‘GOD IS ANGRY’ WITH NORTHERN NIGERIA- DOKUBO ASARI

In an exclusive interview with Rariya Newspaper, Mr. Asari said
northerners should pray for forgiveness because they are facing the wrath of
God.

“For how many years the ruling
oligarchy of the north has been encouraging oppression? The people of the north
are poor, they did not benefit from the years of criminal, immoral ravaging of
the lands of Ogonis, Ijaws, Urhobos, Itsekiris and others.

The people are watching. They are
going to Dubai, London and everywhere to buy house. They are sending their
children abroad. They forgot God.

They forgot that there are so many
children roaming the street. All these things, one day a Daniel will come to
judgement. And that is it, it has come to judgement, and the people are
confronting them,” he said.

“What is happening in the north is
the north creates a monster, and the monster is consuming them. God is angry
with the north. Let them cry to Allah for forgiveness.”

Mr. Asari said it would be difficult
for a Northerner to win the 2015 presidential election as the fear of Boko
Haram will prevent people in the region from coming out to vote on election
day.

An Ijaw sovereign state

Mr. Asari who traced the struggle of
the people of the Niger Delta to the Battle of Akasa between the British and
the people of Nimbe Brass, said he is not interested in resource control for
the people of the Niger Delta but for an independent Ijaw State.

“For me as an individual, I’m not
involved in resources control. I believe first in what Kwame Nkrumah said:
‘‘seek ye first the political kingdom, and all other things will be added to
you.’’ What I believe in is an independence of my people.

“Yes, my position is quite different
from what others are fighting for. My position is an independent nation. It is
an undeniable right of our people to fight for the independence of our country,
which has not been extinguished because we signed a protracted treaty with
Britain. We did not surrender our sovereignty to Britain to be colonised. So as
far as those treaties are the 1914 amalgamation of Nigeria is illegal, null and
void. So also the declaration of independence in 1960 and also the declaration
of Nigeria in 1966 as a republic are also illegal,” he said.

I only care about Ijaws

The former militant who only recently
criticised President Goodluck Jonathan for running an inept government said he
only cares about the Ijaw people and by relation, the Igbo and other ethnic
groups of the Niger Delta.

“I have always said that, I’m
fighting for the independence of my people, the Ijaw people. I don’t have any
feeling than the feeling of an Ijaw man. That is the truth. And the feelings of
the wellbeing of Niger Delta and Igbo people, because I share blood with Igbo.
I’m an Ijaw, an Igbo and a Niger Deltan. I don’t have any feeling with any
other people.”

He said he has not ceased his fight
for a sovereign Ijaw State but is only on “sabbatical” as it is inappropriate
to fight with one’s brother (a reference to Mr. Jonathan who is from the Ijaw
ethnic group as well).

He also claimed that he was not part
of the amnesty deal the federal government signed with the Niger Delta
militants, saying “I will not use my hand to trade away my freedom.”

Dialogue with Boko Haram

Mr. Asari, who claimed he spent time
in prison with some leaders of the Islamist sect, Boko Haram,  said the
only way out of the insurgency is through dialogue.

“From the very beginning I was one of
those people who asked the government to dialogue with them. I was in prison
with some of them. I was with Mohammed Ashafa at Kuje prison; I was in SSS
underground prison with Mohammed Isa, Hussain and Yusuf, Murtada and others.
Late Mohammed Yusuf left SSS underground prison few days before I was put in
there. Dialogue is the only solution. As far as I’m concerned, both government
and Boko Haram cannot win this war. The bloodshed should be stopped. It will
not remove anything from the part of government of President Jonathan to
dialogue with this people,” he said.