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.”
