Reacting to the allegation that he betrayed the South by accepting to be Atiku’s running mate, Okowa has said that he did not betray southern Nigeria.
He argued that he belonged to a political party that agreed to throw the presidential ticket open as the best way to rescue the nation.
Okowa, who spoke on ARISE NEWS Channel on Friday night, said he would not join issues with any group on the issue, especially the SMBLF “because they are leaders I hold in high esteem.”
According to him, “I want to respect our leaders; I always do and I believe that they have their opinions and they are well-meaning leaders; so, I am not going to join issues with them”.
Okowa explained that the important thing was that he belonged to a political party and was part of the decisions of the party, including the agreement of its leadership that the best part to rescue the nation was to throw the presidential ticket race open.
“Having agreed to that and also submitted by me to be a politician in the PDP, I am ruled by the policies of the party as they are.
“And, since we have all agreed that we wanted to throw the presidential candidacy open and Atiku Abubakar emerged, the onus is for us to support him.
“We are not expecting that he would be the candidate from the North and also have a vice-presidential candidate from the North. That would be leading to further division.”
He added that as a party craving to rebuild the nation, taking the right decisions that would foster unity of the nation was very important to the PDP.
“We are talking about rebuilding this nation and our unity. So, to a very large extent, we have to make the right decisions and having submitted myself to be a member of the PDP, I would have to submit myself to the decisions of the party and that is what has happened.
“That does not mean disrespect to the views of those leaders. They are leaders that I respect so much. But under this condition, they have to understand that I have committed myself to the PDP.
“I am a politician. If I am not, it may be different. So, I will have to play along with the collective decisions of the party and I want to appeal to them that they need to look at the issue as it is and be very cautious about the stands that we take.
“Every statement we make, even while it is important that we make our decisions, it is important that we also realise that the unity of this nation is important and we need to move forward from wherever we are at the moment,” Okowa said.
In adding strength to the presidential ticket of the PDP, he said that he was acceptable to the structures of the party across the nation and has been in the party since inception and grown through political ranks.
“I am somebody who is a team player which is very important for us, and we have various experiences in various elections before now.
“Though I am a governor, I have grown through the political ranks and I have played very critical roles in the party at some point in time.
“I believe that a combination of all these will enable me to assist the presidential candidate of the party and the rest of the party leadership to be able to put up the right strategy for us to win the elections,” he explained.
On unifying the party, Okowa said he had started reaching out to his colleagues and other leaders of the party and that he was encouraged by the response so far. (Thisday)
