Bayelsa State Governor Henry Seriake Dickson has said The Sun Outstanding Politician of the Year 2018 award he won will spur him to render more service to his state and the country.
Outstanding Politician of the Year: Hon. Seriake Dickson
Speaking while receiving a letter notifying him of the award from a delegation of The Sun Publishing Limited, led by the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief, Mr. Eric Osagie, the governor said he was happy that his vision and works for a better society have been recognised by The Sun, which, he said, is the most reputable media outfit in the country.
He said: “On behalf of the government and good people of Bayelsa, I want to welcome you and your delegation here and to express our profound gratitude and appreciation to you and management team.
“I thank you immensely for the great honour of being nominated, considered and now awarded The Sun award under the category of Outstanding Politician of the Year 2018. My family and I are grateful for this honour. My team and I are also grateful.
“We consider this award as an encouragement to do even more in the service to our state and service to our country. We believe that politics should be about service to one’s community, country. And leadership is key to solving all the challenges in our communities, states and national level. Politics is about building, not destroying. Politics is not about using state power and resources and authority to the detriment of others. These are the lessons I have learnt in my political journey – from opposition, from NADECO to AD to ANPP and to PDP.
The lessons are guiding me in the various offices I have held till date.
“In what we are doing in Bayelsa and the one my colleagues and I are doing at the national level, these have informed our brand of politics. We believe that politics is an opportunity to render service, a vehicle for service. It is a vehicle for us to add value, a vehicle for office holders not to destroy but to build and make life more meaningful. It is about impact and positive impact. If we cannot add value to the lives of people or community, leave the community or people the way they are. That is why in the management of public power and authority in our state we have not utilised our influence and authority to hurt anybody.”
He described the award as an incentive to continue to work for the improvement of Bayelsa and the nation’s political space.
Earlier, The Sun MD said the choice of Dickson, as Outstanding Politician of the Year was the decision of the editors of the newspaper who agreed that the governor had distinguished himself on many fronts.
He highlighted the role played by Dickson in restoring and sustaining peace in his home state as well as the key role he played in broker- ing peace when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was factionalised as part of the reasons for honouring him. He said: “The Board of Editor voted His Excellency in recognition of the remarkable strides in the polity, which have manifested in political bridge building, mobilisation, tolerance and harmony in Bayelsa, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and across the country.”
Listing Dickson’s political feats, Osagie said: “His Excellency’s political savvy came to bear during the crisis
period in the PDP when he headed the reconciliation committee of the party and succeeded in making all the parties involved and other stakeholders know that the PDP will be stronger as one indivisible political party when they work together.
“At present, you have taken it upon yourself to be an apostle of restructuring, travelling round the country to explain to other components parts of the country the need for Nigeria to restructure.
“At home in Bayelsa, you have ensured harmony and stable polity through your political maturity and accommodating disposition, in your excellent belief that after elections governance should supersede every other thing.”
The MD invited Dickson to attend The Sun Awards presentation ceremony scheduled to hold on Friday, January 25, 2019 at the Expo Hall of Eko Hotels & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.