Bayelsa State Governor Henry Seriake Dickson wins a stunning re-run election after beating his challenger in the first ballot, making him one of the serial election winners in the country. Correspondent, SAM NWOKORO, profiles the “Countryman”.
Legends say that leaders are born, not made. There seems to be a fundamental truth in that saying. Only God in his infinite wisdom chooses a leader for any nation or peoples. Try as one may, if he is not destined to lead at any particular time in the life of a people, he would not win their endorsements or votes, no matter how loud his fame or antecedents may sound.
Conversely, if God has desired that you lead a people, He would simply direct the people to vote for you on the voting day. God always has a way of accomplishing His will, whether the stakeholders like it or not.
Of course this is very much illustrated in the latest re-run election held penultimate week. Despite the near state of anarchy that enveloped Bayelsa State days before the ballot day, people still trooped out, defying all the armada of security in every nook and cranny of the small state to vote for Dickson. People had feared the turn-out would not worth counting after the first ballot done in October which he had won was annulled by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Needless rehashing the figures of the election scored, what is discernible from the Bayelsa re-run experience is that citizen awareness about their role in appraising leadership has quite improved in the state. Bayelsans demonstrated by their vote that they have confidence in his leadership and the direction he is taking the state. Implicitly by their voting behaviour, they have told the world that Dickson’s governance in the state has been a direly needed corrective one, though his programmes and policies are yet to run their full circle.
By hindsight, this explains why it seems that virtually every electorate voted in the last Bayelsa re-run election. The enthusiasm to express their choice was unmistakeable.
The state is the smallest in size and population, but the reservoir of Nigeria’s most precious commodity – crude oil. Of course, it is the most precious commodity, for no matter how low the price may be in the international market, we can at least utilise it at home.
That is the thickness of this small state called Bayelsa where Nigeria first lifted its first ever crude vessel in 1958. And so, the issue of politics and leadership in that state has ever been not just of national interest but also of global concern.
Dickson’s Bayelsa
Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s state has always been an interesting symbol of small but mighty. Its politics attracts attention, and is often raucous. Its citizens, about the most vibrant, egalitarian, audacious, fiercely republican and intellectually-minded are hardly encumbered by the smallness in whatever they feel strongly about. And notwithstanding their militant nature, which unjustifiably is regularly exacerbated by Nigeria’s structural imbalances, the people are about the most generous and accommodating in the country.
And this much Governor Dickson may have brought into the governance of the state that made Bayelsans to vote him into office three time in less than five years. He won his first ballot four years ago. Last December, he won his second term bid on the platform of PDP. While his predecessor, Timipreye Sylva, was governor of the state, Dickson took time as an insider to study the needs of his people. Thus he did not need much tutorial to hit the ground running as soon as he settled down to office four years ago. Definitely, he has touched lives; otherwise how come he won a second term contest in a very polarised voting community as Bayelsa, people have come to conclude.
The Countryman
Dickson’s second name, according to those who know, is Countryman.
It is now not so difficult for the electoral managers to conclude that perhaps the hand of God did it for Dickson. Pundits put it that even in that polling unit he scored only five votes, it could not have been so ridiculously possible to such low point, even if that unit were to be right inside Sylva’s bedroom. They hinge this analysis on the impressive turn-out during the re-run: the supplementary election was held only in one local government, Southern Ijaw and some 101 polling units in six other local government areas. Out of a total of 232,167 votes that were cast, Dickson picked a run-away 134,988 though a whopping 6,647 votes were invalidated. Sylva picked up 86,852.
This tends to confirm one rapturous endorsement given the governor by one Bayelsa traditional ruler, Chief Werinipre Seibarugu, during one of the pre-election town hall talks in Yenegoa: “The governor has made peace reign in the state, at least throughout the tenure of ex-President Jonathan, unlike what we used have here. He has succeeded in bringing every group together to work as a team to deliver development to the teeming idle youths in the state. It was Dickson’s many empowerment initiatives which targeted the youths that accounted for the relative peace you see in this state and most parts of Niger Delta creeks in the past six years. He ensured the Umaru Yar’Adua’s amnesty programme succeeded and main targets, the restless youths, were effectively keyed into various skills acquisition and entrepreneurial apprenticeship programmes.”
‘Governor’ Empowerment
By any standard, one of the areas Dickson has touched lives is in the area of empowerment. He seems to an expert in designing jobs, opening up avenues to engage youths in productive work and living. More than 200 persons have so far benefitted in the governor’s training of forestry experts to conserve the state’s ecosystem. The state’s Ministry of Forestry has so far produced up to 300 of such.
