on vote
buyers, opting instead to maintain existing sanctions of fines or jail terms.
However, some members of the upper chamber have clarified
that the bill enjoyed the backing of the majority in the senate.
Despite that widespread backing, the senate did not adopt
the real-time transmission of election results sought by some advocates.
Instead, it retained the existing wording from the 2022
electoral act, under which results are to be transferred “in a manner as
prescribed by the commission”.
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