Senate Minority Leader and chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Abba Moro, has admitted that the party made a costly mistake by presenting former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as its presidential candidate in the 2023 general election.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday, Moro described the decision as an error that weakened the PDP’s chances against the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
At its 102nd National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, the PDP resolved to zone its 2027 presidential ticket to the South, while allowing the North to retain the position of National Chairman — a move Moro said reflected a unanimous consensus among party leaders.
“In 2022, the PDP, in an attempt to wrest power from the APC, threw open its zoning arrangement to put forward what it considered its best option,” he said. “But eventually, that decision backfired because Nigerians resisted the idea of a northern candidate succeeding a northern president. For part of that reason, the PDP lost the election.”
Moro added that, upon review, the party recognised that fielding Atiku in 2023 was a strategic blunder.
“This time around, in the spirit of unity, fairness and justice, PDP leaders have decided to return the presidential ticket to the South, where many believed it should have gone in 2023,” he said. “As the election turned out, Nigerians made their feelings clear. Definitely, fielding Atiku was an error.”
The Senate Minority Leader further described the PDP’s loss as “a very monumental election defeat in a disastrous manner,” stressing that the party had drawn lessons from the outcome.
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