Outside of his raging battle with Dame Patience, wife of President Goodluck Joathana there are other major forces buffeting the re election ambition of Governor of Bayelsa state Seriake Dickson.
Here is an insight into why he may not retain his seat.
Unfolding scenarios in the political
development of Bayelsa State indicate that Governor Seriake Dickson’s
bid to return to the Government House in 2016 is not a fait accompli,
writes Simon Utebor
The ability of Bayelsa State Governor,
Mr. Henry Seriake Dickson, to ride roughshod over all opposition in the
state will determine his political survival and his return for second
term.
Dickson cannot pretend that the odds
against his second term ambition are not gargantuan and they will take
him a deft diplomatic manoeuvring to surmount them.
The governor himself has started alluding
since last year that he was not oblivious of some opponents scheming to
wrest power from him.
However, he boasted then that the state
was a beacon of hope for the Ijaw people and would not be surrendered to
vultures and buccaneers.
He had said the state would continue to
be ruled by those who understand why it was created and the supreme
prices paid by some people before its creation.
While warning his opponents that he was
battle ready to actualise his second term ambition, the governor sent a
note of caution to them that he remained a “tested warrior.”
He had said, “It is unfortunate that
those who should know, those who have been the beneficiaries of this
solidarity and unity are being carried away by political attention.
“In this business, we have tested
warriors. I want to call on those dancing too early not to be like an
antelope that dances too early and dances itself lame before the dance
feast began.
“You can practise the dance, but don’t
get tired before the feast. If they know how we confronted sitting
authorities, they should have known better. When we are ready, we will
show them who we are.”
His bold and tough stance notwithstanding, those rooting for his removal are hell bent on ensuring that he does not come back.
It is an open secret that the wife of the President, Dame Patience Jonathan, opposed Dickson’s second term ambition.
She was said to have preference for the Special Adviser to the President on Domestic Matters, Mr. Waripanmowei Dudafa.
Though observers said Dudafa is just a
card the First Lady is flying, but at the end, the Senator representing
Bayelsa Central District, Emmanuel Paulker, would be the First Lady’s
favourite.
When Mrs. Jonathan resigned her
appointment as Super Permanent Secretary in the state’s civil service in
October last year, many believed that the resignation was a political
statement that the battle line between her and Dickson had actually been
drawn.
Ministry of Education sources had
confided in our correspondent who broke the news then that the
President’s wife resigned to enable her perfect her plan to frustrate
the Dickson’s second term ambition.
Since then, the governor and Mrs.
Jonathan have been locked in supremacy battle over the control of the
Peoples Democratic Party structure in the state.
The recent PDP primaries in the state
showed that Dickson had a firm grip on the party as the governor ensured
that all his loyalists won in the contests.
The development was said to have angered
the First Lady and her loyalists who had regrouped to perfect strategies
on how to remove Dickson.
One of the strategies, it was learnt, was
the hijack of the leadership of the state chapter of the Transformation
Ambassadors from the governor’s supporters.
TAN, formerly headed by Dickson’s loyalist, Talford Ongolo, is now led and dominated by loyalists of Mrs. Jonathan.
The governor, sensing that hijacking TAN
from his loyalists could mar his electoral fortunes, has been on warpath
with the group, culminating in the banning of TAN from Bayelsa.
He had, in a statement by his media aide,
Daniel Iworiso-Markson, accused TAN of “promoting subversive activities
and inciting crisis and divisions within the PDP in the state.”
He then ordered members of the group
headed by a former deputy governor of the state, Werinipre Seibarugu,
“to move their activities elsewhere.”
He said that the PDP, and not any other
group, was the only recognised political platform saddled with the
responsibility of leading the President’s campaign with him (governor)
as the leader, noting with dismay that “the activities of TAN do not
seem to serve the purpose for which it was created in the state.”
But TAN issued a disclaimer, saying in a
statement by its Director of Publicity, Nathan Egba, that the governor’s
directive was regrettable.
Egba had described the governor as a joker, saying he had no right to ban the organisation.
He insisted that Dickson lacked the power to ban TAN’s activities.
Egba said, “We are shocked because we
find it hard to understand how a state governor would make such a
statement in a democratic setting, as we have in Nigeria.
“There is nowhere in the Nigerian
Constitution that gives any governor such powers. TAN in Bayelsa is,
however, aware of plots by some over-zealous government officials to
portray groups such as TAN, Women For Change Initiative and others in
bad light.”
The second strategy, it was learnt, was
the alleged defection of some aggrieved aspirants who could not get the
PDP tickets during the primaries to the All Progressives Grand Alliance.
