Senator Henry Seriake Dickson, representing Bayelsa West and a former governor of Bayelsa State, has delivered a bold and heartfelt warning about the dangerous decline of democratic values in Nigeria, blaming vote buying and electoral manipulation for the country’s rising leadership crisis.
In a strongly worded statement, Dickson lamented how Nigeria’s electoral landscape has been hijacked by moneybags and power-hungry elites, leading to the emergence of leaders who lack the vision and competence to move the nation forward.
“It’s a dangerous development that leads to the emergence of unqualified leaders who have nothing to offer the country,” he stated.
According to the senator, wealthy politicians exploit poverty and ignorance, using cash and material incentives to buy votes and distort the will of the people. In doing so, they not only trample on democratic values but also disenfranchise everyday Nigerians who deserve better.
But vote buying, he noted, is just one side of the coin. Dickson pointed fingers at the abuse of state institutions during elections, where fake results are prepared even before a single vote is cast. He stressed that electoral fraud continues to thrive because perpetrators are emboldened by weak accountability and technical loopholes in the justice system.
“In many cases, genuine cases of electoral fraud are thrown out on technical grounds,” he said, calling for electoral authorities to strengthen safeguards at polling units and reduce over-reliance on post-election litigation.
Dickson didn’t mince words when he criticized politicians who manipulate the process to claim victories they could never earn in free and fair elections—some of whom, he said, can’t even win in their own homes or local communities.
He also decried the wave of political defections not driven by ideology or service to the people, but by a desperation to win at all costs. Many politicians, he said, jump ship to ruling parties to exploit state power and avoid accountability.
As a sitting senator, Dickson assured that he and his colleagues are working to introduce stronger legislation to curb these growing anomalies. However, he was clear that INEC alone cannot do it all—there must be collective political will to ensure that security agencies and public institutions act in neutral and lawful ways during elections.
His call to action is clear: stakeholders must unite to protect the soul of Nigeria’s democracy before it’s permanently corroded by greed, desperation, and electoral malpractice.
