Bayelsa State governor, Henry
Seriake Dickson says the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is suffering.
He lamented that Nigeria’s
democracy has suffered because there is neither a strong party in government
nor a strong party in opposition.
The governor said that there are
forces within the main opposition party that are placing selfish ambitions and
ego above building a strong party.
He noted that the country needs a
strong cohesive party in government, which the APC is not.
“After our governorship election,
because of what we went through in the hands of the party at the centre, I was
very serious about re-building the party to take over power at the centre and
everyone knows what I did”, Dickson told Vanguard.
“I did everything to build
consensus. But, there are forces within the PDP that are against a cohesive and
strong PDP that can take power at the centre but these forces are surmountable
if party leaders eschew selfishness and bitterness and work for the interest of
PDP.
“I pray that the party overcomes
or realizes the need to overcome these forces, within the PDP that are placing
selfish ambition and ego above the need to build a strong party that, can take
power at the centre.
“I am very prayerful and hopeful
that these forces that are trying to tear the party to pieces, that have the capacity
to take the party from one crisis to another and to generate another crisis, be
the ones to solve it and move forward and so on.
“I pray that, the party survives
internal forces. I have always believed that this country needs two strong
parties, a strong cohesive party in government, which incidentally the APC is
not, but we should also pray for the APC to get their acts together.
“But the tragedy of our democracy
today is that we neither have a strong party in government nor a strong party
in opposition.
“Clearly Nigeria needs a strong
party in opposition and I agree with what the former head of state, Gen.
Abdulsalami Abubakar, said when he said that, the PDP has disappointed, because
it has not proven to be a strong party in opposition.
“That is very sad, because I am
essentially an opposition man and I am very comfortable being in opposition.
There are not many governors, who can survive the type of election I survived
in this state. I believe my party has a lot of work to do, so that the country
can have a real taste of two strong parties. We are proposing to have a
convention.
“Let’s see how it goes. I think
that, basically the PDP is suffering from having a preponderance of people, who
have never tasted opposition politics. All their politics has always been with
a party at the centre, using everything for their elections.
“They should learn from what we
did here. Now, before you forget, note that I am the only governor who has won
governorship re-election in this state on the platform of a party that is
different from the party at the centre.
“I am the only one in the core Niger
Delta states too. Of all the governors now in the PDP, I am the only one that
has won re-election, when the centre is of a different party. In November, we
shall see what happens in Anambra State.”
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