Dickson Expresses Doubts Over ADC's Principles, Raises Concerns About Partnership

Former Bayelsa State Governor and Senator Seriake Dickson has cast doubt on the ideological coherence of the African Democratic Congress, describing the opposition party as a congregation of former All Progressives Congress founders whose defection from their own creation speaks more to the failure of the APC experiment than to any clear political vision.

Dickson, who recently dumped the Peoples Democratic Party for the newly registered Nigeria Democratic Congress, made the remarks during an interview on AIT’s Focus Nigeria on Monday.

Acknowledging the stature of several ADC leaders while questioning their political journey, Dickson pointed out that many of the figures now coalescing around the ADC were the same individuals who built and championed the APC.

“Those leaders in the ADC, a number of them were those who actually formed the APC. They were the ones who led the charge to remove the PDP — if they all now agree that the party they formed has failed Nigerians, which is the APC, because that you see all of them now coalescing in the ADC in ways and manners that sometimes are not clear, that is a statement of the failure of the experiment that they started, which is the APC,” he said.

While commending ADC leaders personally and acknowledging that their emergence offered a counterweight to the drift toward a one-party state, Dickson questioned the party’s ideological foundation.

“I am not convinced of the ideological stand of the ADC. Beyond a coalition of names and former chieftains of the APC now disagreeing with their party and the government of the party, if you’re congregating as they did in 2014, it takes more than a congregation of names to have a government that will have meaning; to have a party that has a clear vision and agenda,” he said.

The senator described the ADC’s current state as one of “ideological vacuity,” saying he remained unconvinced of where the party stood on issues of national importance.

“For me, while that is good because at least it pulls us away from a one-party state and I commend them for that, and I look forward to a healthy collaboration on ideological issues, there is ideological vacuity. I am not convinced of where they stand on issues that are important to me and to the country,” he stated.

Dickson exempted ADC National Chairman Senator David Mark from his broader critique, describing him as “a very respectable Nigerian statesman.”