Former Niger Delta militant
leader, Alhaji Mujadid Asari- Dokubo has tipped ex-Vice-President Atiku
Abubakar as the opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP’s best
candidate to challenge President Muhammadu Buhari and the All
Progressives Congress, APC in the 2019 general elections.
Asari- Dokubo in this interview with FEMI FOLARANMI in
Yenagoa, Bayelsa state, dismissed some names being touted as the PDP
likely presidential candidate and warned that if the party fails to pick
a strong candidate that can rally the people for the general election,
it would lose the polls.
Considering the position you took
prior to the 2015 elections, objecting the candidature of President
Muhammadu Buhari, has anything changed?
There is nothing that can change. This is
because a few people and I knew that the packaging of Buhari to run as
President was not right, but this packaging swayed many people. Look at
Nigeria, look at the type of life people are living. It clearly shows
and justified the position some of us held. Nigerians can no longer
afford anything again, not just food. Life is extremely brutish and
people kill each other at the slightest provocation. It has never been
like this before. So we have been vindicated.
There are suggestions in some quarters
that former President Goodluck Jonathan threw the presidency away. Two
books; Against the Run of Play by Olusegun Adeniyi and On a Platter of
Gold by Bolaji Abdulllahi contained facts on this line of thought. What
do you think were the things or policies Jonathan did that threw away
his presidency?
Jonathan as far as Ijaw people were
concerned did not rule firmly. Apart from that, Goodluck Jonathan, Gowon
and maybe Shagari might pass off as the best that happened to Nigeria.
Theirs was a time Nigerians have justice. Nobody was afraid of the
government. Goodluck Jonathan brought laws that aided democracy. There
was the Freedom of Information Act, Human Rights Commission. He set up
institutions and policies like the TSA, BVN, Card Reader, preparing the
ground for an all-inclusive democratic system. So, is this why he threw
the presidency away? Bolaji that is talking and writing, look at what
his principal, Saraki is being subjected to. I know Bolaji well; he was a
Minister under Jonathan. He had a free hand and was enjoying. Do
the present Ministers have the same free hand enjoyed under Jonathan?
Government officials, Ministers, and Governors are openly complaining
that they cannot access Mr. Buhari. Goodluck
Jonathan was too soft for them; if that is what they mean by saying he
threw the presidency away, yes, I will agree. People take advantage of
people who are not ready to shed the blood of others. That is the truth,
which was why he lost. If it had been someone like me, I would never
have lost, because I know how to use power to treat these irritants.
Issues like Boko Haram kidnap of
Chibok girls and Jonathan’s body language on corruption were identified
as the low points of the administration that caused its downfall
There was nothing like the kidnap of Chibok girls. This is even the most corrupt government. Where is the budget implementation? It
is under this Buhari government we have heard of budget padding and
missing budget. There are things unheard of before in Nigeria. Aso Rock
clinic since 2016, we have been budgeting billions more than what is
given to all the teaching and tertiary hospitals in Nigeria combined.
There is no how you can tell it. It is like an egg that has broken, and
there is no way we can bring it back. Nigerians are witnessing the years
of the locust and I wonder when we would get out of this.
There were allegations that Jonathan surrounded himself with Ijaw people which spelt doom for his government
I am simply an Ijaw man that stood behind
a fellow Ijaw man and I am not even an insider in the government. So
who were the Ijaw people he surrounded himself with? All the people that
have been alleged to have collected money from Dasuki, have you heard
of one Ijaw man’s name? All the people on trial that collected money
from Dasuki and Diezani, have you heard of one single Ijaw person’s
name? So, where are the Ijaw people that Jonathan surrounded himself
with? They want to put us on trial and kill us. Buhari said he would
give us the Boko Haram treatment. If Buhari has his ways, all Ijaw
people would have been dead. This is why those Ijaw people who went and
followed him to betray Jonathan have not been given anything significant
in his government with all their contributions. Minister of State for
Agriculture and Rural Resources is what Buhari feels we Ijaw people
should have. There is no
government that I remember of, from the time of Gowon that would not
have four to five Ijaw ministers. But now we don’t even have a Minister.
