Dickson to fellow ex-govs: Distance yourselves from successors

A former governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Seriake Dickson (PDP, Bayelsa West) has advised former governors struggling with their successors to rather support with prayers in order to have peace of mind.

He gave the advice in an interview with journalists in Abuja.

When asked about his advice to fellow former governors, Dickson said, “My advice to my friends and brothers, former governors, colleagues, is don’t worry yourself much. God has used us to support them. Most of them, the ambition was not theirs. It was ours. They didn’t even say, ‘I want to be governor.’ Most of them, we brought them. We told them ‘come and be governor.’

“We have a duty to distance ourselves, pray and support them. Whenever I go to my state, I hardly stay in Yenagoa. I go straight to my village and stay there. I allow the governor space and time to do his job. And even if they disrespect you, badmouth or blackmail you, we should just pray for them to realize that one day they themselves will be former governors, and time runs very fast too. My advice is: leave everything for God and move on.”

On the Bayelsa deputy governorship position, he said Governor Duoye Diri would take the decision as “It is the duty, responsibility and prerogative of the governor to select his deputy.”

Dickson expressed his willingness to only offer advice and support to the governor, stressing that his attitude to steer clear of governance in his state has brought peace and stability.

He attributed the cause of what he called ‘avoidable crisis’ in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to failure of leadership, saying that the governors and former members of the National Working Committee (NWC) took strategic decisions without consulting other stakeholders or taking advice from them.

He said, “I am still in the PDP because I am faithful to the platform that has given both me and my people so much. But, quite frankly, the leaders of PDP have messed up completely. And the governors have missed every opportunity to pursue and achieve a reasonable solution to save a historic brand like PDP. Maybe most of them think it’s their personal property, but the PDP is a national brand. It’s an integral part of the political history of this nation. That’s the kind of platform they are playing with.”

The federal lawmaker hinted on the possibility of taking a decision on the PDP if the crisis persists.

“As you know, captains are not the first to bail out. Once there is disaster, a true captain stays until all efforts to salvage has failed. But I will take a decision…. It seems PDP’s case is not giving one any hope. But we are still praying; that even at the last minute, something good can happen. We still hope and pray that people will come to their senses.”

The member of the Senate Committee on Electoral Act also faulted the version of the upper chamber’s amendment that ruled out consensus and indirect primary as potential methods to produce candidates for elections, noting that the House version approved direct, indirect and consensus approaches.

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