TheCable

Chibuike Amaechi, governor of Rivers state and director-general of the Buhari Campaign Organisation, says he will continue to support the soldiers sentenced to death for mutiny because the soldiers acted within their rights by protesting against the authorities who refused to adequately equip them.

Speaking on Tuesday during an interactive session with journalists at Eko Hotels, Lagos, Amaechi, identified the challenge of the Nigerian military as corruption, not funding.

“The soldiers have the right to protest for the federal government’s failure to fully equip them. You want to kill 50 military officers who are saying, ‘please equip us properly, I can’t go to the battlefront without the right weapon.

“Now you are sending him to fight a man with RPG and you gave him an old AK47. He says you are risking his life. They have a right to protest that. You don’t kill them for that.”

Amaechi, who said a leader in the mold of Muhammadu Buhari, the party’s flag bearer, is required for the development of the country, also dismissed reports that he was funding the APC campaign with Rivers state funds.

“Those making the allegations that I am funding Buhari campaign are enemies of democracy. Anybody who said we spent money should come out with evidence,” he said.

“We have maintained consistently that Nigerians would fund us and that is why we have launched in our campaign meeting a fundraiser and we will ensure that we will convince Buhari to be the only signatory to that account.

“We can’t fight the president on funds. See how much he raised from those who collected the N2.3trillion on oil subsidy and they have to pay back if he is not prosecuting them on oil subsidy.

“We will fight the president with the people of Nigeria who need change. The symbol of change for our party is General Buhari and the APC. Buhari did not pay any delegate any money to win the primary.”

He said that after his appointment as the DG, attempts were made to  tarnish his image by saying he had not paid eight months salary, but it was not true.

“As I am speaking with you now, I want to tell you that we did not owe workers eight months salary. Is it possible for you to be owed eight months salary and you still be working? What logic is there? I have directed that salary should be paid and they have started since yesterday (Monday) and hopefully, it will end today.

“I got a call today that civil servants are happy that they are going home to celebrate Christmas with their salaries.This was what we agreed on in the cabinet that everybody should go on with their salaries, because I know that today and tomorrow, Christians will want to go to shop for the festival.”

He accused the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan of performing far below expectation, saying the country is really yearning for a change.

“You have seen Buhari as head of state for two years and Jonathan as head of state for six years, so who do you want to choose? You want to choose a man who has brought tears? Just yesterday, we lost so many people to Boko Haram. Or you want a man that chased away the Maitatsine or Chadian rebels?

“We need to chase Boko Haram or Boko Haram would chase us. When he was an officer, Borno was attacked by the Chadian rebels but Buhari chased them away. It takes a strong leader to do that. We need such a person.”

He further accused the present administration of corruption, saying the APC presidential candidate would transform the country massively if elected.

“The federal government has not been able to handle insurgency because of corruption,” he said.

“The country is broke because of the diversion of funds at NNPC. The president sacked the then governor of Central Bank governor because he exposed the missing $20 billion dollars.

“This is affecting everybody, including me. The way to deal with this is to fight corruption. When you fight corruption, the money goes back into the system.

“The treasury appears being empty. They have stolen all the money. I tackled the minister of finance that we are broke and she came out on air and said ‘We dey kampe’. Later, she came to re-base the economy and shortly after she came up with austerity measures. You see the contradiction?.”

He revealed that APC would commence campaign in early 2015, and all states of the federation would be covered.

“I believe that we would commence campaign in the early part of next year and we will take the campaign to all the 36 states of the federation. We hope Nigerians will hear the message and the message is simple: Buhari.

“We would deal with the problem of power because if you if you do not deal with power, you certainly cannot deal with unemployment.

“I am happy that the president claimed to have crushed poverty but believe me when I go back I still see the people I left behind wallowing in poverty. We don’t have the middle class again in the country.

“I am assuring you that once you elect Buhari into office , he would solve insurgency. It is poverty that makes people to go and register in Boko Haram. Buhari will deal with unemployment. He will deal with the problem of agriculture and agriculture will take care of unskilled labour.”