By Adeboye Adebayo
There is a line that even the most bitter political battle should not cross and there is something profoundly disturbing about the moment a politician begins to convert personal grief into political ammunition.
Rotimi Amaechi appears to have reached that point.
In an interview on Channels Tv, Amaechi blamed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the death of his mother, arguing that the difficulty of buying the drugs she needed contributed to her death. He then asked why she did not live to 92, pointing to people he knows who have attained that age.
It is difficult to know which part of the argument is more troubling; the extraordinary leap from the price of medicine to the declaration that a sitting President “killed” his mother, or the bizarre suggestion that because some people live to 92, his mother was somehow entitled to three additional years of life.
This is not an argument against grieving rather, t is an argument against abusing grief.
Mary Amaechi died on July 16, 2026, athe age of 89. Her own family’s announcement described her as a cherished matriarch, a Christian leader and a community woman who held her family together in love, peace and unity. The family said she “departed peacefully.”
The same President whom Amaechi now accuses of killing his mother issued a public condolence the following day, describing her as a woman of faith, sacrifice, kindness and service and praying for the comfort of the Amaechi family.
Amaechi’s question deserves to be examined carefully. Why did his mother not live to 92? Why 92?Why not 95? Why not 100? Why not 110?
Human beings do not come with expiry dates printed on their foreheads.
There is no medical, biological or legal principle under which the death of an 89-year-old becomes evidence of governmental responsibility merely because the person did not reach 92.
Someone living to 92 does not establish that another person who dies at 89 was supposed to live another three years.
Someone surviving cancer does not prove that another cancer patient was killed by government.
Someone living to 100 does not make the death of a 90-year-old a political murder.
This is precisely why serious discussions about healthcare require evidence, not arithmetic based on somebody else’s age, if Amaechi’s argument is that the cost of medication became prohibitive, that is a legitimate subject for public debate, if his argument is that economic policies have increased the burden on families caring for elderly relatives, let him produce the figures, if he is saying that particular medicines became unavailable or unaffordable, let him identify the medicines, if he is saying that his mother’s doctors prescribed medication which he could not afford and that the inability to obtain that medication materially contributed to her death, let the medical facts be examined.
But when he says “I know people who are 92, so why did my mother die at 89?” is not evidence of presidential culpability, it is grief speaking through politics.
Presidents do not control death. Governments influence healthcare systems. Governments influence taxation, pharmaceutical policy, regulation, public hospitals, health insurance, social protection and the purchasing power of citizens, if Amaechi had dwelled on that, there won’t be need for this intervention and those things could have been scrutinised.
But there is an enormous difference between government policy contributing to a difficult healthcare environment and a President personally killing a particular citizen.
Rotimi Amaechi is not a spectator in Nigerian public life, he served as Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Governor of Rivers State and Minister of Transportation. He spent years sitting at the table where government decisions were made.
He therefore understands better than most politicians that Nigeria’s healthcare difficulties did not begin with Bola Tinubu.
He also understands that healthcare is a system involving federal and state institutions, hospitals, medical personnel, pharmaceutical supply chains, insurance arrangements, household income and individual medical conditions.
To reduce the death of an 89-year-old woman to one President maybe politically convenient but it is intellectually stupid.
Amaechi’s mother did not suddenly become a political issue when she died, she was first presented to Nigerians as a mother, matriarch, Christian and community leader. The family asked for prayers, people mourned her, political opponents and allies sent condolences, President Tinubu sent condolences, Atiku sent condolences, others also mourned.
For a moment, the woman was allowed to be what she had been throughout her life: someone’s mother and suddenly for political reason, the grave became a campaign platform, the dead woman became the evidence, the price of medicine became a weapon and the President became the alleged murderer.
Amaechi needs to pause, because there is something deeply unbecoming about dragging one’s deceased mother into an electoral argument in order to make a political opponent appear personally responsible for her death, a mother’s grave should not become a campaign podium.
If he had said “My mother was 89. She needed medication. I found the medication increasingly difficult to afford. If a man with my resources and experience could struggle to provide essential medicine for his elderly mother, imagine what ordinary Nigerian families are going through.”
Maybe that would have scored some cheap political point but Instead, Amaechi chose the shortcut. “Tinubu killed my mother.” That sentence may generate headlines but it also exposed Amaechi as a desperate politician who is unworthy to be called a leader by any measure.
What exactly does Amaechi want us to believe. Does he mean that Tinubu personally knew his mother was ill? Did the President know what medication she was taking? Did he know when the medication was unavailable? Did he know when Amaechi could not afford it? Did he instruct anybody to prevent Amaechi from buying it? Did government policy make that particular medicine unavailable? Did a doctor establish that missing that particular medication caused or materially accelerated her death? or is he just saying the medicine became expensive, he found it difficult to buy, his mother died, therefore Tinubu killed her? That was too low! It is an accusation built backwards from a tragedy and that is dangerous territory for public discourse.
Sadly the 89 year-old woman deserves better, her surviving son has turned her memory to a victim of political performance. The family described the late Mary Amaechi as a woman of faith, family, community service and Christian leadership and President Tinubu’s condolence message similarly remembered her for faith, sacrifice, kindness, perseverance and service but her own son has now turn her to political pawn on the chessboard. It is profoundly undignified to repeatedly dragging her death into a political fight as though her grave were another opposition campaign platform.
Mary Amaechi lived for 89 years, that is a lifetime. She raised children, she served her family, she lived her faith, she became a community leader and she left a legacy and yet in the hands of political drama being performed by her own son, all of that is being reduced to political stupidity, that is an injustice to her memory.
When Amaechi served in government, did he ever believe that every Nigerian who died during his years in office had been killed by him? Of course not, because he understood the distinction between governing a country and controlling every individual outcome within it, hence he should extend the same intellectual honesty to the man occupying Aso Rock today.
He is now part of the opposition political establishment and has been selected as the African Democratic Congress vice-presidential candidate for the 2027 election.
If Amaechi wants to defeat Tinubu politically, there are thousands of legitimate issues available to him, he can attack the economy, policies of government and present his alternatives, that is politics. But the dead deserve a measure of peace that political opponents are denied.
Haba! Amaechi can fight Tinubu without making his mother’s grave a battlefield.
A mother’s death is a tragedy and turning that death into political ammunition is totally out of place.
And when politics reaches the point where a son cannot even allow his 89-year-old mother to rest without resurrecting her death as a weapon against his opponent, then we need to ask him whether he is fighting for the living or simply dancing on the grave of the dead.
Comrade Adeboye Adebayo is a Former Spokesperson of 2023 APC, Tinubu/Shettima Campaign Council and a Member of APC Professional Forum in Abuja.
