PDP Not Ready For 2027 – Okowa

Former vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ifeanyi Okowa, has said his former party is not ready to compete and win the 2027 elections.

Naijaonpoint reports that Okowa, who defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC), along with Governor Sheriff Oborevwori on Monday, said his decision followed series of consultation.

In an interview with Arise News on Tuesday, Okowa faulted the decision of PDP Governors Forum against coalition in Ibadan, Oyo State.

The former Governor of Delta State also listed the national secretary crisis of PDP as one of the reasons for defection to APC.

He stressed that the PDP Governors decision against coalition and internal crisis in the party showed the party is not ready for 2027 election.

His words: “If a party appears on its own as led by the current leadership to make a decision that they were not ready, they are in opposition with much fewer governors than the All Progressives Congress, and the party comes into a decision-making meeting, and they take a decision that there was the need for them to continue alone, and they were not ready for alliances. They were not ready to have mergers with other political parties. The question is, how do they truly want to compete?

“And having looked at this very thoroughly, along with many other things that have been going on within the party, as to various court cases, as to who exactly is the National Secretary of the party, and many other issues, we do not appear to be really ready for competition in the 2027 elections.

“So having looked at this, alongside the fact that we believe that as a political family in Delta State, we needed to be able to move ahead, to truly connect to the resources. As I did say yesterday, it’s not about Oborevwori. Yes, he’s the leader of the party as a governor. It’s not about me. It’s about the larger Delta State and the larger political family that we have.

“And I thought, in my own opinion, and in the opinion of the vast majority of leaders, because we had different levels of consultation. It was not just a question of a decision of the governor, or a decision between the governor and Dr. OKowa. We had various levels of meetings with several stakeholders, and even had to make consultations with some of our other leaders, who are not even politicians, before we came to this decision.

“And I think that our decision is right politically. I believe that we mean well for our people, and it is important for us to chart a path for ourselves that we think we can truly trust and that could bring political gains to the people of Delta. And that was why the decision was taken.”