Former Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, has predicted that President Bola Tinubu will secure between 25 and 30 per cent of votes in the South-East during the 2027 presidential election.
Okorocha expressed confidence that Tinubu would perform better in the region than he did in the 2023 presidential election, when he reportedly secured about five per cent of the South-East votes.
He made the prediction in Abuja on Tuesday after being decorated as the National Grand Patron of Grassroots Advocacy for Tinubu 2027.
The former governor described the planned support for Tinubu as a strategic political alliance aimed at improving the region’s political prospects, particularly the possibility of producing an Igbo president in the future.
He insisted that supporting Tinubu did not mean rejecting any South-East presidential aspirant in the 2027 election.
“Our support for Tinubu is not a rejection of our own. It simply means that we are looking beyond the immediate situation and considering the future rather than today. That is what I call the strategic alliance strategy,” he said.
Okorocha also urged northerners to support Tinubu’s re-election bid, arguing that the President deserved political support in return for his loyalty to former President Muhammadu Buhari.
He recalled that Tinubu supported Buhari ahead of the 2015 presidential election despite having his own presidential ambition.
According to him, Tinubu provided political support for Buhari and remained loyal to him throughout his presidency, including during his illness.
The former governor, who described himself as a founding member of the All Progressives Congress, also claimed that he suggested the party’s name during a meeting of governors in Lagos.
Meanwhile, the National Coordinator of Grassroots Advocacy for Tinubu 2027, Prof. Ochugudu Ipuele, said Okorocha was appointed because of his grassroots connections and political influence.
Ipuele claimed that the group had more than 7,062,353 members across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, with structures at local government and polling-unit levels.
He added that the organisation had established a reporting system through which members could communicate directly with its national secretariat and report their activities.
