Former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has said Nigerian politicians will continue looting public resources unless citizens begin to resist them openly.

Amaechi made the remark on Friday during an interview on Arise Television’s Prime Time programme.

According to the former Rivers State governor, many politicians have contributed to the worsening economic hardship facing Nigerians.

“As a governor of Rivers State at Freedom House in a ceremony organised by Prof Wole Soyinka, I told Nigerians that we the politicians will not stop stealing if Nigerians don’t stone us,” Amaechi said.

He stated that political leaders were largely responsible for the poverty and suffering in the country, stressing that citizens must begin to demand accountability from those in power.

“The politicians are impoverishing Nigerians. I’m a different politician and there are others as well,” he added.

Amaechi, however, acknowledged that some governors had made meaningful contributions to governance, while lamenting what he described as a gradual collapse in the quality of leadership across the country.

“A lot of governors have made positive contributions. But governance is slowly dying and it’s quite painful,” he said.