Clara Adeniyi
Ifeanyi Okowa, outgoing governor of Delta state, 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.
The move elicited heated criticism, with Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers, saying the decision was in “clear violation of the party’s constitution”.
The attendant squabble led Wike and the governors of Benue, Abia, Oyo, and Enugu states to form a group called the ‘G5’.
Members of the group are believed to have worked against the success of Atiku Abubakar, PDP presidential candidate, in their election.
The Delta state governor, 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, Delta state capital.
The governors were said to have mutually agreed on a southern president succeeding President Muhammadu Buhari.
Their agreement was dubbed the ‘Asaba Accord’.
‘I CHOSE PARTY WELFARE OVER SENTIMENTS’
Speaking extensively on the matter in a chat with journalists on Sunday, Okowa said he never agreed to plans of a southern presidency.
He said the issue of zoning was never discussed as a main agenda at the meeting in Asaba, adding that 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, who is expected to hand over to Sheriff Oborevwori on Monday, said he chose what he believed was right for the PDP, adding 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,” he said.
“There was no point where we said everybody agreed 100 percent or we were going to go this way.”
‘NORTHERN PRESIDENCY WOULD HAVE SUCCEDED IF OBI DID NOT LEAVE’
Throwing more light on the issue, 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,” he said.
“Why? Because we were not a majority.”
The Delta state governor added that the strategy was drawn on the basis of reducing the chances of massive votes for the APC.
Okowa said the plan was thwarted when Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the election, left the PDP.
“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.”
Obi had resigned membership of the PDP over concerns about the party’s refusal to accept “constructive contributions”.
Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) defeated Atiku and Obi in the keenly contested election with a total of 8,794,726 votes.
Atiku had the second-highest figure with 6,984,520 votes, while Obi was third with 6,101,533 votes.
Both the PDP and LP have challenged Tinubu’s victory.