The recent political outburst from an otherwise reticent Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bayelsa State, Mr. Cleopas Moses vowing that the party would resist attempts to hijack the party structure by those he described as anti-democratic forces, mirrors the struggle for power within the Bayelsa PDP ahead the 2019 general election and in particular the 2020 governorship election which would produce the successor to Governor Henry Seriake Dickson.
Moses’ declaration has been interpreted as an open invitation to a political slugfest with political forces determined to use its influence to wrest the control of the PDP political structure from the grip of Dickson. Just like in 2015 when plans reached an advanced stage to ensure Dickson does not get a second term ticket, political forces opposed to what they described as the political and economic strangulation of loyalists of Jonathan coupled with what they have defined as the subtle demystification of the Jonathan personage being spearheaded by Dickson are on a determined march, once more to halt what they call the complete dismantling of the old political order in Bayelsa State and the continued occupation of the political space by Dickson and his lieutenants. Daily Sun’s investigations reveal that if former President Goodluck Jonathan had not lost the Presidential election, Dickson would have been denied the second term ticket.
In the beginning
Dickson’s entry into the Jonathan political camp was in 2005 when his involvement in the Jonathan’s Committee of friends and the Green Movement political group was crucial to the survival of Jonathan’s political camp when it came up against a formidable Timi Alaibe political structure and a rampant Alamieyeseigha political machine. It is on record that Dickson, a veteran of opposition politics had no qualms in moving into the political trenches to ensure Jonathan was not swallowed by the political tsunami unleashed by Alaibe and Alamieseyeigha working separately in the battle for the soul of Bayelsa State.
From his position as Commissioner for Justice and Attorney – General and later House of Representatives member representing Sagbama/ Ekeremor Federal constituency, it was public knowledge that Dickson was a major ally of Jonathan (then Vice- President) fighting his battle against political forces both in Bayelsa and in Abuja. His emergence as the governorship candidate of the PDP in 2011 when former governor Timipre Sylva was stopped, according to political observers was largely because the political relationship between him and Jonathan had been mutually beneficial.
However Dickson’s refusal to pick Waripamowei Dudafa, a political godson of Mrs. Patience Jonathan as his running mate was considered a slight that must not go unpunished by certain political elements. Though pro- Dickson supporters insisted that the governor forged ahead with the developmental vision he shared with Jonathan by focusing on the mission to develop Bayelsa, his political foes within the Jonathan camp were not impressed. By 2015, political pundits in Bayelsa said things took a different turn when Dickson was suddenly being treated as political prodigal son with a plot to deny him a second term ticket and humiliate him out of office.
A political analyst Ebiakpo Samuel traced the relationship between Dickson and Jonathan and the intrigue that has threatened to tear them apart thus: “ Dickson was not treated well in 2015 when Jonathan was still President. Jonathan and Dickson started as friends and allies and Jonathan became his boss when he appointed Dickson as the Commissioner for Justice. But it is known everywhere that Dickson was the leader of his team. He was the one taking all the bullets for him. As a matter of fact almost all the political force in Ogbia local government was supporting Alaibe but Dickson provided strategy and led the fight. At a time in 2005, Dickson was the only one left behind to fight. If we should count one person that has fought battles for him, then it is Dickson. He led groups to Abuja to Minna , to Atiku to Babangida to counter Alaibe and the remnants of the Alamieyeseigha tendencies. He was crucial to Green Movement and Committee of Friends. In fact he was the driving force. They have had a long standing political relationship which has been mutually beneficial”
He continued ‘’As governor, Dickson was fighting battle on his behalf, right in his( Jonathan) bedroom, there were plots to undermine the governor. This state was divided because of that. TAN and other groups were created in Bayelsa State because of the agenda to deny Dickson a second term and humiliate him out of office for no just cause. Everybody knew that Dickson was unfairly treated and Bayelsa was unfairly treated. Security was brought here that were not reporting to the governor as Chief Security Officer but to Patience Jonathan’s associates. Every day it was to undermine Dickson where was the support he got? There was nothing they didn’t do to undermine him. Though Jonathan made it clear then that he was not part of the plot, but people do things in his name and he kept quiet ’’
Unfortunately for Dickson’s traducers, Daily Sun gathered, Jonathan lost the election and his political structure with no place to flourish in Abuja moved back into Bayelsa to commence a subtle war against Dickson whose appointments and pronouncements were being questioned and labeled anti- Jonathan. While his duty as the Chairman of the Reconciliation Committee of the PDP was seen by Jonathan’s loyalists as a plot to displace the former President in the national politics, his comments on the six years of Jonathan’s presidency that Bayelsans wasted an opportunity for development was seen as a final proof that Dickson could no longer be trusted to move in the same direction with Jonathan.
