Dokubo-Asari is the leader of the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force, NDPVF. In this interview, he bared his mind on some national issues, especially what he calls the oppressive tendencies of a section of the country to stop President Goodluck Jonathan from exercising his right to run for second term as President, as well as a series of antagonisms against his administration. He spoke to Nigerian Pilot’s Daily Editor, OSEDEBAMEN ISIBOR and IBRAHIM MOHAMMED Excerpts…
Recently, you have been very out spoken about very many national issues, including the insurgency in the north; what is propelling you to discuss all these national issues for which some say you expect gains from the federal government; or could it be, as some believe, that you are merely angry with a section of the country?
For me it’s part of my struggle and every struggle has its objectives and the purpose for that struggle – the people that have subjected you to injustice and pain.
Now in Nigeria, the British came into the oil rivers much later than the Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish, etc. In the 18 hundreds leading up to 1890 the British started signing various treaties of protection with various sovereign independent states which include my country, the Kingdom of Kalabari, which the British called New Calabar. Our sovereignty was stolen from us because in those treaties we never jettisoned our sovereignty.
The treaties were very clear and explicit. They went on to declare the Oil Rivers Protectorate, Southern Protectorate; and in 1914 amalgamated the Northern and Southern Protectorates, including the Lagos colony; and this is the starting point. Before the British colonialist arrived there were another sect of colonialists and they were blacks from Futajalon in Guinea. They came in, conquered indigenous territories of the Hausas, Nupes, Gbagyis, Kanuris, etc.
It was a ground conspiracy to work with the colonialists. So, in the south where there were independent nations ruled by indigenous states, they had what we call direct colonial rule. In the northern part of the country where they had fellow colonialists they did not have any moral justification to depose them because both of them were foreign invaders. So, they collaborated with them and they had indirect rule. Government was effectively in the hands of the Gambari invaders from Futajalon, the Fulbe or Fulanis. But in this part of the world they are Gambaris. So, when you have Sokoto Hausa city which succeeded Gwobri, which was destroyed, you now have a Fulani man as the Sultan of Sokoto; in Kano you have a Fulani man as the Emir; In Bida you have the Etsu Nupe who is a Fulani man; in Ilorin you have Sulu Gambari, a Fulani man lording over the Yoruba people.
So, it was a done deal for them and when they were leaving they manipulated the population and gave more representation based on population to invaders who were in control. They have the native courts and prisons service; so they have enormous powers which were not available to the southern kings who resisted the invasion of their territories by the British colonialists. The southern monarchs were impoverished while the Gambari Fulbe rulers were enriched, because they have the realms of government and everything was in their hands.
They have proper native council administrations which were totally absent in the south. Because most of the southern elite are not from royal background, they were antagonistic to investing power in royalty; so they resisted. In Lagos and Abeokuta were you have a lot of returnee slaves from Brazil, Nevascotia, Sierra-Leon, Gold Coast, etc, have grudges. It is the monarch and the system that sold them into slavery and now it is payback time.
There were no returnees from the trans-Sahara slave trade; they were gone forever. But returnee slaves came back as Reverend Ajayi Crowther, Sakara Williams; and were the educated people who dictated the tune. So, whatever they were doing was to suppress the local rulers. So the stage was set disproportionately in favour of colonial Fulbe Gambari ruler in the north. So that is the advantage of the Ijaws. And under such arrangement you have a Gambari prince, Ahmadu Bello becoming the Premier of Northern Region. Contrastingly, an Amachri, Henshaw or a Jaja emerging.
If there was an independent struggle (so-called) for the British to leave, why should the Fulanis remain in Kano? A Fulani man is not from Kano but he is ruling over Kano; also a Fulani man who is not from Ilorin is ruling over Ilorin; a Fulani man who is not from Bida is ruling over Bida; why should that be? So, what is good for the goose is good for the gander. For me these people are not indigenous and even if the Nupes, Gbagyis and Yorubas accepted them as their leaders in a constitutional democracy, there should be equal access to all the institutions which include the Emirates and the Sultanate by all the people. If the people have accepted them, they cannot force us to accept them. If they accept them they should remain with them in Kano, Sokoto and elsewhere; but they cannot bring them down and say I, an Ijaw man, should accept them; because they are not indigenous. So when we are talking of issues affecting our people they ought not to be there because they are strangers.
As far as I am concerned they are the major problem of the Nigerian state. I am not against the Nupes, Beroms, Jarawas and Bassas because they are suffering more deprivation than us. We do not have direct contact with the oppressive machinery of the Gambaris; they are the people who are really feeling the impact of the oppressive activities of the Gambaris.
A foreigner cannot continue to rule over you and you accept it, because it is demeaning. Malcolm X said if you do not bend your back nobody will ride on your back. So, we are telling the Hausas to stand erect so that these fellows can no longer ride on your back.
