SAN FRANCISCO, May 22, (THEWILL) – The Ijaws in Delta State on Monday came hard on the Bayelsa State Governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson for claiming that former president Goodluck Jonathan’s five years in power was a waste to the Ijaw nation.
Agreeing with Dickson that Jonathan disappointed his primary constituency by not making effort to ameliorate the sufferings of the Niger Delta people, the Ijaws however averred that Dickson was part of the former president’s failure.
THEWILL recalls that during the annual celebration of Ijaw hero, Major Adaka Boroh, who fought and died for the self determination struggle, Dickson regretted that the five-year period of the Jonathan administration was a wasted opportunity as it did not bring about the needed development to the state.
But reacting through Chief Alaowei Cleric, the Ijaws dared Dickson to boast of the projects he has proudly completed across Bayelsa’s three senatorial districts, if not the accumulated unpaid civil servants’ salaries despite the huge monthly allocations, the 13 percent derivations and the bailout funds.
Cleric said, “It’s very shameful for Governor Seriake Dickson to berate the former president in the media. What moral justification does Governor Dickson have to carpet former President Jonathan in such a despicable and unprintable manner?
“Jonathan’s government was not a waste at the time he single-handedly installed Dickson as governor of Bayelsa State; it was not also a waste when Bayelsa State was receiving huge monthly allocations to the envy of others during Jonathan’s tenure as the president of the country; and now that the political pendulum swinged against the man (Jonathan), Dickson brazenly came out to make such sarcastic remarks on his benefactor.
“It is true of the saying that one can easily know his true friends in time of trial.
“For purposes of record, Jonathan actually failed his Ijaw/Niger Delta people. Dickson and some of the former’s overbearing appointees from the region were the cause of his failure. Which people oriented project has the governor executed and completed in the state in spite of the uninterrupted huge monthly allocations to the state during Jonathan’s tenure.”
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