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12—SATURDAY Vanguard, NOVEMBER 23, 2019<br />
How Dickson<br />
handed<br />
power to APC<br />
By Samuel Oyadongha,<br />
Yenagoa<br />
It was the literary icon,<br />
Professor Chinua Achebe of<br />
blessed memory who wrote<br />
in his epic novel, ‘Things Fall<br />
Apart’ that “Those whose palm<br />
kernels have been broken for<br />
them by benevolent spirits must<br />
not forget to be humble,” and if<br />
there is one man whose palm<br />
kernels were broken for him by<br />
benevolent spirits, it is<br />
incumbent Bayelsa State<br />
Governor, Hon. Seriake<br />
Dickson.<br />
The routing of the ruling<br />
Peoples’ Democratic Party<br />
(PDP) in the November 16,<br />
2019, governorship election<br />
in Bayelsa State by the<br />
opposition, All Progressive<br />
Congress (APC) marked a<br />
watershed.<br />
It signifies the end and<br />
beginning of a new area<br />
in the political annals of<br />
in the state.<br />
Interestingly, the APC<br />
which was repeatedly<br />
taunted by the ruling party<br />
in the build up to the poll<br />
as lacking the needed<br />
presence and structure to make any<br />
significant impact has turned around to<br />
dislodge the latter from Creek Haven,<br />
the romantic name for the seat of power<br />
in the predominantly riverine state where<br />
politics has remained the only thriving<br />
industry.<br />
Perhaps, the current blame game rocking<br />
the PDP in Bayelsa State could have been<br />
avoided if Governor Seriake Dickson had<br />
allowed stakeholders have their way during<br />
the September 3 primary of the party that<br />
produced Senator Douye Diri.<br />
The primary, according to some aggrieved<br />
party stalwarts, was designed to favour Diri,<br />
as against many of the stakeholders’ choice,<br />
Chief Timi Alaibe, whose popularity and<br />
acceptability cuts across the various segments<br />
of the state.<br />
Former President Goodluck Jonathan,<br />
who though did not openly<br />
endorse any of the aspirants<br />
jostling for the party ticket was<br />
said to be favourably disposed<br />
to an Alaibe candidature. But<br />
Dickson, according to informed<br />
sources had zeroed in on Diri<br />
as his successor, having worked<br />
closely with him over the years.<br />
He was also said to have<br />
The leader of<br />
the party<br />
became so<br />
powerful that<br />
he decided<br />
who got his<br />
patronage<br />
shunned entreaties from a<br />
former President, and other<br />
prominent Nigerians to<br />
support Alaibe. In a leaked<br />
audio recording that went viral,<br />
Dickson said he does not reward<br />
disloyalty and only<br />
governorship aspirants from his<br />
restoration caucus will succeed<br />
him.<br />
Saturday Vanguard check<br />
revealed that the refusal of the<br />
governor to shift ground was<br />
being exploited by his traducers,<br />
putting the blame of the party’s<br />
defeat at the door steps of his Restoration<br />
Caucus, (Dickson political family).<br />
Members of the group, who are mainly aides<br />
of the governor, regarded themselves as more<br />
PDP than those outside its fold, not minding<br />
the consequences of their action on the<br />
fortunes of the party, lamented Azi Enato.<br />
He noted with sadness that the leadership of<br />
the PDP in the state which could have allowed<br />
party supremacy reign over other interest<br />
groups within its fold, with a view to fostering<br />
party discipline and cohesion was helpless<br />
ostensibly because it was foisted on the entire<br />
members by the governor. Thus, the chairman<br />
and other executive members of the party<br />
looked the other way and egged on the<br />
Restoration Caucus when things were going<br />
bad. The leader of the party became so<br />
powerful that he decided who got his<br />
patronage.<br />
The Restoration family also<br />
boasted that the governor’s<br />
successor must come from<br />
within its fold thereby fencing<br />
out other gubernatorial<br />
aspirants who were considered<br />
outsiders irrespective of the<br />
sacrifice they have made for the<br />
party when many of the<br />
restoration caucus members<br />
were not even known to be<br />
members of the PDP.<br />
To some PDP chieftains, the<br />
loss of the state to APC after<br />
PDP’s dominance for the past<br />
20 years was chiefly as a result<br />
of Dickson’s foisting of Senator<br />
Douye Diri on the party through<br />
