By Eshioromeh Sebastian
Activist and chieftain of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Aisha Yusuf, has criticised the party’s National Leader, Senator Seriake Dickson, over recent comments he made during an interview on Arise Television, accusing him of shifting blame, evading responsibility, and treating the opposition party as a personal instrument rather than a competitive electoral platform.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Yusuf responded to what she described as Dickson’s “disingenuous allusion” that she had failed to play by the party’s rules.
She recalled that she had followed due process during the party’s primaries, even when the leadership failed to conduct senatorial primaries in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)—a decision that effectively denied her the opportunity to contest for the FCT senatorial ticket.
During his appearance on Arise TV’s Prime Time programme on Wednesday night, Dickson declared himself the most qualified person to run for the presidency of Nigeria, stating: “There’s no one more qualified than me. None.”
He also issued a warning to supporters of Peter Obi, the party’s 2023 presidential candidate, accusing them of ingratitude and dismissing suggestions that Obi and former Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso had lent the NDC any political relevance.
Dickson argued that the party had granted Obi its platform as a favour and that supporters who “disparage” the NDC or its leadership while claiming to support Obi were being “nonsensical.”
In her rejoinder, Yusuf accused Dickson of making the interview about his personal ego rather than the task of preparing the party for the 2027 general election.
“Your first one-on-one interview after primaries, and instead of selling your candidates and giving confidence to people on how set the road to winning the 2027 election was, you made it about yourself,” she said.
Yusuf further accused the NDC leader of fighting an imaginary war. “It looked as if you are fighting a war no one is waging with you. You don’t have anything to prove to anyone. Just lead,” she wrote.
She also took issue with what she described as a pattern of blame-shifting, urging Dickson to accept responsibility for the party’s organisational failures, including the controversial primary process.
“The party is young. It was overwhelmed. Mistakes will be made. Accepting the mistakes and being accountable is how the party will get better,” she said.
Yusuf reminded Dickson that when the party failed to conduct senatorial primaries in the FCT, she personally toured the territory to pacify aggrieved supporters who had been waiting at their respective headquarters for an exercise that never held.
“I played field politics. I never waited for anyone to give me a ticket,” she said, pushing back against any suggestion that she had acted outside party rules.
Yusuf cautioned that the NDC risks becoming a “Special Purpose Vehicle whose aim has been achieved just by being registered” rather than a political party focused on winning the 2027 presidential election.
“The registration of NDC should be a means to an end and not an end in itself,” she said.
She concluded: “If what you did yesterday is still looking big to you today, then you are not doing enough.”
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