The creative governor also brought into existence the state’s Ministry of Science and Technology to re-orientate the youths that militancy and appeasement is not a sustainable template for living. Through Dickson’s creative instinct, more than 250 indigenes got trained by Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) in the technology of detecting and preserving marine ecosystem. Some more than 200 also have been availed entrepreneurial training by the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) in fisheries, information and communications technology (ICT) and garment making. Much more than that number was trained in advanced ICT and security in China.
He has become the first governor to pilot the much talked about industrial cluster, a project to build industrial parks in districts of the state in such a manner that industries tap into needed feedstocks for value chain without having to travel far. He has wrought a modern model of industrial development through the Bayelsa incubation centre and the Afrigrant Resources Limited.
Peeping through the man’s policies and programmes in the past four years, it is discernible that the governor made consistent effort to connect his subjects to lost opportunities and denied rights from the Nigerian state. Being one schooled in civil decorum, the man has since coming to office quietly ensured Bayelsans get engaged in federal government programmes tailored to help the masses.
Though not all opportunities the riverine Bayelsans deserved have come to them yet, Dickson is sure not the type of leader who would want power just for the sake of it without knowing what to do with it or how to deploy it for the greater good of his constituency. Perhaps these and more ensured his resounding winning streak
Lawyer and public officer
Dickson was born on January 28, 1966 in Toru-Orua Town of Sagbama Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, to the family of Mr. and Mrs. Nanaye Dickson of Orua – a descendant of the famous King Kpadia Royal House of Tarakiri Kingdom. He attended Kolobiriowei Primary School, Toru-Orua, from 1972 to 1978 where he got his First School Leaving Certificate and proceeded to Government Secondary School, Toru-Ebeni in 1978 to 1983 and obtained his West African School Certificate (WASC).
In 1988, he gained admission into Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST), Port Harcourt, to read Law from where he graduated with LL.B (Hons) in 1992. He then proceeded in 1993 to earn his Bachelors in Law (B.L Hons) from the Nigerian Law School, Lagos. He was called to the Nigerian Bar the same year.
Dickson joined The Nigeria Police Force now The Nigeria Police in 1986. And upon his graduation in 1993, he was appointed a Cadet Assistant Superintended of Police in 1994. He proceeded to Nigerian Police Academy, Kano, for Officer Training. During his training, he voluntarily withdrew his service after close to a decade as a police officer to practise Law. His voluntary withdrawal was duly approved by both the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) and the Commissioner of Police, Rivers State Command, at the time.
As a lawyer, he worked with Serena David Dokubo & Co. as Associate Solicitor from 1994 to 1995 and moved to Aluko & Oyebode, a prominent Law firm in Lagos also as an Associate Solicitor in 1995 to 1996 after which he founded the Law firm of Seriake Dickson & Co in Port Harcourt and later Yenagoa and became its Managing Solicitor from 1996 to 2006.
He was elected Pioneer Publicity Secretary, Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Yenagoa, from 1996 to 1998. He was elected the State Chairman, Alliance for Democracy (AD) from 1990 to 2000 and elected AD National Legal Adviser from 2000 to 2002. He was equally elected National Legal Adviser of the foremost Pan-Ijaw Socio-Cultural and Political group called the Ijaw National Congress (INC) from 2001 to 2003. He became a member of NBA National Executive Committee (NEC) from 2004 to 2006 representing Bayelsa.
Considering his track record and achievement, Dickson was appointed the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice of Bayelsa from 2006 to 2007 by then Governor Goodluck Jonathan.
He also served in different professional statutory bodies. He was a member of the Council of Legal Education in Nigeria, a member of the Body of Benchers of Nigeria, a member of the Body of Attorneys-General of Nigeria, a member of the Bayelsa State Security Council and Vice Chairman, Bayelsa State Judicial Service Commission.
As a result of the positive impact he made on the people and based on his long years of committed and dedicated service to the state and the Ijaw nation at large, he was returned unopposed and elected in 2007 to represent Sagbama/Ekeremor Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives. There, he served as Chairman, House Committee on Justice.
Dickson is a member of International Bar Association (IBA), Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK), Nigeria chapter, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN).
Hon. Dickson is married with children and holds the traditional title of Olokodau of Orua. His hobbies include: swimming, reading, jogging, wrestling, boxing and badminton.