- ‘Niger Delta will treat Amaechi as a traitor’
- el-Rufai once told us ‘Buhari is perpetually unelectable’
Femi Adewale, Abuja
There are strong indications that 2015 general elections may define and decide the existence of Nigeria as a nation.
A warning issued on Sunday by former President of Ijaw Youth Congress (IYC) and leader of the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, has raised this fear, against the background of alleged prediction by the United States of America that Nigeria may break-up as a nation in 2015, and comments credited to former Military Head of State and three-time presidential candidate, General Mohammed Buhari, that “the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood”, if the 2015 election does not reflect the will of the people.
Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari on Sunday threatened that there will no be peace in Nigeria if President Goodluck Jonathan is not returned as President for a second term in 2015.
Asari, who addressed journalists in his Abuja residence, also said that the people of Niger Delta will treat the governor of Rivers State and Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi as a traitor for allegedly betraying the collective interest of the entire people of the region, by trying to further his political interest of allegedly becoming a presidential running mate to a northern presidential candidate in 2015, against the perceived second term ambition of President Jonathan.
Asari said: ” I want to say that, there will be no peace, not only in the Niger Delta, but everywhere, if Goodluck Jonathan is not president by 2015, except God takes his life, which we don’t pray for.
“Jonathan has uninterrupted eight years of two terms to be president, according to the Nigerian constitution. We must have our uninterrupted eight years of two tenures, am not in support of any amendment of the constitution that will reduce the eight years of two tenures that Goodluck Jonathan is expected to be president of Nigeria.”
Asari’s threat is coming shortly after Mr. Kingsley Kuku has warned of “dire consequences” in the oil rich Niger Delta should President Goodluck Jonathan fail to secure a fresh term in 2015.
Kuku, who is the Special Adviser to the president on Niger Delta, and Chairman, Presidential Amnesty Programme addressed U.S. officials in Washington last week and said that the current relative peace in the Niger Delta is tied to the continued stay in office of Mr Jonathan, and strongly urged the American government to back his presidency.
Kuku, who was former spokesman of IYC during the Asari leadership of the group, also stressed that Jonathan can guarantee peace in the restive region and hence, the compelling need to persuade him to seek re-election in 2015.
“It is true that the Presidential Amnesty Programme has engendered peace, safety and security in the sensitive and strategic Niger Delta. Permit me to add that the peace that currently prevails in the zone is largely because Dr Goodluck Jonathan, who is from that same place, is the President of Nigeria. That is the truth,” he said.
Speaking on the current rift between President Goodluck Jonathan and the governor of Rivers State, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi, who is also the outgoing chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), Asari said: “Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has been making disparaging statements against the person of President Goodluck Jonathan. He went to Kano state and declare there that he will contest 2015 presidential election as a running mate to a northern aspirant. He is free to do so, but the South-South region will not allow traitors among us.
“If Rotimi Amaechi has singled himself out as a traitor, he will be treated as a traitor, there is nothing anybody can do about it. Now that we have come out of slavery, nobody can take us back into slavery, it is not possible. Rotimi Amaechi with his background enjoys slavery. He knows his background and everybody knows him. If God has given him a lease of life to be with people who has freedom, he should appreciate what God has given him, but to think he will take us back to slavery, we will not let him do so. There is a monumental corruption going in Rivers State under Amaechi. He budgets $3billion every year, and there is nothing to show for such budget in Rivers State, which is a one-city state.
“After we have seen the light at the end of the tunnel and freedom is in sight, then an Amaechi comes and want to take us back into slavery, its not going to be possible. If they like, let them settle him and Goodluck, but we the people of the Niger Delta will not settle and allow a traitor in our midst. We will never allow a traitor to be in our midst. Because if God brings you out from poverty, you should be grateful to God, and not to drag yourself back to poverty, that is what Amaechi wants to do, we will help him go back to slavery and poverty, but will never allow him to drag us along.”
He continued: “Enough of the handshake across the Niger. Is it only us that will always stretch out hands for a handshake across the Niger? Let the man on the bank of the Niger stretch his own hand to us. Don’t they shake hands? Why must it be us that will be doing handshake every time? We have fought, we have seen the light, total freedom is coming and we will never allow any traitor among us, and that is why the people of Rivers State are happy that finally, Amaechi has exposed himself, that is the reality before us.
“There is so much joy among Rivers State people that this is happening. It is no longer Riverine fight the upland, but it is now a collective fight of the people against one traitor called Amaechi. This is not an Ijaw matter, it is fight for the people of Rivers State and the South-South people because we know that it is the rat in the house that goes to tell the rat in the bush that there is fish in the kitchen. We cannot allow Amaechi to bring back the enemy to come and destroy our land, it is not possible.