What we have is someone without portfolio and it is even Minister of
State for Agriculture. If Buhari has his way he would have wiped out
Ijaw people. That is why he wants to cause confusion between us and the
Itsekiri and backing Bini people to seize Ijaw people so that when we
stand up against oppression, he would bring his Army. But he has known
us that we are not afraid of his Army. Every Nigerian knows that Ijaw
people are not afraid. We are not people that Fulani would come and kill
and we would be crying. If you do us, we shall do you back very well.
Part of the challenges hampering the
performance of the Buhari government is the rot left by the Jonathan
government. Do you agree?
Which rot? Jonathan left Nigeria as the fastest growing economy in Africa. When
you campaigned to take over power, you should be prepared to govern.
Was Buhari not Head of State before? When he left, was Nigeria like
Sweden, Norway or UAE? These people are clowns and they think other
Nigerians are idiots. They are talking because people did not want to
stand up to them. Someone like Buhari should just keep quiet. He was a
governor in North East made up of the States where Boko Haram is
presently domiciled. These are among the most educationally backward
states, Buhari was governor there. He was Minister of Petroleum and was
in charge of refineries which as we are talking today are outdated. He
was GOC and left an Army command structure that is a disgrace. As Head
of State, there was widespread hunger, human rights abuses, and
draconian laws. As PTDF Chairman, he served under the most corrupt
government in this country. Let them back their facts, Jonathan ruled
for five years, three months, from 1956 when we had self-government so
it was Goodluck Jonathan that left rot in government?
What can the Buhari government do between now and 2019 presidential elections to please critics like you?
There won’t be any redeeming factor.
Buhari is not capable of performing. The government cannot continue to
lie and think God would approve it. Mark what I am telling you today,
God has rejected this government. Every day, the government is going
from bad to worse.
So you think APC will implode before the election?
APC is not clean and what they are
plotting is to rig the elections. Goodluck Jonathan allowed them to rig
elections in 2015 and unfortunately, the PDP is not ready for a fight.
PDP is putting its acts together to confront the APC and you are saying they are not ready for a fight
Yes, the PDP is not ready for a fight. If
the PDP is ready for a fight, there won’t be talks of Tambuwal
candidature, someone who is a governor in APC. He destroyed PDP and ran
to APC. They are talking of Tambuwal, who knows him in Bayelsa? PDP
governors are lobbying a character like that to join the PDP and
contest for the presidential ticket. They are talking of Makarfi, a man
who could not win Senate election; a man who during the 2015
presidential election allegedly voted for Buhari and showed his ballot
paper to the people before putting it in the box. Such a man is the one
some PDP people are lobbying to get on the presidential ticket.
But there is Sule Lamido who has already written to PDP members on his presidential intention
Sule Lamido is not different from Buhari.
He is one of these arrogant Fulani people who feel they own this
country and the rest of us are just like appendages.
You have not mentioned Atiku Abubakar
Yes, I was in the SDP with Atiku
Abubakar. He is the most liberal of all the people coming from the
North. He has his own baggage. Let us look at other people. What are
people like David Mark doing that they can’t contest? Is it that they
are not courageous enough to come and fight? So everybody in the North
would abdicate to the Fulani. Other Northerners are even afraid to take
their liberty even when we have told them that we have taken our liberty
and they should take theirs.
But Governor Ayodele Fayose has signified his intention to contest
Yes, he has signified his intention but
it is not going to fly. Who is going to run Fayose’s election for him?
Whose money is going to be used? The South West does not vote heavily.
