Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State says the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lost the 2023 presidential election because it failed to zone its ticket to the southern region of Nigeria.
The Bauchi governor, who chairs the PDP Governors’ Forum, stated this during an interview on Politics Today, a Channels Television current affairs programme, on Thursday, August 28, 2025.
His remarks come just days after the PDP officially zoned its 2027 presidential ticket to the south in what the party described as a move for equity and fairness.
“Life is always a learning process. When we threw the ticket open in 2023, it was not a pleasant experience, and that was why we lost,” Mohammed said.
“I discovered to my surprise that the presidency is a consensus phenomenon. You cannot impose yourself on anybody or any group.”
In the 2023 polls, the PDP fielded former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as its flagbearer.
However, the decision to make the ticket open to all regions created deep divisions within the party.
A group of five influential governors popularly known as the G-5 and led by former Rivers State governor Nyesom Wike openly opposed the move.
They argued that after then-President Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner, completed his eight years in office, power should naturally return to the south in line with Nigeria’s informal zoning arrangement.
Wike, who had contested against Atiku in the party’s primaries, described the decision as unjust.
The fallout saw him and his allies work against the PDP in the presidential election, eventually backing Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Tinubu went on to win the election and later appointed Wike as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Governor Mohammed admitted that the PDP underestimated the consequences of ignoring zoning in 2023.
He maintained that the party’s latest decision to zone the 2027 ticket to the south was not about individual ambition but about securing the PDP’s collective future.
“When my party decided that we would zone this [ticket] to the south, I had no qualms because I knew it was for the common good and not about personal interest,” he explained.
Mohammed, who had previously signaled interest in the presidency himself, stressed that the opposition party must present a candidate from the south who is capable of challenging Tinubu in the 2027 election.
“Since President Tinubu will be completing his first term, the PDP needs somebody strong or even stronger than him from the south to give him a fight for his life,” he said.
“We have learnt our lessons from the mistakes we made in the past.”
Party insiders believe zoning the ticket to the south could restore unity and rebuild trust within the PDP ahead of the 2027 polls.
For Governor Mohammed, the lesson is clear: the PDP must respect Nigeria’s unwritten balance of power if it wants to regain national leadership.