Seriake Dickson, national leader of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), told viewers on Wednesday that Peter Obi is not more qualified than him to run for president.
Speaking on Arise Television’s ‘Prime Time’ programme that night, Mr Dickson said, “No one is more qualified than me to run for president, I could have run for president before they (Obi) came. And for some reasons I did not want to. Don’t make it look like anyone is doing NDC a favour. No one is. Rather, the NDC, I and my colleagues, are the ones doing people a favour by granting our platform to them.”
His comments come days after the NDC issued an edict against members of the Obidient and Kwankwasiya movements led by Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso, the NDC’s vice presidential candidate, warning the party will not become personality-driven. In a strong Sunday night statement, the NDC said it is set on building a lasting party based on party supremacy, discipline and transparency — not the sway of individual politicians.
Mr Dickson also explained why he left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to form the NDC. He said he does not follow the crowd and that people join the ruling party for personal gain, stressing that opposition is vital to democracy. “We should encourage people to be in opposition because there’s no democracy without opposition. People join the ruling party to be assisted by so-called federal might, to write results and have security support to terrorise and humiliate their people in the name of rigging elections, and so on.
“I am not a politician of that mode. Since 2015 when PDP lost federal power, I was the first opposition governor who bore the brunt of that federal loss of power. I have been in for some time as an opposition politician, so being in the opposition doesn’t scare me.”
