By Our Reporter
NATIONAL Leader of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, and former Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Henry Seriake Dickson, has invited members of other parties, including the All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), to join the newly formed NDC), as the efforts to rescue Nigerians from the policies of the ruling party continues.
Senator Dickson spoke on Wednesday in Abuja after NDC held its iaugural National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting.
He said NDC is a pan-Nigerian movement aimed at restoring the country’s founding ideals of inclusiveness, justice and national unity.
“This party is not for the big men; it is for the Nigerian people. We have created this platform to give young people, women and the vulnerable a voice in governance and leadership,” Dickson said.
NDC, he said, was founded on concerns over “Nigeria’s drift towards a one-party state”. He warned that such a development would undermine democratic values in a country of over 250 ethnic nationalities with their diversities.
On the existing parties, Dickson said many of them had abandoned their founding principles and no longer reflected the aspirations of ordinary Nigerians.
According to him, internal crises and shifting alliances within major parties have left many politicians politically displaced, creating an opportunity for the NDC to emerge as a credible alternative.
“All political houses are on fire. The current political hurricane is forcing many out of their parties. We are ready to accommodate them, but the priority must remain the Nigerian people,” he stated.
The former governor also took a swipe at the PDP, his former political platform, warning that it risks losing its identity and becoming a clone of the ruling APC. He urged loyal PDP members dissatisfied with the party’s direction to defect to the NDC.
He extended a similar invitation to members of the Labour Party and other political movements, questioning their ideological clarity while positioning the NDC as a fresh and principled alternative.
“Our platform is new, clean and inclusive. A newly born political movement has no enemies,” Dickson added.
Despite courting high-profile defectors, the NDC leader emphasised that the party’s core focus would remain grassroots mobilisation, particularly among youth and women, whom he described as central to Nigeria’s democratic future.
He acknowledged that the party faces an uphill task in a political environment dominated by established structures, financial influence and entrenched interests, but expressed confidence that commitment and organisation would drive its growth.
“Movements that change history often start small. What matters is determination and belief in a shared vision,” he said.
Also speaking, the newly ratified National Chairman of the party, Senator Moses Cleopas, pledged loyalty to the party’s founding principles and called for unity among members.
Cleopas urged party leaders at all levels to be “passionate, accommodating and tolerant,” describing the NDC as a vehicle for national renewal.
He likened the party to Noah’s Ark, calling on members to actively recruit Nigerians across political divides into what he described as a rescue mission for the country’s democracy. “The door is still open. Our responsibility is to bring more people on board,” he said.
The maiden NEC meeting drew attendance from all over the country and reached decisions to focus NDC ahead of future electoral contests, with a strategy on broad-based inclusion, grassroots mobilisation and attracting disaffected politicians from across the political spectrum who meet NDC’s membership criteria.