Former Governor of Bayelsa State, Seriake Dickson, has stated that it would be inaccurate to claim that he and others are leaving the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, insisting that instead the party they once knew left them.
Dickson made the remarks while speaking on Politics Today, a programme on Channels Television.
He expressed deep disappointment over what he described as the decline of the party that once dominated Nigeria’s political system, stressing that the PDP Nigerians trusted with power for years no longer exists.
“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,” Dickson said.
The former governor lamented that the party he joined in the early 2000s had gradually lost its original ideals and structure.
“It is very sad that before our very eyes our trusted and loved platform evaporated. That is different from leaving,” he stated.
Dickson recalled his political journey into the PDP, noting that he joined the party after leaving the Alliance for Democracy and later becoming one of its key figures.
“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 as its National Legal Adviser… that PDP has since been killed and buried,” he said.
He added that whatever currently remains of the party cannot be compared to the PDP that once gained widespread 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,” he added.
Dickson also reflected on the party’s past electoral successes, highlighting how it produced three successive 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,” he said.