Let’s look at the Nigerian state today, specifically 2015 countdown and calls for Jonathan to run or not. A lot of issues being thrown up – insurgency, opposition parties and all that; do you support the idea that Jonathan should run in next year’s poll?
Nobody has the right to stop Jonathan from running. He has two uninterrupted tenures of four years, making eight years as a democratically elected president, and nobody has the right to take that from him. And they will never succeed in taking it because we will resist it in a disproportionate way. So, that is not an issue. I am going further to say we feed you; you do not have the right to talk over our shoulder.
He who pays the piper dictates the tune. It is we who would dictate the tune you are to play for us. You are parasites, you contribute nothing. You are relying on us. We have to say this in the raw crudest way so that they will understand.
For the insurgency, (it is) good, for people like us they are helping us; without shooting one bullet they are busy shooting the bullet for us. They are busy fighting our course, so let them go about doing it. Their demand of creating Islamic caliphate is ok; if the people accept it, okay. That is not Goodluck’s business; it is mine. Why should we continue to allow people to die, for what purpose? Nigeria is not sacrosanct; the Soviet Union dissolved; Yugoslavia, Czeclovakia amongst others; let us dissolve Nigeria; we are not the same. Nigeria cannot survive. So for me I say kudos to Shekau. You are doing my duty; he is doing what I am supposed to do. I am relaxed. Let them be doing it; let the army be running everything that is happening; it is to my own good; it’s to the good of my people because we have less people to fight when the time comes.
Among Nigerians, it is believed that because of the corruption, as it were, it is difficult to prosecute the anti insurgency war.
The enemy of my enemy is my enemy, that question is not meant for me. It’s meant for the people who believe in Nigeria; I do not believe in Nigeria. I have gone up to Supreme Court denouncing Nigeria. If my enemy is dying, if Nigeria is dying why should I bother.
Some equally say that you have always said that you do not believe in Nigeria as it is today, some say that the military commanders in the North-East are not getting their acts right?
The question is not for me. If they get their acts right they will win. If they defeat them and kill a lot of them it’s good for me. Everyday my bele dey sweet me!
Some said they may be misleading President Goodluck Jonathan in their security advice, prompting calls for a sweeping change of NSA, the service chiefs and get a new crop of people who can handle the situation to end that distraction. What is your take?
Sincerely, my brother, when an Ijaw was NSA, the insurgency was not up to this scale; it is progressing. Globally, there is anger in the Muslim world because more people are being radicalized; for instance, on television you see killings that Hitler did not carry out; we did not see Hitler’s picture; it is fabrications that we were told that incinerators were used, but this one we are seeing it live in our homes and phones carried out by the apartheid Zionist state supported by United States and Europe.
So, there is global radicalisation because Muslims and people of good conscience are very angry because of what they are seeing all over the world.
The double standard: It is the same United States that went to Libya, a country that was the pride and glory of Africa, as well as the oppressed people of this world, killed Ghaddafi and destroy the country. Today, Libya is a failed state. It is the same United States of America and Europe that went to Syria and funded Islamic State, destroyed Syria. The same United States and Europe went to Iraq and destroyed the country. It is the same United States that supported a butcher in Egypt to overthrow a legitimate government elected by the people of Egypt, killing thousands of people; nobody talked about international criminal court.
All these happened and the world kept quite. United States fights proxy war, send people to fight her wars against the Muslims. Today, there is this global trend people are angry that why would we allow the destruction of Muslim lives and countries, supported and funded actively by the United States and her European allies in support and for the survival of the Zionist State of Israel.
In Nigeria, the insurgency is that Goodluck is an Ijaw man; he is a southerner and must not rule. They are going to make the country ungovernable. So, they now apply Islamic sentiment which is nowhere; there is no compulsion in religion; that is what the Qur’an says. (To you is your faith and to me is my faith).
Nobody can proclaim Islamic jihad in a multi-religious setting like Nigeria. My father has nine children and I am the only Muslim; when you proclaim Islamic jihad you expect me go to my house and start fighting my people while you have your own.
When I have killed all, you will turn to say I am Gambari born to rule. You are ruling Hausa, Nupe and Yoruba people who are Muslims like you and you refuse to give them power. Is it an Ijaw man that you have sent to kill his uncles, aunties, brothers, sisters and other relations? All that they are doing has nothing to do with Islam; it is political to seize power. We are waiting for them; they are plotting and we are all plotting. What is happening now is unthinkable during the days of Azazi as NSA. For me the president should overhaul the nation’s security.
The question we ask is where do they get all the resources with which they are funding the insurgency? Now, there are changes in global flash points such as Palestine, Syria and Iraq; it’s also influencing others than the local influence that is visible. For me the president should put political consideration into play in trying to change the NSA, service chiefs, etc. It is within the presidents constitutional powers to make changes; it should be within his political interest and that is what concerns me. People would say what of the interest of the Nigerian people, whatever interests the Nigerian people does not interest me because I do not believe in Nigeria. What interests me is that my brother is president and he must be safe and complete his eight-year tenure.
