Former Delta State Governor and ex-vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, has admitted that accepting to run alongside Atiku Abubakar in the 2023 general election was misaligned with the political mood in his home state.

Speaking in an interview on Arise Television, Okowa revealed that despite recognizing early during the campaign that Deltans were uncomfortable with the prospect of another northerner becoming president, he felt constrained by the PDP’s decision at the federal level and his own nomination.

“Even when we were campaigning, I realised our people were not interested in having another northerner come into power,” he said. “But the decision had already been taken by the party, and I had been nominated. Still, in retrospect, I now believe I should have gone with the will of my people.”

The former Delta governor also took a swipe at former Senate President Bukola Saraki, who recently criticised his defection from the PDP to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Okowa questioned Saraki’s moral authority on the matter, reminding the public of Saraki’s own history of switching parties.

“I did not expect that someone like Senator Bukola Saraki should be able to speak concerning me,” Okowa said. “He knows that he had also moved to APC before and eventually returned. So, I don’t think that he has the moral right to even speak about my defection at all.”

Okowa defended his defection to the APC, explaining that it was not a personal decision but a collective one, taken in consultation with key political stakeholders in Delta State. He cited unresolved internal crises, a lack of strategic vision, and persistent leadership struggles in the PDP as major factors that informed the move.

“Several things have been going on in the party,” he said. “Our leaders in this state have sat down to look at the events in the last several months. Because of the events we see and the communications coming out from the PDP leadership, it did not appear to us that that was a proper political vehicle for us to continue in.”

Okowa also pointed to the PDP governors’ reluctance to form a strategic coalition and the deepening leadership crisis as indications that the party is unprepared to challenge for power in 2027.

Senator Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa CON, born July 8, 1959, is a medical doctor and seasoned politician. He served as Governor of Delta State from 2015 to 2023 and was the PDP\'s vice presidential candidate in the 2023 elections.