“You Look Insecure And In Competition With Your Presidential Candidate” — Aisha Yesufu Faults Dickson’s Handling Of NDC Post-Primary Crisis

*Warns Party Against Internal Ego Battles

A formal senatorial aspirant of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Aisha Yesufu, has accused the party’s National Leader and former Bayelsa State Governor, Henry Seriake Dickson, of displaying insecurity and competing with the party’s presidential ticket holders.

She made the allegation following his recent comments on the party’s internal affairs.

In a post shared on X on Thursday, Yesufu reacted to Dickson’s televised interview on Arise TV, where he addressed concerns surrounding the NDC’s just-concluded primaries and defended the party’s handling of the exercise.

Dickson had acknowledged that the primaries were not perfect, citing administrative and logistical challenges faced by the relatively young party as it conducted membership registration, congresses, and multiple layers of elections within a compressed electoral timeline.

However, Yesufu faulted his remarks, insisting that his public communication did not reflect the tone expected of a party leader seeking to unify aggrieved aspirants and consolidate support ahead of the 2027 general elections.

She argued that instead of reassuring party members and rallying support behind the NDC’s candidates, the interview appeared to centre more on personal positioning than party cohesion.

“It looked as if you were insecure and in competition with your presidential candidate,” she wrote.

Yesufu further criticised what she described as the party leadership’s handling of post-primary grievances, saying the focus should have been on calming tensions among aspirants and supporters rather than escalating internal disagreements.

According to her, the role of a party leader at such a critical time is to promote unity, acknowledge shortcomings, and take responsibility where necessary, rather than shift blame or heighten internal friction.

She also questioned the political orientation of the party leadership, suggesting that the NDC risks treating itself as an electoral platform rather than a structured political organisation with the clear objective of winning national elections.

“With all due respect sir, it looks as if you consider the NDC a Special Purpose Vehicle whose aim has been achieved just by being registered instead of a political party whose aim is to win the 2027 general election decisively,” she added.

Yesufu maintained that the party’s immediate priority should be electoral victory in 2027, warning that internal ego battles and poor conflict management could undermine that goal.

She urged leaders to adopt humility in handling disputes, insisting that effective leadership requires accountability and the ability to unify divergent interests within the party.

“No one can take away your leadership of NDC, no one is interested in that! The focus is Nigeria winning the 2027 election,” she wrote.

Her remarks come in response to Dickson’s interview on Arose TV, in which he defended the NDC’s primaries, acknowledged irregularities, and called for reconciliation among party members while urging stakeholders to support the party’s presidential candidates and ongoing reconciliation efforts.

The post “You Look Insecure And In Competition With Your Presidential Candidate” — Aisha Yesufu Faults Dickson’s Handling Of NDC Post-Primary Crisis appeared first on TheNigeriaLawyer.