Bestselling author and former Presidential spokesman, Reno Omokri, has released an alleged new leaked audio of the Director General of the Muhammadu Buhari Campaign Organisation, Rotimi Amaechi, which contradicted claims by the Presidency that the audio is from 2014.
In the first leaked audio by Mr. Omokri, Mr. Amaechi can be heard saying, “the president does not listen to anybody. He doesn’t care. You can write what you want to write. Does he read?”
Bombshell: Listen and Share as the DG of the @MBuhari campaign @ChibuikeAmaechi, destroys Buhari. “The President does not listen to anybody. Does he even read”-Rotimi Amaechi. LISTEN and Retweet #RenosDarts pic.twitter.com/3VKFzr8LPC — Reno Omokri (@renoomokri) 4 January 2019
Hours after the video leaked, it led to a social media storm which caused the Presidency to react by saying that the audio is old and from 2014, in a tweet by presidential assistant, Tolu Ogunlesi.
But in the extended audio released by Mr. Omokri (Sunday, January 6, 2019), it claimed Mr. Amaechi can be heard mentioning President Buhari’s name. In the tweet, the DG of the Buhari campaign said “the president does not listen to anybody. He doesn’t care. You can write what you want to write. Does he read? I was flying with him in the aircraft and we saw a news report where a goat seller was complaining that he couldn’t sell his goats during Sallah because of Buhari’s administration. And the president said what is my business with Onitsha goat sellers?”
Yesterday, I set up the @NGRPresident. I knew if I released the full #AmaechiTapes, they’d say it was fake. Now that @ToluOgunlesi admitted it is actually Amaechi, but from 2014, here is the rest of Part 1 proving that @AsoRock lied. Part 2 is coming shortly. Listen and Share pic.twitter.com/e3WiSyPIdX
— Reno Omokri (@renoomokri) 6 January 2019
The leaked audio is sending shockwaves around the country with Mr. Amaechi maintaining a stoic silence ever since the audio first surfaced.
This is even as Twitter trends have confirmed that the #AmaechiTapes were the number one trending topic in Nigeria yesterday (Saturday January 5, 2019).
Meanwhile, River State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike has mocked the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, over the alleged leaked tapes released last Friday.
Amaechi, who is also the Director-General of the Buhari Presidential Campaign Organisation, was allegedly caught on tape criticising Buhari and lamenting the rising rate of poverty in the country.
In a series of tweets yesterday, Wike said the alleged audio leaks showed that Amaechi supports Buhari for monetary gains, describing him as “a hypocrite.”
Wike tweeted, “It is only a greedy man that supports a world renowned failure because of monetary gains.
“I have known Amaechi from day one and greed has separated him from everyone he was once close to. The leaked tapes say it all.”
According to an audio released by Phrank Shaibu, an aide of Atiku Abubakar, who is the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Amaechi allegedly railed at Buhari in a conversation with some journalists.
In the clip Amaechi, purportedly said Buhari neither reads nor listens to anyone.
Sources told newsmen that Amaechi allegedly made the comments at a meeting with journalists in Minna over a year ago.
It was further alleged that some persons had been using the audio clip to blackmail the Minister of Transportation for some time.
In one of the clips, Amaechi speaking said, “The President is not listening to anybody. He doesn’t care. You can write anything you want. The President doesn’t care. Does he read?”
In another part of the audio, Amaechi threatened to bar journalists from events if the audio is leaked.
He said, “These are not things you publish oh! If you publish them, you will never sit with me any day.
“Three years of Buhari, oh, everybody is crying, crying… pressmen are crying, farmers are crying, workers are crying, politicians are crying, students are crying, three years oh!
“The rate of poverty is very high. The people are hungry. Nigeria will divide!”
In another part of the clip, Amaechi was heard saying there would be a university in his village after the plans to build one in Daura, hometown of President Muhammadu Buhari in Katsina State, has been concluded.
His voice was heard saying, “This country can never change, I swear. The only way this country can change is in a situation where everybody is killed.
“This country is going nowhere. When Magnus (Abe) was Secretary to the Rivers State Government, I told him that this country is hopeless and helpless and he told me, ‘Oga, stop it’. This cannot be coming from a governor.
“But two months in Abuja, Magnus came to meet me and said, I agree with you; this country is hopeless and helpless. All they do in Abuja is to share money.
“I have already written to the governor of Katsina State and I don’t know why he has not replied to give us the land in Daura for a university in Daura.
“The next university would be in my village. There is a popular saying while we were growing up, that charity begins at home. Will my own begin abroad?”
Amaechi has refused to comment on the matter since the audio leaked last Friday.
The transcript of the recording reads: “These are not things you publish ooo. If you publish them, you will never sit with me any day.
Government’s own official information shows Mr Buhari has presided over a worsening national job situation, with the unemployment rate standing at 23.1 per cent by the third quarter of 2018 up from 18.8 per cent per cent by the end of 2017. However, government officials argue jobs are not dropping but that it is the number of people entering the working age bracket that By 2018, Nigeria has overtaken China and is only behind India, arguably, with the highest number of extremely poor people within one national territory.
In an earlier recording also shared by the Atiku campaign, Mr Amaechi appeared to be describing Mr Buhari as a leader that does not listen and care.
According to the recording: “The president does not listen to anybody. He doesn’t care. You can write what you want to write. The president doesn’t care. Does he read? He will read, he will laugh. He will say ‘come, come and see, they are abusing me here’. “In fact, there was one case of somebody in Onitsha, a trader in Onitsha who couldn’t sell his goats during Sallah. And I was with Oga on the plane and the man was busy abusing Buhari. He said, ‘Amaechi, come, what is my business with Onitsha goat seller?’”
When contacted, David Iyofor, the spokesperson for Mr Amaechi, said the minister’s team was still reviewing the recording and needed more time to do so before commenting on the matter.
Meanwhile, Mr Shaibu said the leaked tape has shown that even the president’s appointees lacked confidence in his ability to transform the country.
He said, “The President should just quit honourably instead of wasting taxpayers monies on a failed reelection bid. “The truth is that the other day, the President confessed that the economy had collapsed under his watch.
“On another occasion, the wife confessed to the fact that, the cabal and not her dearest husband, President Buhari was in-charge of the country and now, the Director General Of his re-election campaign has confessed to the lack of capacity of President Buhari and the dismal failure of his administration. “Truth is, the President has established a record of failures which probably no other President would ever equal or erase. Mrs Aishat Buhari was partially correct when she stated that two people are preventing her husband from performing well. With this audio tape, if the two don’t include her husband then she is not completely being truthful.”
It is not the first time a minister would appear to be expressing no confidence in the leadership of Mr Buhari in a leaked recording.
Former minister for women affairs, Aisha Alhassan, was in a recording – which he admitted – saying she preferred Mr Abubakar to Mr Buhari as president from 2019.
Also, the immediate past governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, has said that the revelation by Nigeria’s transport minister, Rotimi Amaechi, about the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, shows that the President is a bad product.
Amaech was heard in an audio recording to be expressing shocking pessimistic views about Nigeria and the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, whose re-election bid he leads.
Reacting, Fayose said: “When a marketer tells you the product he is marketing is bad and those who used it in the last three and half years are suffering the consequences, what reasonable minds do is to run away from such product. Amaechi, the Chief Marketer of President Buhari has said it all.”
When a marketer tells you the product he is marketing is bad and those who used it in the last three and half years are suffering the consequences, what reasonable minds do is to run away from such product.
Amaechi, the Chief Marketer of President Buhari has said it all.
— Peter Ayodele Fayose (@GovAyoFayose) January 6, 2019