Dickson And Governors Penchant To 'Retire' At Senate
Dickson |
Governor of Bayelsa State, Serieke
Dickson like many of the governors in this dispensation is believed to nurse
senatorial ambition after eight years as governor of the oil-rich state. Until
the return of democracy in 1999 Nigeria has never witnessed such a huge
turnover of senators from the ranks of the former governors. Alongside their
humungous pension benefits as former governors, these class of elite will not
want to be outside the public office, they must move to the Senate where they
would wish to remain in perpetuity or until a bigger masquerade emerges in
their senatorial district to remind them that whatever has a beginning has an
end.
Dickson, a former member of
the House of Representatives, before President Goodluck Jonathan uplifted him
politically by using federal might to dislodge the then incumbent governor,
Timipre Sylva from seeking second term under the platform of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP). It was at a time when PDP ticket is tantamount to
having won the main election. While Jonathan was instrumental to his victory
when he was President, Dickson won a hard fought second term especially with
the All Progressives Congress (APC) federal might stack against him. He
survived. Having emerged victorious even against the APC that controls the
federal government, he perhaps believes that he has arrived as a political juggernaut
in Bayelsa State. He sidelined the
leaders of the PDP in the state and when the PDP was to hold its primaries to
select its governorship candidate, Serieke Dickson served notice that you have
to belong to the “Restoration Caucus” to stand a chance to emerge the party’s
candidate. This position resulted to the splitting of the PDP into two
factions, one led by Governor Dickson and called “Restoration Caucus” and the
other said to be loyal to former President Goodluck Jonathan known as “Non
Restoration Caucus Members.”
Governor Dickson has never
hidden his readiness to support his preferred candidate to emerge the next
governor of the state while making it clear that if the party gives the ticket
to anybody outside “Restoration Caucus”
the governor was not ready to support the party. Of course what the outgoing
governor did not make public was that he is supporting the man who eventually emerged
the PDP candidate Senator Douye Diri because he hoped to take over Diri’s
Senatorial seat if he emerges as governor. Apparently blinded by his senatorial
ambition, the governor failed to listen to the stakeholders who are insisting
on sticking with the zoning arrangement in the state. Since the governor could
not listen to the people and their leaders, they decided to get their pound of
flesh on the Election Day even if their beloved PDP would suffer or die in the
process in Bayelsa State.
And on Saturday November 16,
2019 governorship election in Bayelsa State there was a political shift of
seismic proportion. Since 1999 when the country returned to democratic
governance, Bayelsa State remained a stronghold of the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP). For good or for ill the people of Bayelsa see the PDP as their own. If
Bayelsa is good today it is the handiwork of the PDP, and if it is bad the PDP
is to blame. It governed the state for 20 years. It was the party that made it
possible for one of its illustrious sons, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to emerge
the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria through a democratic process. Hate
him or love him, Jonathan remains a hero to Bayelsans and the people of Niger
Delta Region that voted and supported him as President. He is revered in the
Niger Delta Region, despite all the allegations of corruption leveled against
his erstwhile government. He is also seen as the leader of the PDP in Bayelsa
State even though these days he is more preoccupied with international
engagements by the United Nations, African Union, ECOWAS and others.
When the dust eventually
settled after the earthquake caused by Serieke Dickson’s senatorial ambition
and disregard to party leaders in the state including former President
Jonathan, it emerged that the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC)
in Bayelsa State, Chief David Lyon emerged the winner of the governorship
election held on Saturday. Lyon won in six of the state’s eight local
government areas thereby by defeating Dickson and PDP candidate, Senator Douye
Diri who won only two local governments. It is instructive that in the former
President Goodluck Jonathan’s Ogbia local government area, Bayelsa East, the
APC candidate defeated the PDP candidate by garnering 58,016 votes while PDP’s
Diri got only 13, 763 votes.
The lesson for all Nigerians
is to stop this tradition that governors after spending eight years in powers
must necessarily move to the senate. These senatorial quests often turn them to
tyrants. The sacrifice that Bayelsans made to stop Dickson’s senatorial
ambition even at the expense of PDP deserves commendation and should be
emulated by other states where former governors are nursing senatorial ambition
as if they are the only people that can serve their people even when their
records at Government House is nothing to write home about.
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