Living standard worse under Tinubu’s administration, says Amaechi

Rotimi Amaechi, former governor of Rivers state andex-minister of transportation, says standard of living in Nigeria has becomeworse under the administration of President Bola Tunubu. Amaechi spoke on Tuesday during a protest against therejection of real-time transmission of election results at the nationalassembly. The demonstration, which is being led by civil societygroups and political figures, is calling for amendments to the Electoral Act,particularly the inclusion of mandatory real-time electronic transmission ofelection 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 DemocraticCongress (ADC), criticised Tinubu’s administration for worsening economicconditions and alleged corruption. “Is life easier now than when I was in the APC? Life isworse now than during the former President Buhari regime,” Amaechi said. “In Buhari’s time, at least, even though we were planning toremove subsidy, we had better plans for citizens. “The corruption here is too much. They are stealing. I heardthere’s a $16 billion road project awarded without due process. I left APCalready and they will not win.” “I don’t know whether there was corruption back then, butthe corruption here... let’s see if Tinubu will win again in 2027.” The protests at the national assembly complex began onMonday, with Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the2023 election, leading one group of demonstrators. On Wednesday, the senate retained the provision for theelectronic transfer of election results as contained in the electoral act 2022. During the consideration of the bill, the red chamber alsorejected proposals for real-time results transmission and a 10-year ban on votebuyers, opting instead to maintain existing sanctions of fines or jail terms. However, some members of the upper chamber have clarifiedthat the bill enjoyed the backing of the majority in the senate. Despite that widespread backing, the senate did not adoptthe real-time transmission of election results sought by some advocates. Instead, it retained the existing wording from the 2022electoral act, under which results are to be transferred “in a manner asprescribed by the commission”.

Read More