Former Imo State Governor and Imo West senatorial candidate, 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 also urged voters in the northern part of the country to reciprocate Tinubu’s political support for the late President Muhammadu Buhari by backing his re-election bid.
He spoke in Abuja on Tuesday after being decorated as the National Grand Patron of Grassroots Advocacy for Tinubu 2027.
The former governor lamented that the South-East contributed only about five per cent of the votes recorded for Tinubu in the 2023 presidential election, but expressed optimism that the President would perform better in the region in 2027.
According to him, the involvement of some prominent political leaders in the region would significantly improve Tinubu’s electoral fortunes.
“In the last election, we did not perform well in the South-East. The leadership of our state gave Tinubu only five per cent of the votes. That will no longer be the case with some of us coming on board. 
“Tinubu will be assured of crossing the 25 to 30 per cent mark in the region, bearing in mind that one of our illustrious sons, a great man, is also in the contest,” he said.
Okorocha described the proposed support for Tinubu as a strategic political alliance designed to strengthen the South-East’s chances of producing a Nigerian president in the future.
He maintained that backing Tinubu did not amount to abandoning or rejecting any presidential candidate from the region, but was a calculated decision based on long-term political interests.
“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 added.
On the North, Okorocha recalled Tinubu’s role in Buhari’s emergence as President in 2015, arguing that the former Lagos State governor sacrificed his presidential ambition to support the late Nigerian leader.
He said Tinubu deployed his political structure to secure Buhari’s victory and remained loyal to him throughout his presidency, including during periods of ill health.
Okorocha therefore argued that northern voters should demonstrate similar political loyalty by supporting Tinubu’s second-term ambition in 2027.
“In the northern part of the country, particularly the North-West, Tinubu stood by their son, President Muhammadu Buhari.
Comparatively, Tinubu was in a position to pursue his own presidential ambition at the time, but he subordinated that ambition to support another candidate, Muhammadu Buhari.
“He supported him with his political structure, and Buhari eventually emerged as President.
“Even when Buhari was ill and many Nigerians had given up hope, Tinubu remained a strong ally and supported him. Therefore, I believe it is incumbent on Northerners to reciprocate that support,” he said.
Okorocha, who described himself as a founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), also claimed that he was among those who proposed the party’s name.
