Sowore says he asked Rotimi Amaechi to apologise after their heated NBA conference clash, as both politicians defend their records ahead of 2027
Omoyele Sowore, presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, said on Tuesday, 25 August 2026, that he asked former Rivers State governor Rotimi Amaechi to apologise following their heated exchange at the Nigerian Bar Association Annual General Conference in Port Harcourt on Monday.
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Sowore said he made the request after the political session at the NBA conference, where the two politicians clashed over their records in public office, democratic activism and Nigeria’s economic and transportation policies.
The confrontation quickly became one of the most striking moments of the conference, which brought together prominent political figures including former Anambra State governor Peter Obi and former presidential candidate Adewole Adebayo to discuss Nigeria’s political direction ahead of the 2027 elections.
Speaking to Arise News on Tuesday, Sowore said Amaechi subsequently invited him to his home for food and a beer after the disagreement.
“That’s why I said to him after the event, I called him and said, you should have apologised to me,” Sowore said.
Sowore added that he declined the invitation, joking that he did not want Amaechi to poison him because he believed the former governor was still unhappy about the confrontation.
The exchange was rooted in a wider disagreement over what constitutes political experience and effective leadership.
Sowore argued that his decades of activism for democracy and good governance represented a form of leadership experience, even though he has never held elected public office.
He said his activism helped create the democratic environment in which politicians such as Amaechi were able to build their careers.
“If I didn’t fight for democracy, Rotimi Amaechi would not be standing there yesterday if we were still under military rule,” Sowore said.
He argued that Amaechi’s political career, which included eight years as Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, eight years as governor and eight years as a federal minister, was ultimately made possible by Nigeria’s return to democratic rule.
Sowore said his own experience should not be assessed solely through conventional government positions.
“When people are looking for leaders, they are not looking for an accountant alone, they’re looking for someone who understands a little bit of everything,” he said. “And who can find everybody who can make things work. That’s what leadership is all about.”
Amaechi, who is the African Democratic Congress vice-presidential candidate, had taken a different position during the NBA session.
The former governor defended his record in Rivers State, pointing to roads and primary schools delivered during his administration.
He also cited the Lagos-Ibadan and Abuja-Kaduna railway projects undertaken while he was Minister of Transportation.
The disagreement became particularly tense when Sowore criticised Amaechi’s record on transportation and fuel subsidy.
“We have a former governor of Rivers state here, Amaechi, who built a rail line that went nowhere,” Sowore said during the conference.
Amaechi responded by challenging lawyers from Rivers State to take Sowore around the state to inspect projects completed during his tenure.
The exchange then became personal when Amaechi told Sowore: “When politicians are talking, close your mouth.”
Sowore has since maintained that the confrontation did not alter his assessment of Amaechi’s record or his own claim to political experience.
The AAC candidate also returned to one of his longstanding political arguments: his opposition to the removal of Nigeria’s petrol subsidy.
Sowore said he had warned for years that removing the subsidy without adequate economic safeguards would worsen hardship and damage the economy.
“As a matter of fact, most of the ideas you are seeing that they are picking now, we started fighting for it,” he said.
Sowore argued that the economic consequences experienced by Nigerians after the subsidy removal strengthened his earlier position and questioned the value of conventional political experience when policies produce what he described as damaging results.
The former governor, meanwhile, has continued to defend his record in government, particularly his work on infrastructure and transportation.
The disagreement therefore reflects a broader political argument likely to feature prominently in the 2027 election campaign: whether Nigeria needs leaders with established experience in government or candidates who can point to years of activism and opposition to the political establishment.
Sowore has repeatedly presented himself as an outsider to Nigeria’s traditional political class.
His presidential campaigns have been built around calls for political reform, accountability and a break with what he describes as an entrenched establishment.
Amaechi, by contrast, has spent decades inside Nigeria’s political system, rising from state politics to the national stage and serving as governor and federal minister before joining the ADC presidential ticket.
The NBA confrontation has now extended that longstanding political divide into a very public personal exchange.
Sowore also dismissed the honorific “Excellency” when referring to Amaechi, arguing that the former governor had not done anything excellent for Nigeria.
The remark ensured that the dispute did not end with the conference session, with Sowore’s latest comments keeping the disagreement in the political spotlight.
With the 2027 elections approaching, the clash between Sowore and Amaechi has become more than an exchange between two political figures.
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It has exposed competing ideas about leadership, experience, economic policy and the value of Nigeria’s democratic journey.
