Former transportation minister, Rotimi Amaechi, says he’s a better candidate to be voted president because he understands the sufferings of poor Nigerians.

“I can connect easily with the people. I wasn’t born into a rich family. My father was a poor man, and the only English my mother knows how to speak is pidgin English.

“I ate garri three times a day, and I still eat garri three times a day till today, so I know poverty”, Mr Amaechi said. 

Mr Amaechi, a former governor of Rivers, made this assertion while canvassing for votes from All Progressives Congress delegates in Niger State on Thursday.

“I know what you’re suffering; I was governor of Rivers State when they were kidnapping two months old children, and I never slept until everybody slept. But in six months, we brought down insecurity in Rivers State,” the presidential aspirant added. 

Mr Amaechi is not the first politician to project himself as one who understands the yearnings of Nigerians.

In 2011, former President Goodluck Jonathan, wormed his way into the hearts of many voters by portraying himself as a poor Otuoke boy who grew without shoes. 

Similarly, President Muhammadu Buhari rode on the same sentiments to power in 2015, projecting himself as a poor candidate who had no house in Abuja and could not afford the APC presidential form.