AMAECHI CAST DOWN OSHIOMHOLE OVER MISGUIDED COMMENTS ON NATIONAL TV
If Oshiomhole Had Any Shame, He Would Keep Quiet
…CRA ’27 Advocacy Network Response to Adams Oshiomhole’s Remarks on Channels TV
The CRA ’27 Advocacy Network has reviewed the comments made by Senator Adams Oshiomhole on Channels TV’s Politics Today, where he attempted to disparage H.E. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi. What Nigerians witnessed was not informed analysis, but a mixture of personal bitterness and revisionist storytelling. When a man leaves public office without institutional legacy, meaningful reform, or enduring public value, restraint and humility should guide his contributions to national discourse.
It is important to set the record straight. As Governor of Rivers State, Amaechi did not just occupy office, he transformed it. He established Nigeria’s earliest integrated surveillance and rapid-response security architectures, dramatically reducing kidnapping and violent crime. His education reforms included building over 500 modern schools, employing 13,000 teachers, and expanding healthcare manpower from fewer than 200 professionals to over 1,500 doctors, nurses, pharmacists, paramedics, and support workers. He strengthened the Rivers State University with new academic faculties, invested in agricultural enterprise through Songhai Farms, and delivered sustainable infrastructure, not publicity stunts.
As Minister of Transportation, Amaechi provided Nigerians the only operational standard-gauge rail lines in our history (Abuja–Kaduna, Lagos–Ibadan, and Warri–Itakpe), while advancing Kano–Kaduna, Port Harcourt–Maiduguri, and Kano–Maradi lines, originally conceived in the 2006 federal rail masterplan. His Deep Blue Maritime Security Project led to Nigeria’s removal from the International Maritime Bureau piracy blacklist after nearly two decades. These are not slogans; Nigerians use these systems every day.
Adams Oshiomhole’s own record tells a different story. As Governor of Edo State, he promised 10,000 jobs but barely produced 1,000, only to dismiss them without benefits. He presided over an administration where revenue collection was handed to motor park enforcers like Kabaka, while 24 different taxes strangled local businesses and traders in Benin City. His most publicised projects, from the ₦30 billion stormwater project funded from the Ecological Fund, to the specialist hospital staged with borrowed equipment for television, ended as monuments to mismanagement and deception.
Edo State’s debt rose beyond ₦45 billion domestically and over $180 million externally, yet there is no landmark institution or infrastructure to justify such a burden. His governance style was marked by contract awards without due process, demolition of private property for political revenge, and an attempt to covertly convert the University in Iyamo into a personal asset until Governor Godwin Obaseki exposed and stopped him.
Despite leaving thousands of Edo pensioners and former civil servants unpaid, Oshiomhole somehow found the resources to build a sprawling multi-billion naira mansion in Iyamo, complete with lavish facilities that no public record clearly explains. Questions also remain over how lands around Okoro-Otun were quietly acquired and repurposed during his tenure, with local communities alleging that state land meant for public use gradually became private estates tied to his interests.
Amaechi’s legitimacy is not in doubt. Court records confirm he won the PDP primaries with 6,527 votes out of 6,575, defeating seven other candidates. The Supreme Court did not hand out favours, it merely upheld electoral justice. Amaechi remains the only Nigerian to have successfully managed two presidential campaigns: defeating an incumbent in 2015 and delivering a re-election in 2019. That is strategic leadership, not noise.
On the issue of the judiciary, Oshiomhole again misled the public. The Rivers State judiciary was paralysed by internal legal disputes, not by executive interference. Amaechi acted strictly within constitutional limits to manage a complex judicial crisis. What Oshiomhole should be concerned about instead is how his own party, the APC, violated the Constitution by replacing an elected governor in Rivers State with a retired military administrator, a power no president possesses. Today, the APC's influence has sunk the judiciary to a point where judges publicly chanted “On your mandate we shall stand” at a recent judicial conference. This is not democracy. This is state capture.
Amaechi’s legacy is visible, measurable, and historic. Oshiomhole’s is rhetorical, transactional, and deeply forgettable. Until Adams Oshiomhole can point to a system he built, a policy he reformed, or an institution that outlived his tenure, he may criticise, but he cannot discredit.
Mallam Abdulhakeem Lawal
Spokesperson, CRA ’27 Advocacy Network
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