Nigerian activist and politician, Aisha Yesufu, has criticised the National Leader of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Seriake Dickson, for suggesting that she did not play by the rules during the party’s senatorial primaries in Abuja.
Ms Yesufu, a member of the NDC, disclosed this in a post on her verified X handle on Thursday.
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The activist turned politician was an aspirant for the FCT Senatorial primaries of the NDC, which she alleged were manipulated against her.
PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that Mr Dickson, while speaking at the Arise TV programme on Wednesday night, suggested that Ms Yesufu “might not have played by the rules” during the recent senatorial primaries of the party.
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But in the X post, Ms Yesufu told Mr Dickson that, as the NDC national leader, he should be pacifying aggrieved party aspirants, not antagonising them.
“Dear Senator Henry Seriake Dickson, while I take my time to properly address your allusion to me not playing by the rules, which I consider very disingenuous, seeing how I followed the process and even when you had insisted there would be no primaries for Senate, I let things go and asked my teeming supporters to focus on the bigger picture,” she wrote.
The activist claimed that she toured the FCT and pacified her supporters, who she said “felt rightfully disrespected” because “they were all waiting at their respective headquarters for primaries that never happened.”
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“As a leader of a political party, your number one job in that interview was to pacify aspirants, many of whom are rightfully aggrieved and secondly to call on supporters to bear with the party and support it, but you ended up antagonising the very people you would need to win the election,” she told Mr Dickson.
Competition with Peter Obi?
Ms Yesufu also reacted to Mr Dickson’s comments in which he said he could have been NDC’s presidential candidate and suggested that Peter Obi is not doing the party a favour by flying its flag.
The activist said it was “so painfully appalling to watch” that part of Mr Dickson’s interview on Arise TV, adding that the NDC leader appeared to compete with Mr Obi, the party’s presidential candidate.
“It looked as if you were insecure and in competition with your Presidential Candidate.
“Your first one-on-one interview after primaries, and instead of selling your candidates and giving confidence to people on how to set the road to winning the 2027 election, you made it about yourself,” she told Mr Dickson.
‘Focus on winning elections, rescuing Nigeria’
Ms Yesufu claimed that Mr Dickson, in the Arise TV interview, presented the NDC as a “special purpose vehicle” whose aim was the successful registration as a party instead of ensuring its electoral victory in 2027.
READ ALSO: NDC Primaries: Dickson blames electoral act for irregularities
The activist stressed that Mr Dickson appeared to be battling to remain as the NDC’s leader even without any rivals.
“It looked as if you were fighting a war no one was waging with you. You don’t have anything to prove to anyone, lead!
“No one can take away your leadership of NDC, no one is interested in that! The focus is on Nigeria; it is winning the 2027 election!” she said.
“Take all responsibility! The party is young. It was overwhelmed. Mistakes will be made. Accepting the mistakes and being accountable is how the party will get better.”
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