The Executive Governor of Imo State, Owelle Rochas Okorocha has given
reasons that propelled him to take Ndi-Igbo especially the people of his
state, Imo, to the All Progressives Congress, APC, stating that some Igbo
politicians who have been labouring in vain to use that to blackmail him
are selfish politicians who do not think about the good of Ndi-Igbo, but
about themselves only.
Governor Okorocha who spoke while addressing thousands of Rescue
Missionaries from all over the country in Owerri weekend, explained that
he ensured that Ndi-Igbo was not left out in the political enclave called
APC because the Igbo race had, before now, spearheaded anything Nigeria
including the independence, and that it would be a serious political
miscalculation on the part of Ndi-Igbo if the North and South-West would
be forming a political party and Ndi-Igbo won’t be there.
According to him, that cannot be explained, and no excuse would be given
to the Igbos unborn that a big political party like APC would be formed
and no notable Igbo leaders would be at the helm of its affairs,
describing the Igbos criticizing his entry into APC as petty politicians
who do not have time to sit down to analyze the politics of the time in
Nigeria.
He said the PDP has no programme for Ndi-Igbo and that is why since 1999
when the party came to power at the National level, no Igbo man has become
the vice-president, or the president, and even the National Chairman of
the party and the Senate President they had for sometime, had been totally
taken away from them and that PDP, as it is now does not have any position
for Ndi-Igbo.
The political party that does not have an Igbo man as President,
Vice-President, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives,
the National Chairman of the party or the chairman of its Board of
Trustees is an enemy of the Igbo nation, and said the Igbos who are in the
party are there for themselves, perhaps for appointments and contracts.
The governor reiterated that there was no way the North and the Yorubas
would be forming a party and one major tripod of the country, the Igbo
won’t be there, and said that, it would have been very unfortunate. He
remarked that if it was in PDP, nobody would have made an Igbo governor
chairman of PDP governors forum, but today he is the chairman of APC
governors forum.
On the issue of the big names in Imo politics not being in APC, the
governor said he became governor in 2011 without any of the big names in
Imo politics supporting him, and that, the same way he defeated them in
2011, he would also defeat them in 2015. He said PDP is not good for Imo
people and Ndi-Igbo in general. He told the Igbos the need to support him
and APC.