The electioneering office of Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, has released audio tapes in which it is claimed the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi denigrated President Muhammadu Buhari.

Amaechi a key political ally of President Muhammadu Buhari is the director-general of the Buhari/Osinbajo Campaign Organisation.

The tapes made available to the press by Phrank Shaibu, the special assistant on public communication to the PDP candidate portray the minister as lacking confidence in his principal (Buhari) he was appointed to market.

The clips, Shaibu said, were made out of an informal interaction Amaechi had with journalists covering his ministry.

In one of the tapes, the voice said to be that of Amaechi is heard saying, “This country can never change, I swear. The only way this country can change is if everybody is killed. This country is going nowhere, I swear.

“Even if you divide the country into 10, it will still not change. I’m not joking o. When Magnus (Abe) was my SSG, I told him that this country is hopeless and helpless.

“He said ‘Oga, stop it now. Coming from a governor, don’t be saying that. But two months in Abuja, Magnus said this country is hopeless and helpless. I said ‘why?’ He said, you are right, the only thing they do in Abuja is share money, they don’t work.”

The second tape said, “The president does not listen to anybody. He doesn’t care. You can write what you want to write. The president doesn’t care. Does he read? He will read, he will laugh. He will say ‘come, come and see, they are abusing me here’.

“In fact, there was one case of somebody in Onitsha, a trader in Onitsha who couldn’t sell his goats during Sallah. And I was with Oga on the plane and the man was busy abusing Buhari.

He said, ‘Amaechi, come, what is my business with Onitsha goat seller?’”

The authenticity of the tape has not been independently verified but if it turns out to be authentic, the revelation could be damaging for the president who has been roundly condemned by his opponents for his dismal performance in government on account of not having prepared for the work required of a president of a nation in a hurry to make progress.

When contacted by Premium Times, David Iyofor, the spokesperson for Amaechi, said the minister’s team was still reviewing the recording and needed more time to do so before commenting on the matter.

According to Shaibu said the leaked tape has shown that even the president’s appointees lacked confidence in his ability to transform the country.

He said, “The President should just quit honourably instead of wasting tax payers monies on a failed re-election bid.

“The truth is that, the other day, the President confessed that the economy had collapsed under his watch.

•Sourced from a BusinessDay report