Rochas Okorocha, the outgoing governor of Imo State has told the Igbos to bury the long-desired ambition of producing the country’s next president in 2023.
Mr Okorocha, a founding member of the All Progressive Congress (APC) stated this on Tuesday while addressing reporters at the Government House in Owerri, before leaving the state to the nation’s capital, Abuja.
Since the return to democracy in 1999, the Igbo tribe of the South-East region has not produced a son who has manned the exalted office in the country.
The quest to produce one during the next general election was what the APC promised the zone should they vote massively for its candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari, who sought a second term in office.
Like they did in 2015, the people of the area who refused to queue behind the president alternatively voted for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
Mr Abubakar, a former vice president, who choosed his running mate, Peter Obi, from the region lost the election to Mr Buhari who trounced him with over 4 million votes.
For the governor, the action of the Igbos in the just concluded general elections has endangered their opportunity of producing one of its own for the position.
He also told the people not to hope on receiving anything from the president whose second term is expected to begin in May.
“So long as the South-East region did not vote for Buhari, they should expect nothing from Buhari second tenure,” Okorocha said.
“Some principal offices will seize to come to the Zone because of their kind of politics of hatred and pull-him down syndrome,” he added.
The governor’s advise is coming barely a week after someone from the geo-political zone indicated interest to contest for the position in next general election.
Meanwhile, the region has been told to stop accusing others of marginalising it as they are the cause of their problem.