“So for us, whether Goodluck settles with Amaechi or not, whatever they are doing, we have resolved that Amaechi will not be allowed to have his way. In the first place, Amaechi never won election to become governor. His being a governor in Rivers State today is the manipulation of the oligarchs. Seven people sat down at the Supreme Court and declared a man who never contested election governor of a state. If Celestine Omehia was not legally qualified to contest the 2007 election, the honorable path open to the Supreme Court, was to annul the election and order for a fresh election, but that didn’t happen because it is the programme of the Caliphate to impose a candidate and seven men sat at the Supreme Court and imposed Amaechi on the people of Rivers State.
“It was the same process, Amaechi never won House of Assembly election in 1999, Uche Okwukwu defeated him, and the same court process was used to give him another man’s mandate. Uche Okwukwu after wining him at the election, won him at the tribunal, and they went to INEC list to expunge Uche Okwukwu’s name from the election list, meanwhile he has a voters’ card. Up till today, INEC refused to tell us how the name of a man who was duly registered as a voter, who passed through all the process of election and became a candidate in an election, suddenly disappeared from its register, and they declared Amaechi who failed the winner. Amaechi has been wining through the court, now the court is declaring other people winners against his interest, why is he protesting? He was elected by the court, from House of Assembly to governor.”
Speaking on Buhari, Asari said: “They talk about Buhari, and I asked them what does Buhari has to show in all the years he has been in government? He was a governor in the north, later he became commissioner for Petroleum and natural resource, he was Head of State, and he also headed the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), in all of these positions he held, what are his achievements? When we go to Dubai and other former third-world countries, we see the achievements of their leaders. If Buhari is so good, let him show us one thing that he achieved when he was in the positions he held before. Let him show us one monument in the former North East that can be attributed to him when he was governor there. He has nothing to show. They’re saying he is not corrupt, and we were told how $2.8b got missing.
“Group Captain Usman Jibrin, a Muslim and former governor in the north, accused Buhari of corruption, that his cronies were given contracts in the Afri Project… Buhari’s cronies controlled PTF, we all saw it. But because some people love slavery, and they will say the master is coming with koboko, he will flog me if I don’t fall in line. President Jonathan is not using the hammer that IBB and Buhari used when they were in power. Jonathan is not using the retroactive laws that Buhari used, that is why they see him as clueless. They want him to start behaving the IBB, Buhari and Obasanjo then he becomes a president that is strong.
“Jobless people like Nasir el-Rufai that are now running their mouths, have nothing to contribute to Nigeria, they can only survive with government. el-Rufai ran out if Nigeria under his brother Yar’Adua, when his brother died, he came back, he wanted appointment in Goodluck’s government, and when Goodlcuk didn’t give him appointment, he suddenly turn a northern crusader.
“The same el-Rufai who said that Buhari is perpetually unelectable because of his record as military head of state, is running his mouth abusing Goodluck, in an attempt to present Buhari as an electable person. How can anybody take el-Rufai and Buhari serious? The same el-Rufai who said that Buhari’s insensitivity to Nigeria’s diversity and his parochial focus are already well-known. And I asked him, when did parochial Buhari become electable and sensitive to Nigeria’s diversity?
“The same el-Rufai told us that in 1984, Buhari allowed 53 suitcases belonging to his ADC’s father to enter Nigeria unchecked at a time the country was exchanging old currency for new. The same el-Rufai who told us that against all canons of legal decency, Buhari used retroactive laws to execute three young men for drug-peddling after they were convicted by a military tribunal and not regular courts of law.
“This same jobless el-Rufai said that Buhari was so high handed that he gave himself and his officials immunity even from truthful reporting, when Buhari used the obnoxious Decree 4, against which truth was no defence, to jail journalists and attempt to cow the media as a whole.
“This same el-Rufai, a habitual betrayer, who is now running his mouth, said all these about Buhari when he was FCT Minister under Obasanjo. Why would anybody take him serious?
“I am an Ijaw man, call me an ethnic bigot, I don’t care, I have no apology to give to anybody. I am an Ijaw man, if you touch an Ijaw man, you touch me. So there is nothing about it that I am going to be ashamed of.
“But you don’t dare a leader, who tries to be civil and humane. They want him to become “my father used to flog you with cane, I’m going to chastise you with cutlass”. When it gets to that state, a lot of them will not be able to cry.”
