A former President of Ijaw Youth Congress (IYC) and leader of the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, has warned that there would be no peace in the country if Dr. Goodluck Jonathan is not allowed to do a second term in office.
Speaking with journalists in Abuja yesterday, Dokubo-Asari said the relative peace being enjoyed in the Niger Delta was not as a result of amnesty granted to militants but because Jonathan is the president of the country.
He said if Jonathan was stopped from being president, the Niger Delta would react violently.
He warned those aspiring to take over the presidency from Jonathan in 2015 to stop dreaming, saying that insurgent would rise in the Niger Delta.
He said: “Recently, the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Mr. Kingsely Kuku, made a statement in the United States of America, that the peace being enjoyed in the Niger Delta will not be guaranteed if President Goodluck Jonathan is not returned as President of Nigeria in 2015.
“I want to go on to say that there will be no peace, not only in the Niger Delta, but everywhere if Goodluck Jonathan is not president by 2015, except God takes his life, which we don’t pray for. Jonathan has uninterrupted eight years of two terms to be president, according to the Nigeria constitution.
“We must have our uninterrupted eight years of two tenure, am not in support of any amendment of the constitution that will reduce the eight years of two tenure that Goodluck Jonathan is expected to be president of Nigeria.
“I am an Ijaw man, call me an ethnic bigot, I don’t care, I have no apology to give to anybody. I am an Ijaw man, if you touch an Ijaw man, you touch me. So there is nothing about it that I am going to be ashamed of.”
He said for a every long time, the resources of the Niger Delta had been used to feed and fund Nigeria while some people continued to feel that Nigeria was their personal property, and they could manage it the way they liked.
“But those days are gone forever, it can never come back again. The days when we will elect a president and some people will annul our mandate, and place the winner of that mandate in their dungeon and murder him, such days are over and they will never come again,” he added.
On whether the president had performed well enough to deserve to be elected for a second time, Asari said he (Jonathan) had done better than his predecessors in office.
He said: “We from the Niger Delta have been fair. We criticise our own, but that does not change what I have always said that “monkey no fine, but im mama like am. We will continue to support and stand by Goodluck.”
He said colonial operators left functional railways system and roads that were motorable, education and energy sector that worked.
But that from Yakubu Gowon to Murtala Muhammed, Olusegun Obasanjo to Shehu Shagari, Muhammadu Buhari to Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha to Abdulsalami Abubakar, and to Olusegun Obasanjo again, the infrastructures built by the colonial operators were totally destroyed.
He said: “But today, the story has changed, I made five hours from Benin to Lagos by road. Electricity supply is relatively constant now than what it was before Jonathan came in as president. The Abuja-Lokoja road that was neglected is almost completed and several other roads across the country. People have started using the rail system again.”
“This shows that Jonathan is silently moving the country on the right direction to satisfy this insatiable people, while we from the Niger Delta are not being satisfied.”
He also called on the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, to drop his ambition and support Jonathan, saying it would amount to a return to slavery if Amaechi worked against Jonathan to get a president elected from the North.
JD:AMAZING!If i ever saw blackmail in my life this is one!I sincerely hope Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan will not play ostrich with statements like this and call his kinsmen to order.I also expect him to completely disassociate himself from this kind of dangerous and warped argument.It portends real danger for this corporate entity called Nigeria.Nigerians will NOT be blackmailed,by any person or group of persons.That should be made clear and perhaps it is pertinent to note that no one has a monopoly of verbal guerrilla tactics that can only add petrol to an already inflamed situation.A word is enough for the wise
The boldness and impunity of such utterances is overwhelming. We are operating a democracy and not a Military dictatorship. Our President should call this Dokubo Asari to order. We have so many lawless people in Nigeria.
Of what use is a statement that has no bases,it is time for Nigerian youths to rise up and be ready to challenge this kind of words that are treasonable.Let it be know that only God decide who live up to 2015,but i know that we Nigerians know what to do to individual like Asari.He is a wounded dog seeking for relevant,but he has failed.To me,i don’t need GEJ to deny this statement,all i want is for Nigerians to know where they belong.Come 2015 let us vote right and back out this government that can not fight corruption,that rub us in daylight.
I sincerely missed OBJ. He would have been put to where he belong by now
If per adventure, either Kuku or Dokubo contests the presidential election and wins, would the people of Niger Delta still make the country ungovernable? let any of them answer the question for us to know where they belong. This kind of statement can only come from self seeking individuals who are seeking relevance. But they’ve already failed cos Nigerians are not going to vote with a gun pointed at their heads.
