2019: Give PDP to ordinary Nigerians, Dickson tells party leaders

With less than two years to the 2019 general elections, the Governor of Bayelsa State and Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Reconciliation Committee, Henry Seriake Dickson, on Tuesday in Abuja advised the PDP to ensure that the party belongs to ordinary Nigerians.

According to him, the power of the people remained the best armoury the PDP could deploy to relaunch itself in 2019.

He said, “There is no armoury  any where that is stronger than the power of the people. This new PDP should be thrown to the Nigerian people, including those in the grassroots so that popular candidates can emanate from the ordinary people; let the people own the party. These are the ways to reposition PDP for dominance and electoral victory. This is the abiding  principle that fired the founding fathers to form the PDP in 1998 and the onus is on us more than ever before to consolidate this philosophy in concrete terms.”

Dickson, according to a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Francis Ottah Agbo, spoke at a the inaugural retreat of the PDP National Chairman with the theme: “Repositioning PDP For Dominance & Electoral Victory.”

The event has “Conflict Resolution in a political party”, as its sub-title.

Dickson said politics is all about management and  resolution of crisis, including the management of conflicting interests.

These interests, he said are legitimate, once they are within the confines of the party interest. He noted that conflict resolution is the duty of all party men and women not just for the party leaders alone or the Reconciliation Committee of the party.

Aside conflict resolution and the management of crisis, Dickson said Politics is also about conspiracy.

“But when we conspire, we must do it in the interest of the people and in the interest of the nation not conspiracy for self aggrandizement or conspiracy to fan the embers of disunity,” the Governor averred.

He, however, declared that any political  conspiracy that is insensitive to the ordinary people is not in the interest of the PDP because it is capable of de-marketing it and making the party to lose election.

He said “…And when a political party works in the interest of the people, it wins election which is very important for the survival and consolidation of the party . Parties exist to win election mainly to deliver service to the people . When a party loses election, you wake up from the slumber to regain power and this was exactly why the new Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus and the NWC have put together this retreat to deepen the strategies of regaining power in 2019 and beyond.

“A party that doesn’t win election is a dead party. For PDP to bounce back, we must do things right, enthrone internal democracy more than ever before, field popular candidates who could win election and serve the people. The time to do that is now. ”

The Governor also hinted of the preparedness of the Reconciliation Committee to engage Prof Taoheed Adedoja, one of the Chairmanship Aspirants in the PDP elective convention with the view to persuade him to withdraw his suit against the party.

Earlier PDP Board of Trustees Chairman, Senator Walid Jubrin  and Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu praised Governor Dickson for calming frayed nerves and for creating a veritable platform for the unity of the party.