After attacking and denigrating the detained Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the notorious ex-Niger Delta militant leader and founder of the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force, Mujaheed Asari Dokubo, (58) seems to have shifted his venomous attention towards the Labour Party presidential hopeful, Peter Obi, lately. He had described Obi as a “big scammer”, in town. And followed it up later by saying that the former Anambra State Governor was “a total misfit, a Glorified Yahoo-Yahoo”. Dokubo concluded by declaring that Obi had not what it takes to defeat both the PDP’s Atiku Abubakar and the ruling party’s Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in next year’s presidential poll. But the truth of the matter is that it is not Dokubo, but Nigerians, that would decide who becomes President post-Buharism.
For Dokubo launching incoherent tirades against Obi online could damage his hard-earned reputation and lower his spirit towards the general elections slated for February next year. But if that was the primary objective Dokubo had failed woefully. If reactions that trailed his outbursts online and offline were any indication then it stands to reason to infer that he had reaped failure as a comeuppance.
Who the hell is Asari Dokubo? Dokubo came to national limelight many years ago as that glorified terrorist working with other ‘militants’ to sabotage national oil and gas installations in the Niger Delta. Their argument then was that their region and their people were not getting enough of the proceeds of the resources found in their native lands from the oppressive federal government. Of course, they were fighting a just cause for which a great playwright and environmentalist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, had paid the supreme price!
It took a presidential intervention in terms of an amnesty package for the boys to be placated. The late ex-President Umaru Yar’Adua granted a blanket amnesty to Dokubo and other criminals blowing up pipelines and smuggling crude oil outside our shores! Monetary rewards and other palliatives came with the package. And Dokubo and co smiled to the bank!
Today, this Niger Delta retired crude oil thief and saboteur is living in self-imposed exile in the neighbouring Benin Republic. Seeing Dokubo on video recently revealed a troubled soul. And with heavy beards he cut the image of a Jihadist beaten and bruised. Perhaps his money in the banks are running in the reds hence the need for more ‘hustling’ with the hope that a politician of fortune could contact him for a ‘contract’ worth millions.
Indeed, it is surprising that Asari the buffoon has not come to terms with the fact that the Igbos are formidable! And that they possess a strong indomitable spirit. May be, he is envious of our guts, intrepidity and republican lifestyle! Or he is suffering from an incurable inferiority complex coming from an Ijaw minority ethnic group. Or possibly Dokubo is playing a dangerous politics of challenging greatness in the vain hope that in so doing he could exploit the circumstances to launch himself into national relevance once again.
Having been humbled out of circulation by the amnesty and windfall extended to him and his criminal ilk Dokubo may have believed that sabotaging critical petro-chemical infrastructures of the federation could pay handsomely. Alas, herein lies the problem. While it is generally agreed that Niger Delta region had suffered state neglect, terrorism (remember the Odi massacre?) and marginalisation using terrorism and criminality to fight the state could not be said to be a smart move.
Dokubo is not yet satisfied with what he had gotten. He wants more. Partaking in the looting spree could be an irresistible attraction to a man with large appetite for free money. Trying hard to wangle himself into the corrupt system using Obi as a battering ram is the wrong way to go about it all. Maybe Dokubo could, for once in his lifetime, contest an election and see how popular or otherwise he is in his region.
The Igbos are a proud rich ethnic group. The pride lies in our linguistic heritage, our rich culture, our entrepreneurial ingenuity and can-do spirit. Dokubo should ask himself how on earth an ethnic group whose 3 million members were massacred during the Biafran genocide could rise out of the ashes of that pogrom to build an economy that is today the envy of the world? He must interrogate his conscience and realise that the Igbos are not his enemy. But if he elects to make an enemy out of the Igbos then so be it. He must live with it.
Trying to bring down some prominent Igbos at the national stage can never see him acquiring filthy lucre or becoming ‘somebody’ more or less important than he presently is. Rather, such descent into infamy can only diminish more of his controversial violent reputation. And exposing his folly as an agent of hate and one afflicted with Igbophobia.
By the time the presidential poll comes and goes with losers and winners emerging Peter Obi’s ‘Obidient’ triumph or political obituary would be announced. And if the former scenario proves to be the case then it is Asari Dokubo’s obituary that would be announced.
It is pointless indicating here that Asari is a nonentity compared to Peter Obi. Just because one was an oil bunkerer, a glorified terrorist or a crusader for equitable distribution of oil and gas proceeds from Niger Delta region does not make one great.
Dokubo must be ‘Obidient’ at the fullest of time. If he is attacking Obi in order for him to be ‘settled’ a la Babangida then he is wasting his time and energy. If he is pouring invectives on Obi in order for him to get ‘contract’ from other parties (APC/PDP) then he must assume the consequences. If he is pouring mud on Obi in order to score cheap political point or publicity then he must be reminded that whoever God blesses no one curses.
Asari Dokubo must let the ‘Obidient’ movement be! He may not be one of us but many of us, patriots et al, are, proudly! Nigeria as presently constituted is not sustainable if the hard truth be told. She needs urgent redemption. And Peter Obi is offering his services to clean the Augean stable.
Peter Obi would remain forever greater than the entirety of Asari Dokubo. Dokubo must, therefore, acknowledge the fact that obedience to the ‘Obidient’ movement is a great presidential idea whose time has come. One million Dokubos cannot stop it from flying come February next year.
If every other major ethnic group in Nigeria had failed to deliver Nigeria and Nigerians from their national malaise — unemployment, insecurity, corruption, poverty cluelessness — then is it not time to try an Igboman? If the Fulanis, Hausas, Yorubas and Ijaws (including the clueless Goodluck Jonathan) had all failed to provide quality leadership at the centre then Nigeria is waiting patiently for that man from Biafraland to knock sense back into the senseless situation imposing order and hope on our people.
With an Igbo man like Peter Obi at the helm of our national affairs then the likes of Melford Dokubo Goodhead Jr., nay Asari Dokubo, must be made to give account of their criminal activities of the past that tended to stunt national development.
In the end, by the time Obi/Baba-Ahmed presidential ticket flies come February then Dokubo’s ‘Obi-tuary’ would be announced loud and clear! The proclamation would reverberate across the world penetrating even the glorified village, Cotonou, where Asari is currently hiding.
SOC Okenwa
soco_abj_2006_rci@hotmail.fr
