Former Bayelsa Governor Seriake Dickson has declared that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) he once knew “has since been killed and buried,” blaming the party’s current decline for his and others’ exit.
Speaking on Politics Today on Channels Television and monitored by ENigeria Newspaper, Dickson recounted his political journey, explaining that he joined the PDP after leaving the Alliance for Democracy, where he served as National Legal Adviser.
“The PDP as I knew it, the PDP Nigerians have known since its formation, the PDP that I came to be part of after leaving the Alliance for Democracy… that PDP has since been killed and buried,” he noted.
“Where we are now, it is not fair to say that I and others who are leaving now have left the PDP. It will be more appropriate to say that the PDP left me. PDP left us’, he added.
He expressed disappointment over what he described as the erosion of the PDP’s ideals and structure. “It is very sad that before our very eyes our trusted and loved platform evaporated. That is different from leaving,” he said, noting that the party Nigerians once trusted no longer exists in its former form.
He also reflected on the party’s historical successes, recalling how it produced three consecutive presidents.
“Three presidents were elected back to back, President Obasanjo who laid the foundation of democracy for eight years, President Yar’Adua who was massively elected before he died along the way, and President Jonathan who completed that tenure and in 2011 won election on his own merit. That was the PDP that was attractive,” Dickson said.
He also stressed that the current PDP cannot be compared to the party that once commanded national support. “Whatever is left of the PDP after all the shenanigans clearly cannot be the PDP that I saw, cannot be the PDP Nigerians entrusted with power.”
Dickson, a former PDP governor of Bayelsa State, said that Nigerians looking for a strong opposition platform might choose the NDC.
“So, my dear Nigerians, you now have a credible alternative opposition party known as the Nigeria Democratic Congress. Yes, it is coming at this time. We would have wished it had started some years or months ago; we don’t control INEC or its processes. They delayed. We also don’t control the judiciary, but thank God it has finally arrived,” he said.
Over the past year, the PDP has been embroiled in a leadership crisis as two groups dispute the party’s organizational structure.
Due to a wave of defections brought on by the crisis, the party now only has two governors after a number of others joined the ruling All Progressives Congress.