At 50, some would say age is not on their side and would be planning retirement; but this is not the same in your case.
Yes, ordinarily at 50 I do not hope that I would continue to be in this career; what I am doing is the whole of my life. I started as a student unionist in school becoming President of National Union of Rivers State Students, doing a lot of things in my community. I expected that by 50 I should have retired. What propelled us into the struggle (are) the issues of independence for our people and we have not reached there yet. We have gotten presidency, Bayelsa State and they are talking about creation of Oil Rivers State. Those people consider this as gains; we cannot pretend that they are not advancement. Before the emergence of Ijaw National Congress and Ijaw Youth Council, where were the Ijaws? Would they have been considered for presidency if I have not commenced armed struggle?
After Isaac Boro, I started the first modern armed struggle. If I had not commenced the armed struggle would Goodluck Jonathan have been president? Would we have been given what we are being given today? Do we consider this as gain or pacification? These are the issues. For those of us considered as hardliners who do not believe in the existence of the Nigerian state, for those of us who do not consider it as any gain or advancement of our struggle, we believe that we are on sabbatical.
Our eyes are set on our goal and that is where the insurgency issue comes in; they are helping us; they are making us to fight less battle. And people from our place who are in the army and hitherto believed in the indivisibility of this amorphous thing called Nigeria are now having a rethink. So it is a benefit. Maybe Dokubo Asari is right. That is also a victory.
The Gambaris have shot themselves on the foot by trying to take political power; they do not know that times have changed; they are living in the past.
Don’t you see a contradiction there? You do not believe in the Nigerian state as it is today, yet your concern is to make sure that your brother, President Jonathan
Blacks were all jubilating when Obama became president of the United States of America. I named my daughter Barakat and my son Barak. Not because of the person of Obama but what he represents, that a people who have been through slavery, humiliation and so on, one of us can rise to become president. So, Goodluck Jonathan could be an Ijaw Nigerian; there is nothing wrong with that. He has the support of all Ijaws, and all Ijaws are the same wherever they are.
Jonathan believes in the indivisibility of Nigeria; so he takes exception when I say certain things. He gets angry when I say certain things but I am my own man. God in his infinite wisdom made him president of Nigeria. So, if I do not protect him and they kill him what should I do if another Ijaw is president of Cameroun; I should also allow him to be killed? There is a possibility that another Ijaw man can become president of Cameroun, because theere are so many Ijaw people in Cameroon. Goodluck is an Ijaw Nigerian like they say black American. Goodluck is ready to lay his life for Nigeria and he sees me as an irritant.
That is how most of the people use to see me; Chief Edwin Clark and so on. But they have come to realise that even though they are older than me the path they were following is not the straight path. And they are coming closer to us. Somebody who was 100 percent pro-north to now be one of the most hated people by northerners, after me the person northerners hate most is Clark. That is why when Buhari staged an assassination stunt they paid somebody to, it was Dokubo Asari who paid N5 million to kill Buhari.
When any Nigerian apologist writes anything, whether Babangida or Obasanjo, they must refer to me and Clark. Jega already in the distribution of polling units has given undue advantage to the north by giving the north 22, 000 polling units out of 30,000 million new polling units, and the south 8,000, and this is not commensurate with the voting figures. And the structure of INEC for the first time the chairman and secretary are from the north. Almost all the key positions in INEC are owned by Gambari northerners. And this is not in the best interest of a free and fair election. Whether the president pretends or not, this is battle between north and south.
The Gambari colonial north want to continuously foist their hegemony over and above all of us, and Jega is a Gambari man. They are going to appeal to him; so all these things have to be put into consideration before election. The president cannot fail; it is not possible. So the president should critically look at these issues and correct them before the election. We know that in a free and fair election the president will win because he has achieved more than all the presidents and leaders put together since 1956.
The colonialists left functional railway lines when they left; the railway died and today they are being revived. Obasanjo left death traps as roads; today roads are being revived. There are so many projects going (on). There was no trauma centre in Nigerian; now here is such centre in the National hospital. Goodluck’s victory is a foregone conclusion and let them not say Muslims are against him, it is a lie; I am a Muslim; I am 100 percent in support of Goodluck; I am ready to take bullet not because of him as a person but what he stands for.
Goodluck represents the freedom of you and me from the hands of the colonist Gambari people from Guinea, who have foisted there hegemony on us. A lot of people will not understand the spiritual dimension of Goodluck’s emergence as president of this country. He is the first to become president without the north’s approval and he is completing his tenure. It is the sacrifices that Abiola, Dokubo Asari made that brought Goodluck. Goodluck represents something greater than himself and that is the freedom and dignity of you and me.
Source: Nigerian Pilot
