Former Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha stated that public resentment directed at the late former President Muhammadu Buhari in Imo State and across the Southeast far exceeded any perceived ill feeling toward President Bola Tinubu.
Speaking during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Okorocha asserted that President Tinubu has done no harm to the Igbo nation, noting that the president maintained strong relationships with Igbos during his time in Lagos.
“You must understand that when we are talking about APC in Imo State, the time we had issues as APC was when Buhari was in government,” Okorocha said.
“In fact, the hate for Buhari can’t be compared to the imagery hate for Tinubu in Imo State or in the whole Southeast.”
Okorocha cautioned against misinterpreting local dissatisfaction with state governance as hostility toward the president.
“So people must be careful not to mistake a transferred hate or transferred protest for what they don’t want as a governor to mean that it’s a protest against Tinubu,” he noted.
“Tinubu has done no wrong to any Igbo man, his best friends in Lagos are Igbos. Let me tell you that, with my emergence now with this ticket, Tinubu will win in Imo State.”
Addressing internal party disputes within the Imo State All Progressives Congress (APC), the former senator challenged incumbent Governor Hope Uzodimma over the leadership of the state chapter, expressing confidence that legal challenges against his position would “fail.”