First civilian governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, has expressed dismay that political parties in Nigeria are not founded on ideology.
He said that the political parties rather consisted of people whose political ambitions were propelled by selfish interest and not ideology.
Alamieyeseigha, who governed Bayelsa on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) between 1999 and 2005, spoke at his Amassoma country home in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state.
He stated that it was the same lack of ideology that had occasioned defections including the current cross-carpeting by some PDP members in the state to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He said, “In our country, party politics is not based on ideology. People are only interested in what they are going to grab at the moment.
“I’m sure you are aware that some PDP members in the state are defecting to the All Progressives Congress. Some of them are doing that for lack of understanding.
“May be, they are thinking that when they defect to APC they will get more benefits”.
Alamieyeseigha sympathised with the PDP defectors in Bayelsa, stressing that they would not reap where they did not sow as they were not involved in the election of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“For those members from Bayelsa that defected from PDP to APC, I pity them because APC does not even know them.
“They were not involved in the election of the President Buhari because they were all in PDP. People worked hard to elect Buhari”, he said.
On the increasing gang-up against the second term bid of Governor Seriake Dickson, Alamieyeseigha described it as unnecessary.
Alamieyeseigha said that Dickson had proven he had the passion to develop the state by operating the policy of continuity in government.
He said that the governor, unlike his predecessor, Timipre Sylva, who took the state many years backward, was completing the projects started by his (Alamieyeseigha’s) administration and that of Goodluck Jonathan.
“There is nobody that goes into an office and will just take-off. So, I think those that are planning to stay in the party (PDP) and do anti-party activities against the emergence of Governor Dickson will definitely change their mind as there will be no basis for that.
“It is the same people that will nominate him on the day of the party primaries”, Alamieyeseigha added.
