Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha has decried what he described as pull-down-syndrome among the Igbo and warned that it may deny the South-East region the chance of producing a president of Igbo extraction in the nearest future.

Governor Okorocha insisted the Igbo can never make or produce a president of the country on their own without the support of other tribes in the country.

He said: It would be a foolish thought for any Igbo man eyeing the presidency of this country, at any time, to think that the Igbo only can make him president.”

The governor also regretted that the Igbo do not honour their leaders unlike what is obtainable in the other parts of the country, where he noted that people honour their own and appreciate their leaders.

“The Igbo don’t honour their leaders; they would rather rundown their leaders. The pull-him-down syndrome is high in Igboland.

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“It is very unfortunate. Anytime I come out to run for the presidency of this country, I don’t suffer opposition from the North or South-West or South-South; it is only in Igboland that I suffer it.”

He regretted that the Igbo engage in pull-him-down practice without knowing the overall implications.

“So, it will be out of place for an Igbo presidential aspirant at any given period to think that the Igbo will make him president because Igbo do not value their own.

“They don’t value what they have, but value outsiders. It is in their character. It is in their nature.

“Read the newspapers and go to the social media, all the insults and attacks you get are all from the Igbo.

“They go to any length to run you down without caring about your good intentions and all the efforts being made to see that things work out fine for the people of the area.

“It is a problem and it didn’t start today. Go down the memory lane and you would discover that the pull-him-down syndrome in Igboland didn’t start today,” Okorocha said.