Dokubo-Asari
TAKING impunity to a new level, some
ex-Niger Delta militants, joined by some intemperate public officials,
gathered in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, last week to declare war
against Nigeria in advance, should President Goodluck Jonathan lose
next month’s presidential election. While disdain for law and order is
not totally unexpected from pardoned ex-insurgents, the participation of
Governor Seriake Dickson and a presidential adviser, Kingsley Kuku, in
that provocative conclave is doubly unacceptable and should warrant a
response from the government.
The bravado was shocking. According to
news reports, the ex-militants, featuring some ex-warlords, vowed to
take up arms against the country if Jonathan lost the February 14
presidential election. They also threatened reprisals for attacks on the
President’s campaign team and vehicles in some northern states. Asari
Dokubo, who has repeatedly trodden this path, urged attendees to get
ready for war: “This action is calling the Niger Delta youths to war.”
Like
him, others, including Government Ekpemupolo, aka Tompolo, and Victor
Ebikabowei, aka Boy Loaf,
vowed to disrupt oil production. “If they take
the power away from Jonathan, we will take our oil,” declared
Ebikabowei. If the threats of persons who once violently resorted to
self-help were disturbing, the benevolent presence of Dickson and Kuku
was alarming.
Rather than moderate the extremism on
display, Dickson, playing the amiable host, reportedly thanked the
speakers for “backing the re-election of President Jonathan with greater
vigour” and promised to relate their position to him. On his part,
Kuku, the President’s Special Adviser on Niger Delta Affairs and
Chairman of the Amnesty Implementation Committee, reportedly read the
resolutions of the meeting, reiterating that the region’s youths would
not take attacks on the President’s campaign entourage lightly.
If these reports are a true reflection of
what transpired, Dickson’s and Kuku’s actions were simply treasonable.
They have desecrated the high offices they occupy. Dickson imprudently
provided the hallowed chambers of the Government House, Yenagoa, for the
infamous meeting and lent the imprimatur of his exalted office to
threats against the country and the 1999 Constitution that he solemnly
swore to uphold.
Most offensive is the complete disregard
for law and the electoral process. The militants did not hinge their
angst on any universally acceptable present or future injustice to their
preferred choice for president. Rather, they demonstrated utter
disregard for the electoral process, vowing to declare war and disrupt
oil production even if Jonathan lost in a free and fair contest.
This arrogance is insufferable and the
rest of Nigeria should be concerned. First, leaders, elders, traditional
authorities and even the youths of Ijawland, on whose behalf the
incendiary threats were purportedly made, should come out to disclaim
the preposterous provocation. It is an ill-wind that benefits no one,
certainly not the 14 million population claimed by the Ijaw Foundation.
Jonathan should not play the ostrich on
this one. The threat is too weighty to be ignored, especially with the
presence of his aide, Kuku, at the meeting. He should not forget this
statement that “nobody’s political ambition is worth the blood of any
Nigerian.” Nigerians have risen as one against mindless, unprovoked
violence or threats by any group. When misguided youths rampaged in some
northern states after the 2011 presidential election, they received
national and worldwide condemnation. His silence can only be interpreted
as tacit agreement. Did he send Kuku to the meeting or was the adviser
there in his personal capacity? No presidential adviser or state
governor ought to be associated with such threats.
The central pillars of democracy are the
rule of law and regular free and fair elections. Jonathan won one in
2011; he can remain in office for another four years only through
another electoral victory. You neither go to war when your candidate
loses an election nor declare war ahead of it.
The misguided militants forget that the
votes of the Ijaw militants alone cannot secure election and Nigeria is a
single constituency for an aspirant to the presidency. Jonathan won
handily across the country in 2011. He fortuitously ascended the
presidency, first, as Acting President, not by the actions of his
kinsmen, who also played no role whatsoever in his nomination to the
vice-presidency in 2007.
It is tragic that ex-militants, once
accused of kidnapping, sabotage of oil facilities and killing of
soldiers and policemen but were granted amnesty by the late President
Umaru Yar’Adua, are once again threatening violence on the basis of a
divine right to the Presidency. A media report published in February
2014 estimated that at least N260 billion was spent on ex-Niger Delta
militants between 2009 and 2013 through amnesty payments and lucrative
pipeline protection deals, while N35.8 billion was voted for
ex-militants in 2014. Ekpemupolo’s company has been awarded a
controversial multimillion dollar coastal protection contract just as
Asari Dokubo, Ebikabowei and others also have been given contracts.
Thousands have received scholarships and monthly payouts.
Two years ago, Kuku had, during a visit
to the United States, similarly threatened war if Jonathan was not
returned to office in 2015. Asari Dokubo has been making the same threat
for years with no response from the President. Nigerians can no longer
accept silence from their President, whose then political adviser, Ahmed
Gulak, reacting to yet another threat of violence from Asari Dokubo in
2013, said the ex-militant was merely expressing his own opinion.
The militants make no pretence to being
well-armed. In any case, their security contracts enable them to legally
procure sophisticated weapons, funded by the taxpayer, and immense
wealth to buy more outside official channels.
The inaction of the Department of State
Service and the police is baffling, but may not be unconnected with
their reading of the president’s body language. Jonathan should not
allow his ambition and supporters to plunge Nigeria into a blood-soaked
crisis. The security agencies should shun partisanship and do their duty
to the state by taking counter-measures against any violent threats to
the country.
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