ET TU, DICKSON?
of democracy, which is a market place of ideas.
“We all do not need to belong to one political party, even within our parties there are tendencies. There should be contestation of tendencies but the irony in Nigeria is that politicians in Nigeria are more militant than the military.
“Honestly, politicians in Nigeria do not know how to argue or disagree amongst themselves. We don’t listen to ourselves, we can’t argue amongst ourselves. If you hold a divergent view, you are marked for destruction or blackmail, or tagged as being anti-party and this is so because our political actors and leaders neither have the skills nor the democratic temperament to drive the political process.
“These are partly the reasons why the crises in both PDP and APC are strong. In the US for example, you see all the tendencies playing out, Clinton on the centre of the Democratic Party, you have Bernie Sanders on the left of the Democratic Party and others. So also in the Republican Party, all marketing their ideas
“But I am confident PDP will still bounce back after the Supreme Court judgement but my view is that we had no business going to court. If PDP leaders had agreed to implement our template for reconciliation, a national unity convention would have held this month to elect a brand new leadership.
“The irony of it is that the judiciary does not reconcile, it only adjudicates. Even after the Supreme Court judgement, the party will still hold a convention and embark on aggressive confidence building and reconciliation. So what is the real reason for going to court? As for me and my committee, we shall not give up on PDP. Reconciliation is ongoing, court or no court.
“After the judgment, I will address party faithful. People should stop decamping from PDP or leaving PDP to form new political platforms.
“I was opposed to Senator Ali Modi-Sheriff when some of my colleagues and others brought him. I didn’t like that; I thought that our party needed a fresh face to craft a fresh message after losing power at the centre. Losing election is bad but that is not the end of the world for a party or for a politician. “Unfortunately those who brought him for whatever reason fell apart with him. And when the Appeal Court upheld Sheriff as Chairman, I as a product of the law, as a law-abiding citizen adhered to the Court Judgment by duly recognizing him as Chairman and the same people said I was a Sheriff man.
“As politicians we shouldn’t be law breakers or hold the Judiciary in contempt. We should not personalize judicial pronouncements by selecting the verdicts to respect! Why should a politician for example want to pocket his party?
“Why should you be the one to select the National Chairman and Secretary and all the other posts? That they must be in your pocket for you to be a member of that party, does that make sense, is that not madness? If that is the thrust of a politician then you can go and form a political party of your family and be in charge. But once it’s a national party, it is an aggregation of all interests and top of which is the national interest.”
Today Dickson is pitched in a battle of wits with the governor of Rivers state, Nyesom Wike over the issue of Jonathan. Wike has at different times accused Dickson of ingratitude and lacking in tact in his choice of words.
However, Dickson was said to be battle ready to fight Jonathan’s men to a standstill following reports that Mrs. Jonathan was eyeing the Senate either in Rivers state or Bayelsa, a move that the governor would resist by all means.
But with opposition coming from both the Jonathan camp and the APC, observers believe that the road is surely going to be strewn with a lot of political obstacles for the governor who will complete his second term in 2020; and is determined to install a successor who will watch his back when he leaves office.
But today, Dickson has said it to Jonathan’s face that he is his own man and he would not even listen to Jonathan as to what political direction he would go let alone where he would lead Bayelsa.