A former minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has revealed that he knows several politicians who have suddenly become billionaires.
Mr Amaechi, a former governor of Rivers State, said this on Friday during a panel session at the 5th edition of the Nigeria Symposium For Young and Emerging Leaders held in Lagos; though the ex-minister did not mention names.
Amaechi spoke on the topic “Ineffective Policies And Extreme Poverty”.
He lamented that the country’s wealth had been pocketed by an influential few and called for politicians to invest in infrastructure to create jobs and reduce crime.
“I know politicians who have suddenly become billionaires, and this is the money that should have been used to build roads and provide amenities that could have been used to improve the lives of citizens.
“Our politicians have to be clear about how they intend to lift people out of poverty,” Amaechi said.
Commenting on citizen participation, the former presidential candidate of KOWA, Prof. Remi Shonaiya, said: “We have to educate ourselves in order to become more active, and we have to begin to consider the greater good in our decisions.
“Most of us don’t care about what is happening in the House of Assembly, we are much more concerned about ourselves. The focus has to be on the people, not the government.
“But we also have to make sure that we hold our leaders accountable to us. There’s too much personal style in the way we practice politics in the country,” Shonaiya said.
