Forces Within Will Cripple PDP’s Presidential Ambition In 2019 – Dickson
Following power struggle within the major opposition party in Nigeria, the Bayelsa State governor, Seriake Dickson has said Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) hope of rebounding in the 2019 presidential election is inbalance.
He expressed doubt that the party would emerge victorious during the forthcoming presidential poll, saying some forces within the major opposition party in the country are tearing it apart.
According to Governor Dickson, though the PDP is expected to form a strong opposition for a viral democracy, the anti-democratic forces within the PDP are against a cohesive and a strong party that would take over power at the centre.
Dickson who made this known during a media chat at the governor’s conference room in the Government House, Yenagoa, yesterday evening said the major problem of the forces within the party is selfishness and egoism.
He noted that if nothing is done to address the problems, the party would not bounce back.
The governor who was the chairman of PDP reconciliation committee said, ‘’I was very serious about rebuilding the party to take over power at the centre and everyone knows what I did. I did everything, built consensus but I think there are forces within the PDP that are against a cohesive and a strong PDP that will take power at the centre.
‘’I pray that the party overcomes or realises 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 let me say that at this point I am hopeful that these forces that are trying to tear the party have the capacity to take the party from one crisis to another and to generate another crisis”.
Praying that the party survives internal forces, Dickson said he had always believed that Nigeria needs two strong political parties.
He continued: “I have said that over and over again that we need a strong cohesive party in government, which incidentally, the All Progressives Congress is not. We should also pray for the APC to get their acts together.
‘’Ideally, Nigeria needs a strong party in opposition. I agree with what a former head of state, Gen. Abdusalami Abubakar (rtd), said a few days ago. He said that the PDP had disappointed Nigerians by not truly living to be a strong party in opposition.
‘’That is very sad. As a person, I’m an opposition man and I am very comfortable being in the opposition. There are not many governors who can survive the kind of election I survived. I believe that my party has a lot of work to do and we should pray for it so that the country can have a real taste of two strong parties’’.
Governor Dickson expressed hope that the proposed convention of the party coming up in November would be able to address the internal problems of the PDP.
He said, ’’We are proposing to have a convention. Let us see how it goes. I think basically the PDP is suffering from a preponderance of people who have never tasted opposition politics.
‘’All their politics have always been with the party at the centre using everything for their election. They should learn from what we did here. I am the only governor who has won a governorship reelection in this state on the platform of a party that is different from the party at the centre; the only one so far.
‘’Of all the governors, I am the only one that has won a reelection when the centre is a different party. Now, I think later in November we shall see what happens in Anambra State. A number of people take this background for granted. So, I pray that the PDP survives. Nigeria needs PDP; Nigeria needs a strong party in opposition. I wish my party and the Nigeria democracy the best’’.