When trouble sleep iyanga go wake am ……
Some one should remind Asari and cohorts that no has the exclusive rights to violence and bullshit. While they are at it, they should tell him that there are a lot of countries that have no oil and they are better developed than Nigeria.
I have always said this at different fora that President Jonathan is surrepstitiously working towards the disintegration of Nigeria. First he has proven to Nigerians that he cannot rule over his own house, with the land tussle between Turai his former boss wife, and Patience. Ssecondly, our commonwealth are being given out to cronnies and friends of his administration, example is the OML 30 given away by Deziani, and now, his kinsman has promised to destabilised Nigeria if Jonathan is not elected in 2015. Am sure Jonathan would have arrested Nwazurike of MASSOP or Dr. Faseun of OPC if these treasonable statements had come from any one of them.
How easy it is for us to think we are the sole custodian of violence…..When you have purposeless leadership you find everyone trying to create a purpose for it!!!
GEJ should fix d roads,fight corruption,provide enabling environment 4 investment, provide job 4 graduate, cut down cost of runing government,improve d economy,b4 electioneering,then u wil c massive support 4 him,
Insensitive,rudeless warns,where was dis warlord wen d progressive stood behind Gej 2 b acting president, d north supported him and voted 4 him president,against their own buhari,Gej was FB best b4 election pls tel dis idiot 2go ck FB comments 2day about GEJ,also ck most abused president.
Who let the dog out…its high time for national conference.Nigerian youth must stand up against all these threats from a bully that might not live up to 2015
What will hppen if GEJ loses PDP primary election? What if the opposition party floors PDP in 2015? Or is the opposition bound to field GEJ or another Ijaw man too? Dokubo’s arguments are warped and insensitive!
Where do we or can we get a competent leader?I want to assume his blackmail is a bluff.bt if it isn’t then we all must gather ourslf together n be ready to challenge the situation especially if these guys will want to rigg.
I cant believe that am reading this but again what do you expect. Remember that under OBJ this guy(s) was jailed and under GEJ these guys(s) have turn to billionaires. Nigerians will NOT again be ruled by emotions.competent leadership is what we demand and that is what we will get come 2015.
Asari has forgoTton,oh!how times fly well I will remind him dat his utterances are treasonable he should just shut up!and do better things with his time,he should know that he is not a role model for our teeming youths.and he is probably going back to prison where he came from like his compatriot okah.
Uncle Jimi, I don’t think there is anything wrong with Goodluck Jonathan. Insight reveals it to me, and intuition is confirming it. I can see his “goodlucks” working for good in disguise.
Let’s keep watching. Pregnancy can never be covered. We shall get to the root very soon. I see Goodluck Jonathan as a wise man in disguise. I’ll not tell you what I invisige from all these political games or gamblings
I see BIG TROUBLE ahead. It looks like if GEJ does does not contest and win in 2015, the country might break. Why do I say this?
Asari Dikibo we know. He (and his group) have a track record. We know how they held the nation to ransom until they were “BEGGED” under the guise of amnesty. Gboko Haram are on the loose now and they have refused the be “BEGGED”. We don’t know where this will end.
Now, if Mr. Dikibo and his group could do what they did without the financial backing of the federal government, imagine what they will do now that they have the financial, moral, physical and spiritual backing of the government.
Yorubas, where does this leave us? We are yet to prove ourself oh. NIGERIA IS IN BIG TROUBLE
The last i knew was that the mandate for choosing our leaders lies in our vote. My vote your vote and not asari or ijaw men to decide.
Unless my vote means nothing which is the perspective as it is,then good time to fully activate Plan B.
This is absolutely riddiculous.. How can an individual or a group hold a nation to ransome??
Only God knows where this country is heading to!!
I am surprised that in the age that we are in we are still practising the politics of “he’s my towns man”. The incompetence of a man is not a function of where he is from. This is where you expect the presidency to through their so called media men to repudiate such statements but I for one am not holding my breath. If Asari Dokubo feels so strongly, take Jonathan and make him king of the Ijaws.
Abuja don sweet am.We shall see come 2015,if Nigerians decided to be ruled by a vissionary leader,surely they are going back to the creek where they belong.They will ne kept there for ever till they repent.Abacha and OBJ caged them during thier tenure.He forgot that it took the pleas of his father Edwin Clark before he was allowed to go home.Even his Wife shed tears,OBJ no send.
The “localisation” of the man Jonathan by his Ijaw kinsmen and his surprisingly tacit acquiescence to this compartmentalisation of a national figure into a stifling package of local superstardom continues to baffle me. If anything, it underlines the reason why he should not be allowed a second stint. His image makers & relationship strategists are obviously on a long sabbatical!