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

No stipulated date yet for President Buhari's return

Despite the meeting President Muhammadu Buhari held with some APC state governors on Sunday, no date has been fixed for his return to the country, The PUNCH learnt on Monday.

But investigations by one of our correspondents showed that no date had yet been fixed for the President ’s return .

Sources, who spoke with one of our correspondents, said although the President ’s health had improved tremendously, his return date was still in the hands of his doctors.

“The President made it clear in his letter to the National Assembly that the duration of his stay in London would be determined by his doctor . That has not changed . He must get a clean bill of health before he returns, ” one of the sources said .

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity , Mr. Femi Adesina , confirmed this in an interview with The PUNCH.

When asked to say specifically when Buhari was due back in the country in view of the latest development, Adesina said , “I am not a doctor and even if I am, it is clear that I am not part of the team that is attending to the President .

“His date of return will be decided by that medical team .”

Adesina also confirmed to one of our correspondents that the Sunday meeting was just one among other meetings Buhari would have with individuals before returning to the country.

He said , “ More meetings are coming; there will be broader ones . That Sunday meeting was just the beginning . ”

The presidential spokesman added that the Presidency was not in any way disturbed by the two cases instituted in court seeking to compel the Federal Executive Council to declare Buhari incapacitated and asking Senate President Bukola Saraki to constitute a medical panel on Buhari ’ s health condition.

“We are in a democracy; it is their (plaintiffs’) right . The court will determine the case on its merit , ” Adesina said