Dickson Was Insensitive To Stakeholders’ Needs – Ex-Aide

Former Special Adviser to the Bayelsa State Governor on Niger Delta, Kennedy West, has said that the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in last Saturday’s governorship election did not come as a surprise following irregularities in the administration of Governor Seriake Dickson.
The Tide reports that this is the first time the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will be losing governorship election in Bayelsa State since the return of democracy in 1999.
Also, West said the election was lost to the APC, the main opposition in the state because the PDP under Governor Seriake Dickson was insensitive to the needs of stakeholders there, even as he alleged that incumbent Governor Dickson picked a governorship candidate against the wishes of the people.
West, who spoke when he appeared at a live Radio programme in Port Harcourt monitored by The Tide last Monday, also said the failure of the PDP under the leadership of Governor Dickson generated from the governor’s disconnect from the elites of Bayelsa State, noting that the governor is secretive.
“He (Dickson) has been shrouded with secrecy and sycophancy. As I was coming from Bayelsa State, droves of people came out to celebrate. This is the first time, can you recall any defector from APC to the PDP from when INEC blew the whistle?
“One thing that politicians should know when you make empty campaign promises, when you alienate yourself from the people that elected you, know that there is a day of reckoning. You can’t cheat a man and cheat him for too long. You can cheat some people sometime, but you cannot cheat all the people all the time, especially in a democratic dispensation.
“Bayelsans and the Ijaw people were able to tell the state of Nigeria that you do not mistake the gentle movement of the cat for weakness,” the ex-aide to Governor Dickson said.
On what he meant by insensitivity to the needs of the people, he said: “We don’t have PDP in Bayelsa State. In a state where you singlehandedly picked a governorship candidate against the wishes of the people.
“You singlehandedly brought your deputy governor who was your Personal Assistant when you were Special Adviser to the former President, who was your Personal Assistant when you were Attorney-General of the State.
“Who was your Personal Assistant when you were a member of the House of Representatives and who became your Commissioner of Works for eight years and then you brought him?”

By: Dennis Naku