a flawed primary designed to<br />
throw up the latter.<br />
According to pundits, the<br />
people voted overwhelmingly<br />
for APC because Dickson as<br />
Diri’s sponsor did not show<br />
sufficient respect to Jonathan.<br />
In the first instance, Dickson did not consult<br />
with the statesman about Diri’s candidature.<br />
He just picked him in a stage-managed<br />
primary, aware that Jonathan was also<br />
interested in a different<br />
candidate, they claimed.<br />
The former Managing<br />
Director of the Niger Delta<br />
Development<br />
Commission (NDDC),<br />
Timi Alaibe, who is<br />
believed to have the<br />
backing of<br />
Jonathan and seen<br />
by many<br />
stakeholders as a<br />
tested technocrat<br />
with the<br />
requisite war<br />
chest to fly the<br />
party flag,<br />
came second<br />
in the primary.<br />
M a n y<br />
stakeholders were not impressed with the<br />
process that produced Diri and the party was<br />
hit by gale of defections. A large number of<br />
the party field commanders and tacticians<br />
moved on to the opposition party while several<br />
others who chose to stay back were indifferent<br />
to the party during the election. Even in the<br />
face of seeming trouble, Dickson was still<br />
boastful, adding that the defections to other<br />
political parties would have little effects on<br />
the fortunes of PDP on November 16.<br />
Alaibe was among those who took exception<br />
to the process that threw up Diri and chose to<br />
challenge Diri and PDP in court. The bad<br />
blood caused by the primary election was<br />
contagious as even some appointees of the<br />
governor began to throw in the towel one after<br />
another.<br />
Unruffled by the turn of events in the party,<br />
the PDP under Dickson watch was still upbeat<br />
about party victory at the governorship poll<br />
with or without those defecting to the APC,<br />
insisting that Bayelsa was a PDP state.<br />
The state chairman of the party, Moses<br />
Cleopas had in a statement said the Bayelsa<br />
people and followers were not with the<br />
defectors, who according to him, lacked the<br />
requisite character, principle and integrity.<br />
He bragged that the PDP won convincingly<br />
in the 2015 guber poll in spite of the defections<br />
and would repeat same feat without such<br />
“unstable characters.”<br />
Though Dickson promised that PDP’s<br />
candidate would emerge from within his<br />
government, nevertheless assured that he<br />
would not impose a candidate on them and<br />
advised aspirants waiting for him to anoint<br />
them and impose them on the people to have<br />
a rethink. He said any of the aspirants, who<br />
felt they had the experience and capacity<br />
should go and make their case to Bayelsans.<br />
He said: “I led a party to victory against a<br />
vicious opposition. I alone can lead PDP to<br />
battle, I have done it repeatedly. You saw the<br />
election; there will be no form of<br />
manipulation. People talking about<br />
manipulation are anticipating that they<br />
should be imposed. I’m not going to impose<br />
any of them. Any of them who feel they have<br />
experience and capacity should go and make<br />
their case to the people of Bayelsa State.”<br />
Dickson’s intransigence that he can<br />
overcome the mines on the path of the PDP<br />
without other stakeholders and deliver his<br />
anointed candidate, no doubt, presented the<br />
flood-prone state where the PDP’s umbrella<br />
had held sway for two decades, to the APC’s<br />
broom, on a platter of gold.<br />
Some political pundits have queried what<br />
happened to the three days prayer, fasting and<br />
vision which he subjected the people to<br />
partake, under the guise of seeking God’s<br />
intervention for his ‘predetermined successor’.<br />
They wondered how the former president,<br />
Goodluck Jonathan and other critical<br />
stakeholders who had made sacrifice to the<br />
keep the party afloat at its time of need were<br />
treated as strangers within the party because<br />
they were not members of the Dickson<br />
Restoration political family and such their<br />
inputs not needed in the choice of who succeeds<br />
the outgoing governor.<br />
“The PDP should blame itself for picking an<br />
unpopular candidate instead of blaming it on<br />
others. Crying foul and insinuating that<br />
Jonathan was used to cause PDP defeat is<br />
ridiculous and disrespectful,” said some top<br />
stakeholders.<br />
Also some stakeholders in Ogbia Local<br />
