A fresh rift has emerged within the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) after activist and party member Aisha Yesufu openly criticised the party’s national leader, Senator Seriake Dickson, accusing him of appearing insecure and acting as though he was competing with the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
Yesufu made the remarks in a post on X on Thursday while reacting to Dickson’s recent appearance on ARISE News, where he addressed criticisms from some Obi supporters over the conduct of the party’s primaries.
According to her, Dickson’s performance during the interview was disappointing and failed to inspire confidence among party members ahead of the 2027 elections.
“This part of the interview was so painfully appalling to watch. It looked as if you were insecure and in competition with your presidential candidate,” she wrote.
She argued that Dickson’s first major interview after the primaries should have focused on promoting the party’s candidates, reassuring supporters and healing divisions created by the nomination process rather than making the discussion about himself.
Yesufu also rejected suggestions that some party members were unwilling to follow the party’s rules because of their popularity.
She insisted she had complied with all laid-down procedures during the primaries and had worked to calm supporters who felt disappointed by developments in the Federal Capital Territory.
“While I took my time to properly address your allusion to me not playing by the rules, which I consider very disingenuous seeing how I followed the process, and even when you had insisted there would be no primaries for the Senate, I let things go and asked my teeming supporters to focus on the bigger picture,” she said.
She revealed that she had travelled across parts of the FCT to pacify supporters who felt ignored and frustrated after waiting for primaries that never took place.
The activist further accused Dickson of treating the NDC as a vehicle whose mission ended with its registration rather than a political party focused on winning power in 2027.
“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 stated.
Yesufu maintained that Dickson’s responsibility as party leader should be to unite aggrieved aspirants and rally supporters behind the party’s candidates.
“As a leader of a political party, your number one job in that interview was to pacify aspirants, many of whom are rightfully aggrieved, and secondly to call on supporters to bear with the party and support it, but you ended up antagonising the very people you would need to win an election. Every vote counts. A leader must stoop to conquer,” she added.
She stressed that the focus should remain on securing victory in the 2027 elections and addressing Nigeria’s challenges rather than personal interests or ego battles.
“There is a whole battle ahead of us. Rescuing Nigeria from the current state it is in should be the main focus, not people’s fragile ego,” she said.
Dickson had earlier defended the NDC against criticism from some Obi supporters, arguing that attacks on the party and its leadership were damaging to the party’s electoral prospects.
The former Bayelsa governor also insisted that the NDC remained united despite disagreements arising from the recent primaries and dismissed claims of an internal crisis.