For Jonathan’s loyalists that have accused Dickson of making statements that tend to rubbish the Jonathan presidency, reference have been made to what political experts referred to as the eloquent submission of the Jonathan’s presidency by one of his kinsman, Senator Clever Ikisikpo which they insists have exonerated Dickson of any allegations of disloyalty.
“I want to tell you some bitter truth. There is an adage that says, ‘before you remove the speck in someone’s eyes, first remove the log in your own eyes.’ God gave us an elephant but we allowed the elephant to get rotten. Some may not get the adage perhaps. God gave us an elephant but we allowed the elephant to rotten. If we had judiciously used that elephant, I think by now, Bayelsa East would have become a ‘small Dubai’.
“But we misused the opportunity. Through that opportunity, we could not get oil blocks, through that opportunity; we could not get even modular refineries in Bayelsa East. Bayelsa East is the first place to produce crude oil in Nigeria, but go to where they call Oloibiri where oil was first discovered in commercial quantity, the place is a thick forest, where you can kill the biggest animal on earth. Is it supposed to be so? My dear brothers and sisters, if I say we should appreciate Buhari, they will say why we will appreciate Buhari. You may not know why I am saying so. Today, what our own cannot give to us, Buhari has given to us. Today, an Ogbia man, Dr. Eruani Azibapu, has been given a licence to build a private refinery. We had an opportunity given to the people of Ogbia, Nembe and Brass to own oil blocks in the past, did we get any? No,” Ikisikpo, added.
The plot
Immediately the Supreme Court affirmed Senator Ahmed Makarfi as the national chairman of the PDP, forces against Dickson in Bayelsa moved to take over Bayelsa PDP with a petition to Makarfi urging him to dissolve the Bayelsa PDP state executive committee.
In a petition, titled “ Urgent Need to Dissolve the Bayelsa State Executive Committee “ and addressed to Makarfi by Bayelsa State PDP stakeholders Forum, signed by Timipa Komonibo and Preye Ebizowei, chairman and secretary respectively, the group accused Dickson of working for Senator Ali Modu Sheriff to take over the party.
Armed with what they referred to as a plethora of evidence, they alleged that Dickson has been romancing with opposition elements like Bola Ahmed Tinubu with public show of affection through congratulatory messages. According to them, apart from unilaterally creating the Bayelsa State PDP executive council, they alleged that Dickson who was not a founding member of the PDP has been building cleavages of underground alliances with opposition elements in the state and in the country making surreptitious overtures to them and constantly paying glowing encomiums on their leadership.
The petition read in part “We have it on good authority that Governor Dickson has perfected plans with the opposition to remain in the party with his followers and weaken the party structures. Mr. Chairman, we wish to state that in spite of the governor’s open and unfortunate loyalty to opposition elements against the PDP and indeed Dr Goodluck Jonathan, he remains the highest recipient of his goodwill.
“The former President and his political machinery in Bayelsa State appointed the governor as Attorney- General and Commissioner for Justice in the state made him a two-time member of the Federal House of Representatives and a two-time governor of the state. The same governor has described Jonathan’s presidency, judged as the best the country has ever produced as ‘six wasted years.’ We wish to state that we have sacrificed tremendously for the PDP over the years. Some of us are being hunted and chased because of our unshakeable belief in the party. We have resisted and shall continue to resist the opposition to ensure that Bayelsa State remains a stronghold of the PDP in the country. We have identified Dickson and the present party structure as serious impediment to our aspiration. Unless the present structure is dissolved immediately, PDP should be set for the greatest shock in the next electoral dispensation.”
It’s all silence from the national secretariat and other stakeholders
Though Makarfi and Edwin Clark have maintained that there was no truth in the brewing crisis between Jonathan and Dickson, political observers of Bayelsa politics however pointed out that a recent letter from Mr. George Turner, a political godson of Jonathan, castigating the Dickson administration and demanding answers to posers about Dickson stewardship was another script from the political forces opposed to Dickson calling the shots in Bayelsa politics.
But on two occasions before he led the Bayelsa State PDP to visit Makarfi at the national secretariat in Abuja, Moses, the state party chiarman had sent a strong message to those angling to displace Dickson in the state, warning that the PDP would not allow agents of destabilization in the party to have their way.
His words “Having failed to stop the re-election of the governor in 2016, the same characters have regrouped to undemocratically take over Bayelsa State party structure ahead of the 2019, with the aim of foisting Governor Dickson’s successor on the PDP executives. Their plans will fail and they shall be resisted by this executive. All these anti-democratic forces wanting to hijack the state structure to crudely impose candidates of their choices including the PDP governorship candidate on the party shall be resisted by the real PDP family.”
