2023: Presidency Not Important To Me As Enrolling 1 Million Children In School – Okorocha

Senator Rochas Okorocha has said becoming president is not as important to him as taking one million out-of-school children off the streets by proving them with free education.

According to Okorocha, providing free education to the less privileged had always been his target.

The Imo West senator stated this while addressing some journalists on Wednesday in Abuja as part of events heralding his 59^th birthday on Thursday (today).

“I want to take one million children off the street and give them free quality education, that is my target,” said the two-time former Imo State governor.

“Once I am able to achieve that, it is much more important to me than being the president of Nigeria, a senator or governor.

“This is more important to me than having mansions in South Africa and Dubai,” he said.

The senator said his non-governmental organization, the Rochas Okorocha Foundation, currently caters to the educational needs of more than 25,000 children.

“Now I have over 25,000 children, 75 per cent of them are orphans and about 15 per cent of them have single parent, five per cent are those living below poverty line, though their parents are alive.

“On this my birthday, I have invited children from different parts of the country, and from all over Africa,” he said.

He noted that many beneficiaries of his foundation had graduated and were working in different fields.

To mark his birthday, some of the schoolchildren currently benefiting from his foundation also visited the senator to wish him happy birthday.

They are from Nigeria, Kenya, Congo, Cameroon, Mozambique, Gambia, Ethiopia, Liberia, Burundi, Malawi, South Sudan, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, Niger, Lesotho and Tanzania.