‘With my experience in Bayelsa, Nigeria can never be a one-party state’

Still basking in the victory that returned him to the Bayelsa Government House, the man who likes to call every Nigerian he meets ‘Country man’, Seriake Dickson spoke with journalists in Abuja to explain the circumstances that surrounded his second coming, in the face of what he described as powerful “forces at the centre.” Abuja Bureau Chief, Alifa Daniel, was there.

Bayelsa election akin to a war

THIS election was not just an election, it was more than an election this was actually like surviving a war and yet the ordinary people of Bayelsa, the women and youths of Bayelsa were resolute, were resilient, were steadfast and showed their belief and confidence in me, election after election, community after community, local government after local government, and even by the account of the electoral body, we won seven out of eight local government areas declared.

That is resounding victory in spite of all odds because we were up against a full display of the totality of powers at the centre deployed to the fullest. All elements of national powers were deployed to take over Bayelsa by force and my opponents campaign was appropriately nicknamed ‘Operation Take-over Bayelsa.’ They called it a takeover mission and it appeared innocent at first but in retrospect we now know what they meant from day one.

I believe that the Bayelsa election is a major significant development for our democracy, not only is this the first time a governor is winning an election in a core Niger Delta State on a platform different from the party at the centre, it’s the first time it is happening, it’s a very significant political development.

For us, this is a triumph of peoples’ will over might if voters in Bayelsa, women and youths, had to stay awake in the night forming a wall of protection of their voting units, their communities even some of them using their bare bodies to block armoured personnel carriers. This was a very significant election knowing what I know, going through what I went through.

Democracy on course in Nigeria

It means that in the end, Nigerian democracy is on track and it also shows that our nation will not be a one party state so any one who is thinking and dreaming anywhere that this vast land of proud people, resilient people will be cowed, will only go a particular way that people will be coerced into some kind of totalitarian rule should begin to think twice. With my experience in Bayelsa, our people are beginning to understand their role in a democracy; they are resolute and they are now getting better educated for the democratic processes; and for me, it’s a good development because this country should not be allowed to slip into a one party dictatorship. That sums up what has happened, it’s the significance of what has happened in Bayelsa.

It’s a victory for the people of Bayelsa, the ordinary people who rose up sometimes against the desires of the elite.  Most of the elite who decamped and joined the other party positioning themselves for federal appointments lost their booths, their polling units. Almost all of them, lost their units, lost their wards, lost their communities, lost their local government areas and even when we did not control the security forces even with all the constraints.  It’s a good development for democracy, it’s a good development for Bayelsa State, good for the Ijaw nation, good for the party- the PDP, and ultimately good for the country because it shows that our people are resilient and they are going to resist a one party imposition.

Lessons from the election

I just learnt a lesson, which I have always known, but a number of people underrate this. For anyone seeking elective office, you must go to your people. Power comes from God and the people. In this election, most of you know that I and my team spent almost six weeks campaigning in a way and in a manner never before done in the politics of Bayelsa; and the governorship politics of Bayelsa can never be the same again after now because we have raised the bar in terms of interacting and communicating and engaging the people. We prepared them and educated them for all that eventually happened. So, we visited community after community as against the former practice of a candidate just making peripheral appearance in a Senatorial district in a local government.

But this one was very penetrating, engaging and I was able to connect with the people and I had the people on my side. If elections are conducted 100 times, I will win 100 times, unit after unit, ward after ward, community after community, and local government after local government. We prepared the state for elections and I was saying while we were campaigning that the other side was not campaigning, they were not preparing for election they were preparing for violence buying arms and ammunition and equipping young people, misleading young people as if preparing for a war and using their control of the party at the centre as a basis for compromising security and distorting law and order in the state.

The lesson from this is that after God comes the people in an election. For those who do not believe they can even say the people first, but I am a man of faith and I believe that God allows people to have power when he chooses to, so it is God and the people. We also saw the benefit of non-violence because the story would have been worse if we had not laid that foundation in our campaign. We warned everybody not to be violent but to resist intimidation and turn out to insist on their right to vote, insist that their votes count and that their votes are counted. That’s what we saw.

Violence in the election

First of all, I again condemn the unnecessary violence and bloodletting and the maiming and destruction that followed. You just need to know that all the people arrested are from one side. All of them, those that I mentioned that have taken over communities all of them are from one party – the APC. The victims are all one party – the PDP and my supporters and that’s the reason we didn’t even allow people to celebrate. There was no formal celebration because of the cost of the victory. The victory came with a very high cost and I pray that those who are injured and are in various hospitals receive speedy recovery and we will work with the families to bury the dead and we pray that God will grant their souls eternal repose and all in all the election generally went well.

We are very concerned about the loss of lives and the destruction that happened and that is the more reason that with the final results declared apart from saying I would not want any formal celebration that even on account of the violence, the injured and the dead even for their memory, my opponent should have accepted defeat, called and congratulated me and then join me to reconcile the state and build a new Bayelsa from the ruins of the old.

Unfortunately, he (Chief Timipre Sylva) and his party are still seen to be talking about a litigation, which they are free to embark upon. That is disrespect to the memory of those who have died and those who are injured because he seems to be saying he is not tired of supplementary elections and when you realise that every election or supplementary election comes with this cost we are talking about makes it all the more insensitive.

If it were in some decent climes some people will be answering questions right now with what happened in Bayelsa and to now say that not enough people have been killed, not enough communities have been ransacked by militants, not enough people have been gunned down or terrorized, that is insensitive.

For us, these elections have been won and lost and the honourable thing to do for the sake of democracy, for the sake of Bayelsans – the people he once led; is for him to stop this war against this people, stop boasting as he is boasting to upturn the will of the people.
Unity of the Ijaw

The Ijaw nation is united.

Yes, a contest among brothers is bound to generate some divisions even in a family but there are no sharp divisions as such. He has his own partymen and some supporters but the bulk of our people, majority of our people are unflinching in their support for me not just in Bayelsa but also across the Niger Delta States. The Ijaw Nation is united there some efforts that some people are making using various levers of federal might to get a chunk of support for themselves I wish them well and advise that they use proper and legitimate means in doing so.

Now that elections are over we are looking ahead, we are looking at reconciling everybody. I have offered a hand of fellowship to Chief Sylva and the APC and I hope that superior reason will prevail.