“We Gave Tinubu Only 5% In South-East Last Time, He’ll Cross 25-30% In 2027” — Okorocha

Former Imo State governor and Imo West senatorial candidate, Rochas Okorocha, has predicted that President Bola Tinubu will secure between 25 and 30 per cent of the votes in the South-East in the 2027 presidential election.

He also urged northerners to reciprocate Tinubu’s past support for the late President Muhammadu Buhari by backing his re-election bid.

Okorocha spoke after he was decorated as the National Grand Patron of Grassroots Advocacy for Tinubu 2027 in Abuja on Tuesday.

He lamented that the South-East gave Tinubu only about five per cent of its votes in the 2023 presidential election, but expressed confidence that the outcome would improve in 2027 with his involvement and that of other political leaders.

“In the last election, we did not perform well in the South-East. The leadership of our state gave Tinubu only five per cent of the votes. That will no longer be the case with some of us coming on board.”

“Tinubu will be assured of crossing the 25 to 30 per cent mark in the region, bearing in mind that one of our illustrious sons, a great man, is also in the contest,” he said.

He described the region’s support for Tinubu as a “strategic alliance” aimed at securing political support for an Igbo presidential candidate in the future.

Okorocha said the decision to support Tinubu did not amount to a rejection of any South-East candidate in the 2027 race, but was based on what he described as a long-term political consideration.

“Our support for Tinubu is not a rejection of our own. It simply means that we are looking beyond the immediate situation and considering the future rather than today. That is what I call the strategic alliance strategy,” he said.

Recalling Tinubu’s support for Buhari ahead of the 2015 presidential election, Okorocha said the President had set aside his ambition to back the late former President and remained loyal to him even during his illness.

He argued that northerners should reciprocate the gesture by supporting Tinubu in 2027.

“In the northern part of the country, particularly the North-West, Tinubu stood by their son, President Muhammadu Buhari. Comparatively, Tinubu was in a position to pursue his own presidential ambition at the time, but he subordinated that ambition to support another candidate, Muhammadu Buhari. He supported him with his political structure, and Buhari eventually emerged as President.”

“Even when Buhari was ill and many Nigerians had given up hope, Tinubu remained a strong ally and supported him. Therefore, I believe it is incumbent on Northerners to reciprocate that support,” he said.

Okorocha, who described himself as one of the founding members of the All Progressives Congress, also claimed that he suggested the party’s name.

He said he proposed the name APC during a meeting of governors in Lagos, explaining that it had two meanings.

“One thing most Nigerians do not know is that I, Rochas, gave the APC its name. When I suggested the name APC in Lagos, where all the governors, my colleagues at the time, had gathered, I had two things in mind.”

“First, Nigeria had a very bad headache, and we needed an APC, the old tablet used for treating headaches. Secondly, there was a time when President Goodluck Jonathan was being criticised over Boko Haram, and I said that if we were elected, we would produce more APCs to fight insurgents.”

“So, the two meanings of APC represented, to me, a cure for Nigeria’s headache and a means of tackling insurgency in the country. Today, I am proud to be a founding member of the APC,” he said.

He also urged members of the group to promote the APC logo alongside its “broken shackle” symbol, saying Tinubu’s name would not appear on the ballot paper.

Okorocha assured members that those who worked for the President’s re-election would be rewarded with appointments.

The National Coordinator of the group, Prof. Ochugudu Ipuele, said Okorocha was brought on board because of his grassroots reach and political influence.

Ipuele claimed that the platform had more than 7,062,353 members across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, with structures at local government and polling-unit levels.

He said the group had established a field-reporting mechanism through which members at polling-unit level could contact the national secretariat directly, lodge complaints and submit reports on their activities.

“If we are actually concerned about grassroots, the real grassrooter that has built capacity and has very high political capital that at this time can translate to massive votes for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is Senator Rochas Okorocha,” Ipuele said.