Boko Haram Will Never Stop If Jonathan Re- Emerges President—Governor Okorocha

G overnor 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 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.