Ex-governor of Delta state, Ifeanyi Okowa, has spoken on the accusations of betrayal levelled against him regarding the Southern presidency agenda.
In the build-up to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primary in May 2022, some stakeholders demanded that the presidential ticket be zoned to the south.
However, the party ditched zoning, throwing the contest for the presidential ticket open.
This move evoked heated criticism, with Nyesom Wike, Governor of Rivers, saying that the decision was in “clear violation of the party’s constitution”.
This disagreement, led Wike and the Governors of Benue, Abia, Oyo, and Enugu states to form a group called the ‘G5’.
It was believed that members of the group worked against the success of Atiku Abubakar, PDP presidential candidate, in the election.
Okowa, who was the Vice-Presidential candidate of the PDP, has been repeatedly accused of betraying the south.
The accusations partly stemmed from the reported resolution of the southern governors from PDP and the All Progressives Congress (APC) after a meeting in Asaba, the Delta state capital.
The governors unanimously agreed that a southerner should succeed President Muhammadu Buhari, this agreement was dubbed the ‘Asaba Accord’.
Okowa said he never agreed to plans of a southern presidency, adding that the issue of zoning was never discussed as a main agenda during the meeting in Asaba, it was only passed across as an afterthought.
“I don’t think there was any betrayal, people give the wrong communication. In the first instance, the meeting we held in Asaba never talked about the issue of a southern president. The meeting we held in Asaba was to discuss the issue concerning herdsmen and the need to find a stop to it,” he said.
“It was actually the meeting in Lagos… but people just misconstrue the two. It was in a follow-up meeting in Lagos that the issue came up and it was not actually part of our agenda but we did not know people had their own views; you know politics was coming.
“When we had finished, under ‘any other business’, the matter was thrown up and we just found that a lot of us were ambushed but a majority actually had their way.
“I don’t want to relate it to partisan politics now because some people in the PDP had supported it (southern presidency) and then the issue came out and it was introduced first by the governor of Ondo state, and supported by the then-governor of Ekiti state, and then it followed through and then one or two PDP people also made their comments, “But for us, we could see that that matter had been discussed before — and it is part of politics so we let it go.”
Okowa, said he chose what he believed was right for the PDP, noting that other members had also shared his views.
“I’ll tell you the truth behind the whole thing, if you’re going to back a situation, you must ensure that the situation is right for your party and that was the question I raised when people said it was a betrayal. There was no point where we said everybody agreed 100 percent or we were going to go this way.” he said.
Speaking further, Okowa said, PDP’s analysis had shown that a northern presidency was a better strategy for winning the presidential election.
“I belong to the PDP and for me as a person and for the majority of the people in the PDP, they believed that our pathway to victory was to have a northern candidate and a southern vice, Why? Because we were not a majority.” he said, adding that the strategy was drawn on the basis of reducing the chances of massive votes for the APC.
The outgoing Governor said when Peter Obi left the PDP to become the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election, the plan was thwarted.
“The only thing that turned our reasoning out was when Obi came out from the south-east and there were a lot of feelings that came in among the Christians,” he said.
“So it ate very deep into our votes and that is what led to the loss of the elections.” He said.
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