Okorocha Declares For 2023 Presidential Race

A former Governor of Imo State and the Senator representing Imo West Senatorial District, Rochas Okorocha on Monday formally declared his intention to constest for the 2023 general election on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Okorocha, who announced his ambition at an elaborate event held at the International Conference Centre in Abuja on Monday, said he remains the best leader to unite and bring Nigeria together.

The APC Chieftain said he was the most qualified of all the aspirants jostling for the exalted office of Presidency, going by his antecedents in social empowerment investment across all the six geo-political zones of the country.

Okorocha stressed that, though he was not a candidate of rotation or zoning, justice demands that the South-East should produce the next President of Nigeria.

He said it will be an injustice for a Northerner or Southwesterner to come out to contest when it is glaring that it is the turn of the South-East and challenged the Igbos to realise that power is not given but taken.

“Nigeria needs a leader that can unite this country and give everyone a sense of belonging. If I say I will unite this country, believe me I will do so. There is no part of this country that you go to that you will not see my signature. I am not from Sokoto state but my signature is in Sokoto State, I am not from Zaria, my signature is in Zaria.

“I am not from Kano, my signature is in Kano. I am not from North Central, my signature is in Jos. I am not from North-East, my signature is in Adamawa and Bauchi. I’m not from South-west but my signature is in Ibadan, Oyo State. I am not from South-south, my signature is in Cross River State. If I tell Nigerians I will unite this country believe me, I can do that.

“I challenge all those who want to become president to show what they have done in uniting this country. This country needs a compassionate leader that listens to the poor and the needy.

“I am blessed with six children but today I am a proud father of 25,000 children. I don’t know where they come from, I don’t know who they are, but I have adopted them as my children. I have given them education.

“Most of them are Fulani boys, Hausa boys, Yoruba boys, Ibo boys, Efik. I have trained more than 5,000 Fulani children, I have trained more than 6,000 Yoruba. I have trained more than 10, 000 Igbos. I don’t know them, I don’t know their background, what connects me with them is poverty, because I was once a child of poverty.

“Today you may have heard that people are talking about zoning, rotation. I am not a candidate of rotation, neither am I a candidate of zoning. I am a candidate for justice.

“Maybe the South-East or the South have not been able to present their matter very well before the rest of Nigeria. I think Nigerians might not know that at this crucial point when zones have taken their various turns in Nigeria and when it feels like it is the turn of the South-East, a Northerner will come out, he is simply saying to Igbos, who are you, that is it. Or our brother from the South-west will come out, he’s simply saying to the Ibos, who are you?

“It is on the part of justice that I speak for this to give the Igbos a sense of belonging. Other than that, I am qualified to run more than anybody who cares to run, ” Okorocha declared.