If petrol hits ₦600, I’ll withdraw as Atiku’s running mate and support Tinubu — Amaechi

The Vice Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) party, Rotimi Amaechi, has issued a challenge to President Bola Tinubu to cut down the cost of fuel to ₦600 per litre, warning that he will pull out of the ADC ticket and support the President in the 2027 elections should the price go that high.

This was said by Amaechi on Friday during an interview on Channels Television program called Politics Today when commenting on the Independence Day speech of President Tinubu where he said Nigeria had entered an age of prosperity.

The former Rivers State governor questioned whether the economic reforms of the Tinubu administration had translated into lower prices and improved living conditions for Nigerians.

Amaechi said the credibility of the government’s economic claims should be measured by their impact on the daily lives of Nigerians.

“It is about believability; who do you believe? Go to the 2005 Presidential speech; it is the same: we have turned the page, and we are about to start enjoyment,” he said.

He asked whether transportation costs and the prices of goods and services had fallen as a result of the reforms.

“Have you asked one of your staff who goes by transport, how much it costs from Yanya to Abuja? Has anything come down?

“Has any price come down, has anything changed?” Amaechi asked.

Using petrol prices as a measure, the ADC vice-presidential candidate said he would personally visit a filling station to establish whether the price had dropped to ₦600 per litre.

“I will go tomorrow morning to the petrol station to buy fuel, I will go myself, if fuel has come down to 600, I will campaign for President Tinubu.

“If fuel comes down to 600 tomorrow, I will campaign for Tinubu,” he said.

Amaechi further challenged those who doubted his pledge to accompany him with a camera to a filling station.

He said he would withdraw from the vice-presidential ticket he is contesting alongside former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and campaign for Tinubu if petrol sells for ₦600 per litre.

“If you doubt me, come with your camera to my house, and I will go to the filling station and buy fuel, and I, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi will withdraw as a vice presidential candidate of Atiku and campaign for President Tinubu, if it has come down,” he added.

Amaechi and Atiku are the ADC’s presidential and vice-presidential candidates for the 2027 election, respectively. The party announced Amaechi as Atiku’s running mate in June, while the Independent National Electoral Commission later published their particulars among the candidates for the election.

The comments followed Tinubu’s October 1 Independence Day address, in which the President said his administration’s economic reforms had improved Nigeria’s economic outlook and that the government’s focus had shifted towards achieving shared prosperity.

Tinubu said the government’s priority was to reduce the cost of living by lowering the cost of producing and transporting goods, while maintaining that the reforms had strengthened economic stability.

The price of petrol has remained a major issue in the political debate ahead of the 2027 elections. Channels Television reported in September that petrol was selling at about ₦1,400 per litre in Lagos and Abuja and as high as ₦1,500 in parts of northern Nigeria.

Amaechi’s challenge therefore places petrol pricing at the centre of his response to the President’s assessment of the economy and the broader political debate ahead of the 2027 presidential election.