ADC Vice Presidential Candidate, Rotimi Amaechi has disclosed how his decision to return to university while serving as Minister of Transportation under former President Muhammadu Buhari effectively saw him withdraw from regular government duties before eventually leaving office.
The former Rivers State governor said Buhari approved his request to further his education while he was still a serving minister.
According to Amaechi, the arrangement allowed him to spend most weekdays away from the ministry, with Wednesday becoming the only day he regularly reported to his office.
Amaechi made the disclosure during an interview with AIT on Wednesday night, while discussing his political career and his experience serving in the administration of the late former President Buhari.
He explained that after deciding to return to school, he approached Buhari to seek permission. The former president reportedly gave him approval to proceed with his studies.
Amaechi said: “The next day, I went back to Mr President and asked, “Can I go to the university? He said, ‘Yes.’
“Then I applied. In the application, I said I wouldn’t be in the office Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, that’s technically resigning from the government. The only day I came to the office was Wednesdays.”
The statement provides further insight into how Amaechi combined his responsibilities as a federal minister with his academic pursuit towards the end of his time in Buhari’s government.
Amaechi served as Minister of Transportation from November 2015 until May 2022. Before his appointment at the federal level, he had served as governor of Rivers State for two terms between 2007 and 2015.
He was also Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly from 1999 to 2007.
His political career therefore covered both legislative and executive positions at the state and federal levels.
As transportation minister, Amaechi was a prominent member of Buhari’s cabinet and was associated with the Federal Government’s railway and transportation development programme during the period.
His tenure also covered the administration’s efforts to expand rail transportation across different parts of the country.
The ministry was involved in projects including the Lagos-Ibadan railway and other major rail developments undertaken during Buhari’s presidency.
Amaechi eventually left the ministerial position in May 2022 after announcing his intention to contest the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress, APC, ahead of the 2023 general election.
He subsequently contested the APC presidential primary but lost to Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who went on to emerge as the party’s presidential candidate and later won the 2023 presidential election.
The former governor is now the vice-presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, alongside former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
The ADC formally announced Amaechi as Atiku’s running mate in June 2026 after a series of consultations within the opposition party.
Amaechi had earlier contested the ADC presidential primary against Atiku and businessman Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, finishing second in the contest.
His emergence as Atiku’s running mate came after an earlier period of uncertainty over who would occupy the position.
Before the announcement, Amaechi had publicly rejected suggestions that he entered the ADC presidential race with the intention of becoming a running mate.
In May, while speaking about the possibility of serving as vice president, he had said: “Please stop that. I didn’t buy the ADC presidential ticket to become Vice President,” stressing at the time that his focus was on winning the presidential ticket.
That position changed after Atiku emerged as the ADC presidential candidate.
The party subsequently settled on Amaechi as his running mate, creating the Atiku-Amaechi ticket for the 2027 presidential election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, later published the nomination documents of Atiku and Amaechi.
The documents listed Amaechi’s political and professional history, including his service as a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly, governor of Rivers State and Minister of Transportation.
