Dickson’s hurdles as 2016 Bayelsa guber race hype increases

Even though Bayelsa State governorship election will come about nine months after the 2015 general elections, the hype it is generating in the state is more than what obtains in most states that will be involved in the 2015 elections. Our correspondent examines the intrigues.

Governor Henry Seriake Dickson and his supporters, christened ‘The Restoration Team’, have already gone into town sensitizing the public on why it must be Dickson again come 2016.
Large bill boards and banners with varying inscriptions are struggling for space within the state capital, all promoting the candidacy of Dickson for an election that is about 13 months ahead.
Dickson had late last year embarked on a ‘Thank You’ tour, which took him round the eight local government areas of the state, as a prelude to the celebration of his second anniversary in office, which was done last February. The tour was however seen by many analysts as an euphemism for early campaign for a second term.
The state owned radio station has almost become a campaign platform for Dickson’s re-election, with different jingles to showcase the achievements of the governor. The appointees of the governor are also very busy raising groups and organisations with a sing-song for the re-election of the governor.
Bayelsa, despite its small size, presents a very intriguing political spectacle. From 1999 to date, no governor has succeeded in doing a second term of office in the state. This is the hurdle Dickson is said to be fighting tooth and nail to overcome.
Former Governor Depriye Alamieyesiegha had successfully completed his first tenure between 1999 and 2003, but his second tenure was truncated in 2005, when he was impeached and his then deputy, now president, Goodluck Jonathan, was sworn in.
Similarly, former Governor Timipre Sylva’s second term ambition could not be attained after he had completed his first term about three years ago following deterioration of his relationship with President Jonathan.
President Jonathan was on his way to become an elected governor in the state when he was nominated to be running mate to Late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
However, observers say how far Dickson will go in breaking the jinx depends on the disposition of President Jonathan and his wife, Patience, who are the de facto political leaders of Bayelsa.
This, many say, may have informed the claim by Governor Dickson that he is the political first son of President Jonathan, apparently suggesting that he recognised the power of the First Family to decide his fate come 2016.
It was the same power that had made him in 2012.
Having shoved the then Governor Sylva aside, Jonathan had anointed Dickson to become governor, preferring him to people like Timi Alaibe, Ben Murray Bruce, Ambassador Godknows Igali among others who had all indicated interests to govern the state then.
Political watchers however say Dickson must be a cat with nine lives to get the endorsement of the First Family this time around despite his claim of being Jonathan’s political son.
Dickson’s re-election seems to be his priority for now as he has literally relocated to Abuja, because he is said to have lost close touch with Jonathan and is now using the seat of power as a base to pull all the strings known to him to relaunch himself to reckoning before the president.
When the PDP flag was presented to Dickson to run as the party’s gubernatorial candidate in 2012, Jonathan who stood on the same podium with him warned him to beware of the pitfalls of his immediate predecessor, Sylva. The president told Dickson then that any time he travels the same road like his predecessor and the people stone him as they did to Sylva, he would join them to stone him.
Although nobody has yet publicly stoned Dickson as it happened to Sylva, and many of the pitfalls that characterised the Sylva administration are not yet evident in the present administration, insiders however say the expected warmth of relationship between Dickson and Jonathan is lacking badly.
Again, even though Dickson has never hidden the posture of being a fan and an ardent supporter of Jonathan in all his public statements and pronouncements, but close observers say what happens in the closets could be a different thing altogether.
One of such occasions which led to insinuations of frosty relationship between Jonathan and Dickson was when the president shunned an invitation from the state government to commission some projects to mark the second anniversary of Dickson’s administration in February. He also did not send any representative.
About a week ago, the state government organised its annual thanksgiving ceremony where the president was expected to be the special guest of honour. But Jonathan who was in the state for the PDP ward congresses left the state the very Sunday morning he was expected at the thanksgiving ceremony, which took place at the Gabriel Okara Cultural Centre. Many Bayelsans who had thronged the venue to see the president went home disappointed.
There are fears in political circles in the state that Dickson might get the same treatment given to Timipre Sylva at the eleventh hour. It was gathered that there is a massive gang up against the governor who, many believe, has distinguished himself from the previous governors in the state by the structures he has put on ground in less than three years of his administration.
No less a force against Dickson is the alleged pressure from the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, who many believe is the most influential First Lady in Nigeria’s history. Even with the award of the post of a Permanent Secretary to the First Lady by Dickson, a position she reportedly resigned from recently, it was gathered that it would be easier for the camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for Dickson to warm himself towards the First Lady.
It was gathered that the First Lady is rooting for the senior special assistant to the president on domestic affairs, Mr Waripamo Dudafa, to replace Dickson as the next governor of Bayelsa State.
But Dickson is also said to be fighting back with all his might. Recently, a grand rally that was to be organised by a group known as ‘The New Dawn Development’ in Yenagoa, the state capital, was aborted by the state police command.
Dudafa, it was learnt, was the brain behind the rally which the organisers said was aimed at drumming support for President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election.
The state government, through Dickson’s spokesman, issued a statement saying it gave backing to the action of the police, claiming that a splinter group of the same organisation had mobilized to disrupt the rally.
It said, “If the rally was allowed to go on, some unscrupulous persons could take advantage of it to unleash mayhem in the state to give the impression that there is crisis in Mr President’s home state in a bid to spite him.”
It was however gathered that the rally was aborted by the state government to nip in the bud anything that could bolster Dudafa’s popularity and garner followership for him in the state.
As the political chess game continues, only time can tell how Dickson will scale through.