PDP lost 2023 election because of Okowa – Abba Moro

The senator representing Benue South Senatorial District and Senate Minority Leader, Senator Abba Moro, has described the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s selection of Senator Ifeanyi Okowa as its vice-presidential candidate in the 2023 general election as a “political miscalculation.”

Senator Moro made the statement on Tuesday evening during an appearance on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme monitored in Makurdi. 

He argued that the PDP would have had a better chance of winning the 2023 presidential election had a different candidate from the South been chosen to run alongside Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

“It was a political miscalculation to have picked Senator Ifeanyi Okowa as the vice-presidential candidate of the PDP in the 2023 presidential election,” Moro said.

His comments come just days after Senator Okowa, alongside the incumbent Delta State Governor and several political leaders from the region, defected from the PDP to join the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Moro noted that while Okowa had every right to leave the party, he should not now express regret over his role in the PDP’s 2023 campaign.

“He has defected with his governor, both of whom were elected on the platform of the PDP. Even without the Supreme Court’s pronouncement that people vote for parties, not individuals, we all know voters align themselves with political parties. Parties win when they command the sympathy and support of the majority,” he stated. “So, he has walked away from the PDP and joined the APC. Fine by us in the PDP. Let the game begin.”

When asked whether Atiku Abubakar might have won the 2023 election without Okowa as his running mate, Moro said hindsight strongly suggested so.

“Given what we know now, many of us believe the party would have had a stronger showing perhaps even won the election if a different candidate had been selected from the South,” he said.

Commenting on whether the decision was a misstep by Atiku Abubakar or the party’s leadership, Moro responded: “I think there was an error in judgment on the part of everyone involved in choosing Okowa. Just consider the facts a sitting governor, a former senator, and vice-presidential candidate couldn’t deliver his own state in a presidential election.”

Moro also pointed out that two out of three senators elected from Delta State in 2023 were from opposition parties, while the PDP secured only one senatorial seat.

“That lone PDP senator likely won on his own merit because of his personal credibility and service to the community,” he added.

Reflecting on Okowa’s subsequent comments expressing regret over his candidacy, Moro criticized the former governor’s post-election stance.

“Instead of taking responsibility for the party’s loss or apologizing to the PDP and Nigerians, he is now saying he regretted being on the ticket. That clearly shows his heart was never in the PDP or the campaign. His lack of commitment contributed significantly to our poor performance in that election,” Moro added.