Goodluck Compels Dickson To Take Up Reconciliation Committee Job

The reconciliation committee of the PDP headed by Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, was on Thursday inaugurated with Tukur asking  its members to   concentrate on states not being ruled by the party.

Tukur  particularly  regretted the loss of the entire South-West  states to  opposition political parties, and called on the committee to return the zone to the PDP.

He  said, “Painfully, the entire South- West  states, except Lagos was under  the PDP  and there can be nothing more tragic than the  present disturbing reality of  losing  the entire zone to the opposition.

“The birth of our problem in the South-West and indeed other zones can be attributed to the inability of our people to manage our last success.

“The present leadership of the party is determined now more than ever, to reclaim the dominance of the PDP in the South-West.”

Tukur said the same tragedy affected the party in the South-East, where it lost Anambra and Imo states to the opposition.  He  also said Edo State must be brought back to the party.

In his remarks after the inauguration, Dickson  said,  “The stability of our nation for now depends on the stability of the PDP and this is as a result of our party’s spread and its unbroken hold on power in the last 14 years.

“Our party remains the strongest centripetal force that can hold our diverse country together irrespective of the threat to our very existence as a people.

“At no time in our history has our nation’s unity come under sustained and severe attacks as it is now.”

But  the governor  regretted that events in the party were not very palatable, adding that its members were exploiting its diversity to a negative advantage.

“Instead of building a political party platform for the unity and development of the country the way our party is doing, the centrifugal forces are exploiting our diversity to expand the attacks and even making political capital out of it,” he added.

Dickson  promised that the reconciliation  committee would work with  another set up by the Board of Trustees, which is headed by Chief Tony Anenih.

 Dickson had initially complained that he might decline the headship of the committee due to   a barrage of criticisms that trailed his appointment.

However, President Goodluck Jonathan was said to have compelled him to take up the job at a meeting he had with 12 governors of the party that visited him at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Wednesday night.

The meeting with the President, which ended in the early hours of Thursday, was called by the PDP Governors’ Forum .

A source, who was at the meeting, said if Dickson had declined the offer, those against the President and Tukur might have an upper hand in the battle for the soul of the PDP.