Rotimi Amaechi has said he would leave Atiku Abubakar’s campaign and support President Bola Tinubu if petrol fell to ₦600 a litre.
The former Rivers State governor made the conditional pledge on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, 2 October. He said he would visit a filling station the following morning to check the price himself.
“If fuel has come down to 600, I will campaign for President Tinubu,” Amaechi said. He added that he would withdraw as Atiku’s vice-presidential candidate if the price reached that level.
A challenge over living costs
Amaechi was responding to Tinubu’s description of Nigeria’s economic progress in his Independence Day address. He asked whether ordinary Nigerians had seen lower prices or cheaper transport, citing the cost of travelling from Nyanya to Abuja.
The ₦600 figure was his proposed test of the government’s claims. He did not say that petrol had reached that price, and his remarks should not be read as an endorsement of Tinubu.
Amaechi also criticised the administration’s record on infrastructure and challenged it to identify completed projects. Those were his political assessments, rather than independently established findings.
For Nigerians facing high transport and fuel costs, the practical question remains whether government policies bring down everyday expenses. Amaechi’s pledge puts that question into the 2027 election debate, but any change in his political support depends on the condition he set.
