The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Monday described as baseless the allegation that the government of President Bola Tinubu was “weaponising” poverty by not eradicating the scourge in two years.

The party was reacting to the comments made during a public lecture held in Abuja on Saturday to mark the 60th birthday anniversary celebration of Rotimi Amaechi, former Governor of Rivers state and former Minister of Transportation.

According to the APC, when Amaechi declared that, “I am hungry,” he must mean, and must be understood to mean, that he is hungry and desperate to return to his felt entitled dependency on state resources and patronage.

“That he is hungry barely two years out of office simply underscores the depth of the self-serving motivations of Amaechi and his coalition partners in their quest for power for selfish exploitation, and not for the interest of the people”, the APC said in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka.

Morka said the celebration quickly dissolved into an occasion for Amaechi, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President, and Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, former Governor of Kaduna State and former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory to showcase their frenzied desperation to grab power purely for their self-aggrandizement.

While describing them as “leading displaced rent-seekers”, the party said the three politicians have occupied Nigeria’s highest political offices between 1999 and 2023, either as Vice President, Governors, or Ministers, among other important positions.

The statement said, “The criticisms variously leveled by Amaechi, Atiku, El-Rufai and Peter Obi mask a shameless attempt to perpetuate and cling to the old rent-seeking economy that enriched them at the expense of the Nigerian people.

“In all 24 years, the trio, individually or collectively, could not and did not eradicate poverty in their states or the country. They did not even attempt to address, let alone tackle, the structural challenges and distortions that stifled the economy and worsened poverty over the years.

“Rather, they reveled in mindless rent-seeking behavior, sold national assets to their cronies for mere pittance, engaged in corrupt and wasteful expenditures in their states, and relentlessly sponsored state violence against their own people. Take the case of Amaechi, the celebrant, who served for an unbroken total of 24 years – eight years as Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, eight years as Governor of Rivers State, and eight years as Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That’s about a quarter of a century of freeloading by Amaechi on state resources, with absolutely no record of attempting to combat poverty in his Rivers State or the country.

“Nigerians see right through their disruptive politicking. Amaechi and his cohorts are losing their grip on the economy. Atiku, a former Custom Officer, and Obi, a successful importer, reaped enormous benefits from the old system. Their criticisms reek of special interest masqueraded as concern for the people.” (AriseNews TV)