Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, who is a presidential aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has said Boko Haram insurgency would not end if President Goodluck Jonathan gets returned as Nigeria’s leader in the 2015 elections.
►Mr. Okorocha made the declaration in Akure, the Ondo State capital, during a visit to the state’s secretariat of the APC with his team to woo delegates to back him for the party’s presidential ticket.
►The party has scheduled its presidential primaries for December 10 in Lagos.
►Mr. Okorocha made the declaration in Akure, the Ondo State capital, during a visit to the state’s secretariat of the APC with his team to woo delegates to back him for the party’s presidential ticket.
►The party has scheduled its presidential primaries for December 10 in Lagos.
Mr. Okorocha said President Goodluck Jonathan had proved incapable of handling the Boko Haram insurgency, adding that the Islamist group’s threat was becoming worse than the Nigerian civil war. He accused officials of the Jonathan administration of using the anti-insurgency campaign as a “commercial business like buying and selling.” He said the officials benefiting did not want the insurgency to stop because they were making money through the supplies of arms and other gadgets.
The governor maintained that it would be difficult for the present administration to fight if its still holdup to power in 2015 stressing that some people have already been making millions out of the opportunity created by the PDP led administration.
“If President Jonathan wins the forthcoming election Boko Haram would never stop and if PDP has what it takes to stop this carnage they would have done it a long time ago,” the governor said.
Governor Okorocha also blamed the PDP for the continued existence of the dreaded Islamist group whose attacks have claimed more than 30,000 lives. The APC presidential candidate accused the PDP of being “corrupt and incapable” of leading the country.
The governor added that Nigeria is in a turbulent period as a result of poverty, greed, injustice and impunity orchestrated by Mr. Jonathan’s administration. He said Nigeria was already in a state of war and that things might become worse in 2015 if Mr. Jonathan emerges as the president. He stressed that Northerners would not take it easy with Southerners in the country.
The governor accused the top leaders of the PDP of using Abuja as a center for spreading woes in the country, adding that Nigeria has become deeply polarized.
“I think it’s a wrong perception for people to be talking that the next president must come from the north or the south and should be a Muslim or Christian. This has further divided us and made the country a polarized nation,” said Governor Okorocha.
He said Nigeria needs a dynamic leader with unbeatable foresight and vision, adding that he was ready to defeat President Goodluck Jonathan if given the party’s ticket. He urged Nigerians to give APC a chance to govern the country.
“If you put Jonathan and me together in the election, I will defeat him in all the states of the federation,” he said.
He also appealed to APC delegates not to sell their future at the primaries, adding that they should rally around anyone who emerges as the party’s candidate in the 2015 presidential election.
“If [the] APC should lose the forthcoming election, there will never be [a] strong opposition again in the history of Nigeria and APC will die the way ANPP died because the party is the last hope of opposition in the country. And if we didn’t succeed now then forget about it in the history of the country,” Mr. Okorocha said.