Government insisted that the not so impressive<br />
performance of the party in the area in the just<br />
concluded governorship election rested on the<br />
door step of the governor who they argued<br />
was fully in charge of the party structures and<br />
the entire machinery of the state.<br />
According to them, the party leadership<br />
failed to listen to the voice of wisdom that<br />
warned about the looming defeat, as a result<br />
of the shabby treatment meted to the area and<br />
sidelining of the former president and other<br />
critical stakeholders.<br />
“He called us out to the battle field by his<br />
actions, deeds and utterances. Ogbia<br />
brotherhood represents the daring spirit of the<br />
Ogbia Kingdom. Never will she waiver or<br />
retreat from any challenge no matter where it<br />
is coming from. Last Saturday was no<br />
ordinary elections in Ogbialand and Bayelsa<br />
state.<br />
“A revolution of the ballot and true to type,<br />
no blood was drawn across the land yet the<br />
tempest was roundly tamed. It was a contest<br />
to determine the true meaning of the<br />
brotherhood. It was a clash of wills, the idea<br />
of a fair and inclusive Ogbia kingdom over<br />
the tyranny of power and opportunity. From<br />
the beginning, it was never in doubt that the<br />
brotherhood of the Amangalas would<br />
triumph.<br />
“Now, as we prepare to relegate the past to<br />
history, another history beckons once again.<br />
The damaged psyche and fabric of the<br />
brotherhood must be repaired. Together, we<br />
must rebuild broken walls and the once<br />
revered decency and generous spirit of a<br />
kingdom we love must be reinvented. We<br />
have no better place to call home. Let us<br />
reinstate the pride and prosperity of a land<br />
that gave us the meaning of brotherhood,”<br />
said Macaulay Jokori, in a veiled reference to<br />
the spanking of the PDP at the poll.<br />
John Ebimobowei, a teacher, said he is<br />
saddened by the outcome of what he described<br />
as Dickson’s overconfidence which has cost<br />
the PDP the governorship.<br />
“I blame the party poor outing on Governor<br />
Dickson’s overconfidence and I think this<br />
should be a lesson to other governors. He<br />
singlehandedly chose an unpopular<br />
candidate from the Senate to become<br />
governor and also chose his running mate<br />
which is against the wish of the people,” he<br />
said.<br />
But Dickson at a world press conference in<br />
Yenagoa described the governorship election<br />
as charade and a carefully orchestrated plan to<br />
forcefully take over Bayelsa towards entrenching a<br />
one party system.<br />
“This was not the first time that we are having<br />
elections. People were killed, some ripped open and<br />
thrown into the river and up till now no arrest. As<br />
democrats, we believe in using democratic<br />
procedures in challenging what happened in Ogbia.<br />
“In Ogbia, there was no collation done. In most<br />
of the areas, at the conclusion of voting, the soldiers<br />
came and rounded up everybody and forcibly took<br />
them to Ogbia town and asked all PDP leaders to<br />
leave to enable them replace pre-written results.<br />
And so the results announced for Ogbia, like those<br />
for Southern Ijaw and Nembe were not real. What<br />
has happened in Bayelsa is one of the most<br />
brazen acts of distortion and rape of our<br />
democracy.<br />
“What took place was not a democratic<br />
election. It was a military coup. It was the height<br />
of conspiracy by the federal government and security<br />
agencies to subvert the democratic rights of our<br />
people for the sole purpose of foisting the APC on the<br />
people.<br />
“It has never been like this before. In 2015, it<br />
wasn’t as bad as this. In this case, not only was the<br />
Army directed to take over our place, but also to<br />
collude with the APC thugs to unleash terror on our<br />
people.”<br />
He however urged Bayelsans to be calm adding<br />
that the reprehensible acts against democracy would<br />
be addressed through democratic procedures.<br />
Dickson also described as balderdash, the notion<br />
being bandied about by APC leaders that it was<br />
disagreement between him and former President<br />
Goodluck Jonathan that led to their Pyrrhic victory,<br />
emphasizing that Jonathan remained a leader of<br />
the entire country whose image and reputation was<br />
too weighty to be dragged in the mud by the<br />
opposition party.