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No scores to settle with Igbo ministers, leaders, says Okorocha

By Charles Ogugbuaja, Owerri
17 July 2018   |   4:04 am
Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, has debunked insinuations that he has scores to settle with serving ministers of Igbo extraction.

Rochas Okorocha

Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, has debunked insinuations that he has scores to settle with serving ministers of Igbo extraction.

He explained that he was determined to ensure that the Igbo have a place in national politics by ensuring that President Muhammadu Buhari was re-elected to complete his two terms in office.

Okorocha stated this yesterday at the Imo International Conference Centre (IICC), Owerri, during a dinner organised for emerging leaders with the theme: Emerging Leaders And Aspirants In The Southeast For Buhari.

He maintained that his politics was anchored on re-positioning the Igbo in the direction that would assure their leadership of the country in future, lamenting, however, that he was largely misunderstood.

He told his audience that there was no known misunderstanding between him and ministers or leaders from the geo-political zone, stressing that he would continue to ensure nation building that would place the Igbo nation in its rightful position in the nation’s political equation.

Okorocha also insisted that he would not succumb to any trap that would make him quarrel with any minister or leader from the zone, urging Igbo people to vote en masse for Buhari in 2019.

He flayed some Igbo leaders who reside live in Abuja and allow things to go bad in their home states and communities.

His words: “On the home front, there is no goalkeeper. All our leaders and even former governors live in Abuja and there is no one to fall back to at home unlike our contemporaries in the North and West.

“Buhari is the President but Shehu Shagari lives in Sokoto. Ibrahim Babangida is in Minna, Abdulsalami Abubakar is also in Minna. Obasanjo lives in Ota, Ogun State. Bola Tinubu lives in Lagos. They are goalkeepers and elder statesmen to their younger ones and giving support to their future generation.

“But our case is different. Our old politicians keep rocking back and front, usurping the political future of our younger generation. So, I believe that we should have a new and virile Igbo nation so that the younger ones can begin to take their rightful positions.

“That’s what we mean by emerging leaders, not that you are not leaders in your own rights.”

He promised to organise a forum where Igbo in the Diaspora would brain storm on the way forward, just as he advised those seeking elective positions in the zone to show interest in the All Progressives Congress (APC).

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