Former Bayelsa State Governor and Senator Seriake Dickson, has cast doubts on the ideological clarity of the African Democratic Congress, describing the opposition party as largely composed of former founders of the All Progressives Congress, whose defection reflects more on the shortcomings of the APC than on any coherent political vision.
Dickson, who recently left the Peoples Democratic Party for the newly registered Nigeria Democratic Congress, shared his views during an interview on AIT’s Focus Nigeria on Monday.
While acknowledging the influence of several ADC leaders, Dickson questioned the trajectory that brought them to their current positions.
“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.
Although he commended ADC leaders individually and recognized their role in countering the drift toward a one-party state, Dickson remained skeptical about 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 added.
The senator described the ADC as suffering from “ideological vacuity,” expressing doubts about the party’s stance 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,” Dickson said.
However, he made a point to exempt ADC National Chairman Senator David Mark from his wider critique, calling him “a very respectable Nigerian statesman.”
