I’ll contest 2019 presidency if Buhari declines re-election – Okorocha

The Imo state Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, has revealed
that he would be contesting the 2019 presidential election on two
conditions; if President Muhammadu Buhari declines to seek a
re-election and if 10 million Nigerians endorse him.

Governor Okorocha gave the statement in Owerri, the Imo State
capital, when he addressed a youth delegates from all the
geo-political zones in the country, who paid him a courtesy
visit.

The Imo state governor also said that, as a child, the north
gave him education and secured his future. He said he was born of
Igbo patronage, raised by the north and empowered by the west,
hence, he needed nothing more than to be a detribalised
Nigerian.

Okorocha also said that he is in politics not for personal
aggrandisement but for the sheer glory of it and for the reason
that he came to serve selflessly.

According to him, “I will not run in 2019 if President Muhammadu
Buhari will be running. Even at that, I will not also run at any
given time unless 10 million Nigerians endorse me.

“May I remind all of you that my joy this evening has no bounds
for the singular fact that the Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Ijaw, northern
minorities, western and eastern minorities, Muslims and Christians
and others can sit down in a roundtable and speak like members of
one family. If only for this, my mission for this nation is today
achieved.

“I am an Igbo man with Igbo parentage. I was born and raised in
the north. The north gave me education, guaranteed my childhood,
even when I was not worthy to be called anybody in this world.

“I did all my schooling— primary, secondary and tertiary— in the
northern part of this country. I finished and needed to be
successful and wealthy. My encounter with someone from the
South-West gave me the financial empowerment.

“So you can see that in my person, I have no choice whatsoever
but to be a detribalized Nigerian, having been born of Igbo
parentage, raised up by the North and empowered by the West.
Nigeria remains my constituency.

“Most of you may not know that I am not in politics for
self-aggrandizement or as a means to seek livelihood. I am in this
job for the glory of the job, not for the profit and for the honour
of this job, not for the wealth in it.

“I believe that one day it will become a manifest truth that
somebody somewhere really cared for this nation.

“In my quiet time have I gone through lamentations, thinking
about our nation and particularly. So is the youth of Nigeria,
believe me, if our youths are not alright, our nation can never be
alright.”

The Imo state Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, has revealed
that he would be contesting the 2019 presidential election on two
conditions; if President Muhammadu Buhari declines to seek a
re-election and if 10 million Nigerians endorse him.

Governor Okorocha gave the statement in Owerri, the Imo State
capital, when he addressed a youth delegates from all the
geo-political zones in the country, who paid him a courtesy
visit.

The Imo state governor also said that, as a child, the north
gave him education and secured his future. He said he was born of
Igbo patronage, raised by the north and empowered by the west,
hence, he needed nothing more than to be a detribalised
Nigerian.

Okorocha also said that he is in politics not for personal
aggrandisement but for the sheer glory of it and for the reason
that he came to serve selflessly.

According to him, “I will not run in 2019 if President Muhammadu
Buhari will be running. Even at that, I will not also run at any
given time unless 10 million Nigerians endorse me.

“May I remind all of you that my joy this evening has no bounds
for the singular fact that the Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Ijaw, northern
minorities, western and eastern minorities, Muslims and Christians
and others can sit down in a roundtable and speak like members of
one family. If only for this, my mission for this nation is today
achieved.

“I am an Igbo man with Igbo parentage. I was born and raised in
the north. The north gave me education, guaranteed my childhood,
even when I was not worthy to be called anybody in this world.

“I did all my schooling— primary, secondary and tertiary— in the
northern part of this country. I finished and needed to be
successful and wealthy. My encounter with someone from the
South-West gave me the financial empowerment.

“So you can see that in my person, I have no choice whatsoever
but to be a detribalized Nigerian, having been born of Igbo
parentage, raised up by the North and empowered by the West.
Nigeria remains my constituency.

“Most of you may not know that I am not in politics for
self-aggrandizement or as a means to seek livelihood. I am in this
job for the glory of the job, not for the profit and for the honour
of this job, not for the wealth in it.

“I believe that one day it will become a manifest truth that
somebody somewhere really cared for this nation.

“In my quiet time have I gone through lamentations, thinking
about our nation and particularly. So is the youth of Nigeria,
believe me, if our youths are not alright, our nation can never be
alright.”