The percentage of voters is low. Ekiti state where Fayose is governor
has one of the lowest voting population. The other voters in South West
are in the hands of the APC. For me, David Mark would have been the very
best for PDP to galvanize the swing nationalities; those people outside
Hausa, Fulani, and Yoruba and bring them together to join with the Igbo
and some other liberal Yoruba people. But if David Mark is not there,
among the Fulani if the PDP insists on having a Fulani to become its
presidential candidate, Atiku is their best bet. We also have Ibrahim
Shekarau, a very honest and cerebral man. But does he have resources
because election demands resources. At the end of the day, a lot of
people do not know Shekarau in the South. Atiku already has platforms
across Nigeria and whatever it is he can fight more. Aside that, he has
also talked about restructuring and as an Ijaw man, we want to engage
him, what he means by restructuring. If PDP is looking for somebody with
a war chest to fight and that would attract a lot of people from the
APC, it is Atiku.
Judging by the last PDP national
convention, it appears the PDP governors are firmly in control of the
party, so are you advising them to pick Atiku?
All the PDP governors would lose if they
don’t chose a candidate that can fight. I think some PDP governors want
to go behind and get some secret arrangement with Buhari and his cabal.
They would all lose. If they do such things, they would fail. PDP should
stand alone and fight. God has made it easier for them with the poor
performance of Buhari. Nobody would vote for Buhari even in the North.
If PDP does not have a strong candidate that can galvanise support
across and resist the rigging of APC because it is not going to be like
under Goodluck Jonathan where everything was free and fair. PDP must
have someone that should be able to carry the sympathy of the South-
South, South- East, get people in the South- West, Middle Belt and make
inroads into the Fulani North.
Almost all outspoken supporters of
former President Goodluck Jonathan are in one trouble or the other with
EFCC but your name is not mentioned anywhere and you are not on the run.
What is the secret?
You see when you have a name and when you believe you talk boldly because you know who you are. When
you don’t take what does not belong to you, you won’t have problems. I
don’t desire much and I don’t take what does not belong to me. I don’t
envy people. Let me tell you a story; when I was growing up, after the
civil war, they said people were turning into a goat, chicken, dogs on
the road etc, we never saw one but we heard. And then my grandmother
said if you don’t pick what does not belong to you, you won’t turn to an
animal. From that day till now, I don’t take what does not belong to
me. And my grandmother told me again to always look at those below me
and give thanks to God. It is only God and you who know how you got to
where you are. So these two things my grandmother said to me has guided
me. I don’t desire anything, which at that material time I don’t have
the capacity to afford. I don’t get involved in anything that would
spoil my name. This is why
my name cannot be mentioned in connection with illegal bunkering and
militancy. I am an open book you can read. This is why I am not on the
run under a government that is vicious.
Have you met former President Goodluck Jonathan since he left office?
I have only seen former President
Jonathan twice since he left office. And I have not had the opportunity
to discuss with him. On the two occasions I met him, it was at public
functions, one during the re-election campaign of Governor Henry Seriake
Dickson and the other during a courtesy call on him by some leaders of
thought. My support for
Goodluck was not based on his personality but what he represented. He is
an Ijaw man. And the motto of Ijaw people is ‘one for all, all for
one.’ So, that is why we stood by him. He is older than me with a few
years, what he would do if he wants me is to invite me and he has not
invited me.
What is your impression about the performance of the governor of Bayelsa state?
Governor Henry Seriake Dickson is my
brother and friend. People would say maybe I’m enjoying from the
governor of Bayelsa state but our people say, the roof covers and
protect a lot of things. I have traveled in Bayelsa, if you take away
Seriake Dickson projects even in Yenagoa, the state capital would be
empty. Today people drive to
Alebiri, the Airport project is coming up. These projects were near
impossibilities when other governors were there. Our people are used to
collecting free money, and as far as I am concerned Seriake Dickson has
performed more than any other governor. You can’t compare him with any
past governor in the state. People might call me names but I am telling
you the truth, he is performing.
Source: The Sun
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