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African Action Congress presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, has revealed that he asked former Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, to apologise following their heated exchange at the Nigerian Bar Association’s Annual General Conference in Port Harcourt.
Speaking on Arise News on Tuesday, Sowore said he reached out to Amaechi after their confrontation during the political session of the conference. According to him, he believed the former governor owed him an apology because, in his view, Amaechi and other politicians benefited from the democratic system that activists like him fought to establish.
Sowore said Amaechi responded by inviting him to his house to eat and have a beer. He jokingly turned down the invitation, saying he did not want to be poisoned, while clarifying that he was only joking.
The AAC candidate also defended his political credentials, arguing that leadership experience should not be measured solely by the number of public offices a person has occupied. He pointed to his years of activism and campaigns for democracy and good governance as a different form of leadership experience.
“If I didn’t fight for democracy, Rotimi Amaechi would not be standing there yesterday if we were still under military rule,” Sowore said, arguing that politicians such as Amaechi were able to rise through the democratic system partly because of the struggles of activists.
He further rejected the argument that anyone aspiring to become president must first have experience in government. According to him, leadership requires vision, a clear mission and the ability to bring people with different skills together to achieve results.
The disagreement between both men began during Monday’s NBA conference, where Sowore criticised the records of politicians who had previously occupied public office. He took particular aim at Amaechi’s eight-year tenure as Rivers State governor and his subsequent years as Minister of Transportation.
Sowore criticised Amaechi’s role in Nigeria’s transportation sector, particularly the development of railway infrastructure and the wider debate over fuel subsidy. He argued that some of the projects associated with Amaechi had failed to deliver the benefits Nigerians expected.
Amaechi, who is now the African Democratic Congress vice-presidential candidate, defended his record, pointing to roads and primary schools constructed during his tenure as governor, as well as the Lagos-Ibadan and Abuja-Kaduna railway projects completed while he served as transportation minister.
The exchange became tense when Amaechi told Sowore, “When politicians are talking, close your mouth.”
Sowore has since maintained that the confrontation has not changed his views about his own contribution to Nigeria’s democratic development. He also doubled down on his opposition to the removal of fuel subsidy, saying he had warned against the policy long before it was implemented.
According to him, the economic hardship that followed the subsidy removal has strengthened his argument that the policy was poorly handled. He claimed that some of the positions he had advocated for years are now being adopted by politicians who previously dismissed them.
Sowore also took another swipe at Amaechi, saying the former governor should not be addressed as “Excellency” because, in his opinion, he had not done anything excellent for Nigeria.
The war of words between the two politicians comes as the 2027 political season gradually takes shape. Their clash at the NBA conference has added another dramatic moment to a gathering where Peter Obi, Adewole Adebayo and other political figures also debated issues ranging from governance and insecurity to fuel subsidy and Nigeria’s political future.
