Why my father actually gave me a Yoruba name, "Rotimi" - Amaechi

By Dansu Peter 

The Minister of Transport and former governor of Rivers state has said his father name him Rotimi because he wantedhhim to study Law and wish he become a great lawyer like legal luminary, Frederick Rotimi Alade Williams, who is a Yorùbá man. 

"My father actually wanted me to study Law. A lot of people don’t know that he named me ‘Rotimi’ after the famous lawyer, Frederick Rotimi Alade Williams."

Amaechi made this revelation in a recent interview with Punch Newspapers when he was asked about a question related to his ambition and carriers. 

" I joined politics in the university. My father actually wanted me to study Law. A lot of people don’t know that he named me ‘Rotimi’ after the famous lawyer, Frederick Rotimi Alade Williams. My father never met him (Williams) but he admired FRA’s larger-than-life persona and the fact that he was a brilliant lawyer. So, my father believed that I would be a lawyer and I should be able to do as well as FRA. Unfortunately, it was difficult to get admission to study Law. The first admission offer I got was to study Secretarial Administration and we all laughed over that at home. At that time, in addition to the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, I also wrote an exam to get into the Rivers State University of Science and Technology. I had even started registration as a student of RSUT before I was offered admission (through UTME) to study English Studies and Literature at the University of Port Harcourt. I applied to study English at UNIPORT because the school had no law faculty then."

Read details from Punch