It was gathered that the move would
provide an alternative platform for the aggrieved First Lady’s loyalists
to test their popularity against the PDP during the general elections.
It is believed that even though Dickson
and Mrs. Jonathan are playing the ostrich, the relationship between them
is far from being cordial.
Besides the reported rebuffing of the
governor by the First Lady during President Goodluck Jonathan’s birthday
in Abuja recently, the shunning of Dickson during the presidential
campaign rally in Yenagoa on February 6 painted a gory picture of an
unending frosty relationship.
Dickson was said to have gone to visit
Mrs. Jonathan at the Presidential Lodge in Bayelsa Government House but
security details attached to the First Lady from Abuja allegedly turned
him back.
A source, who craved anonymity, said when the governor got there, he was politely told the First Lady did not want to see him.
The source said the governor left the Lodge for his office angry and dejected.
Before the rally proper, speculation was
all over the place that plan had been hatched by people loyal to the
First Lady to stone the governor.
The governor, who was said to have got
wind of the planned stoning, did not leave any stone unturned by
perfecting security arrangement before and during the rally.
On the day of the rally, journalists,
party supporters and others who thronged the venue, had a herculean task
gaining access into the Samson Siasia Sports Complex.
Security operatives frisked people and
prevented them from going into the arena with sachet and bottled water
as part of the measures to prevent the governor from being pelted with
them.
When Jonathan and his entourage arrived
the venue by 2.15pm after his supporters had waited close to seven
hours, Dickson was the first to mount the podium to welcome him.
The governor, while urging Nigerians to
cast their votes for the President for re-election, showered encomiums
on the First Lady, apparently to give indication that no cracks existed
between them.
Those who read the countenance of the First Lady saw in her a woman not carried away by the governor’s adulation.
On the President, Dickson gave him the
assurance that Bayelsa was totally for him and that he should not lose
sleep over his electoral victory.
“There is no shaking for you. Do not lose any sleep at all,” he said.
However, Dickson got his first public disgrace in Bayelsa, as some groups in the crowd began to boo him.
The booing was so much that the governor
became confused and his intention to suppress it by raising his voice
pitch did not also work until he left the podium downcast.
As if that was not enough, the booing of Dickson resurfaced when Jonathan mounted the podium.
The President, not satisfied with the
disaffection shown to Dickson, cleared the air on the alleged frosty
relationship between the first family and the governor.
Jonathan said the relationship between
his family and Dickson remained cordial and that anyone quarrelling with
the governor should consider it as a fight against him (the President).
He said, “I am working closely with the
Bayelsa State Governor. And I want you to know that those who don’t like
the governor don’t like me. If you don’t like Dickson, you don’t like
me.
“I know that a few persons have
infiltrated your midst and are spreading lies. You must work with the
governor. For you to benefit anything from the federal level, you must
work with him. Don’t allow anybody to deceive you. I am telling you as a
brother, uncle and father.”
Still, not minding the President’s counsel, the booing of Dickson continued.
Though the reason for the booing of the governor could not be ascertained, it was learnt that those behind it were sponsored.
It was also learnt some Bayelsa residents
were indignant at Dickson, popularly known as Countriman Governor,
because of his alleged tight-fistedness, constant junketing and absence
of ‘stomach infrastructure’ policy in the state.
In her remarks at the rally, Mrs. Jonathan tactfully avoided mentioning the alleged frosty relationship between her and Dickson.
She instead called on the women to
intensify prayers for the re-election of her husband based on his
performance and the fulfilment of the 35 per cent affirmative action for
women in the country.
Some concerned Bayelsa residents, however, praised Dickson for developing the state in the area of infrastructure.
They said the governor’s performance
since the administration was inaugurated on February 28, 2012, was above
average when compared with those before him.
But a public affairs analyst, Daniels
Igoni, said the people were angry with the governor because they were
suffering in the midst of plenty.
He, therefore, urged the governor to initiate some stimulus packages for jobless youths.
Igoni said, “People are hungry and the
governor is telling us he is building bridges, roads and what have you.
Is it not people who are living that will enjoy the infrastructure? What
Bayelsa people are saying by their action is that the governor should
empower them.
“He was lucky the security people rose to
the occasion. What people planned to do at the rally was to stone him.
But as there was nothing to use to stone him, people expressed their
indignation by booing him.
“He is our governor and we hope he will
listen to us. All the people are saying is that things have never been
this difficult in Bayelsa. Bayelsa residents are saying infrastructure
building is good but stomach infrastructure should also be instituted.”
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