Former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has launched a scathing critique of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, revealing that he neither supported nor voted for him in the lead-up to the 2023 general elections due to what he described as Tinubu’s lack of capacity to govern Nigeria.

Speaking during a public lecture in Abuja on Saturday to mark his 60th birthday, Amaechi said he made his position clear from the onset and stood by it through the election.

“I told Tinubu in Yola, I will not support you; I will not work for you. I did not work for him; I did not vote for him. It was the issue of capacity,” he declared, drawing applause and silence in equal measure from a hall packed with political observers and civil society figures.

Amaechi, a two-term governor and former Director-General of President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign, also expressed deep frustration with the broader political landscape, accusing Nigerian leaders of plotting only for power rather than genuine governance. “When we leave here, we go to plot to go and grab power; no Nigerian leader cares for you,” he said.

He further decried the use of ethnic and religious sentiments to manipulate voters, particularly the uneducated and vulnerable.

“Some of us who are here are also those who vote on an ethnic or religious basis. Innocent, uneducated people are manipulated to vote based on ethnicity and religion — that’s why we are here,” he lamented.

Turning his attention to the state of the nation under the current administration, Amaechi accused the Tinubu-led government of weaponising poverty and diverting public funds for personal gain.

“The current government is weaponising poverty by stealing the money they should have used to build hospitals and schools. The benefit of the fuel subsidy removal is in their pockets,” he alleged.

Speaking on the way forward, Amaechi suggested the need for a broad-based coalition with the opposition to rescue the country from what he described as deepening national decay.

“We want to submit to the opposition if the opposition will take us out of this problem,” he said, indicating an openness to future political realignment.

Amaechi’s comments mark one of his strongest public criticisms of the Tinubu administration to date, and they are likely to intensify the already simmering tensions within the ruling political class