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| Most Ijaw Political Elites are Traitors --- Alhaji Asari
After
the April 5th, 2002 decision by the Supreme court on the contentious
onshore/offshore dichotomy, the situation of things in the Niger Delta has
gradually turned onces again to its previous times of civil confrontation from
the natives of the region, so much so, that the women folks also has joined the
degree of people being restive. This
has culminated lately to the protest witnessed in Delta and Ondo State.
As reports have it that Itsekiri and Ijaw women in Delta State with Ilaje
women counterparts in Ondo State, seized Oil locations to drum-up support for
their plight. Hither
to this development, youths from the oil communities in the region had been
noted to be those largely involved with such acts as seizure of oil location,
short down of oil rig, hostage taking, as it were. Based
on this development Ijaw News Publisher, Presidor Ghomorai met with the National
President of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Alhaji Mujahdeen Dokubo Asari, the group
that proclaimed the now famous Kaiama Declaration in the historical town of
Kaiama the home place of the Ijaw Martyr, Major
Isaac Adaka Jasper Boro, in December 11, 1998. Alhaji
Asari, whose Presidency is not contested as he was duly elected in the Patani
summit of the Ijaw youths in December 31st, 2001.
Since assuming office as IYC President, he and his National executive
committee have tremendously turned around the situation of the youth’s quest,
for the better. He himself having
served the eloquent erstwhile President Felix Tuodolo, so he
can be said to have had enough knowledge of the intrigues involved in
leading a greatly disadvantaged Ijaw youths of Ijaw world. Alhaji
Asari who was a participant in the recently concluded United Nations World
Summit on Sustainable Development popularly referred to as “the Earth
Summit” in far away Johannesburg in South Africa, bares his mind on many
contentious matters such as the Ijaw Youth Council, its relationship with the
Ijaw National Congress (INC), the women protest in the Niger Delta and the
clamour for Resource control and self-determination by any means necessary after
theApril 5 2002 Supreme Court verdict. Like
him or hate him you can’t take away Alhaji Asari’s political consciousness
from him. He
was elaborate-on issues that affects the Ijaw people whom he said had always
insisted on the dismantling of the Nigerian State. The
excerpts from the chat. Alhaji
Can You Briefly Tell Us What The IYC is all about? Ijaw
Youth Council (IYC) is a conglomeration of Ijaw Youth organizations cutting
across the three geopolitical regions of Ijaw land - the Central zone, the
Western zone and the Eastern zone. On
the 11th of December, 1998 Ijaw Youths resolved that instead of being fragmented
into pockets of organisations and associations they should come together.
Hence we assembled at Kaiama and came up with the Kaiama Declaration. Since
then the Ijaw Youth Council has been an umbrella body of all Ijaw Youths as the
Ijaw National Congress (INC) has been moribund for some time now because of the
crisis it is going through. Though
the IYC had its own problems but as a militant body we’re able to resolve it
amicably. How
have you been counselling your members against being used as thugs by
politicians in the forth-coming polls? The
voting age in Nigeria is 18. Once you’re 18 you can vote and be voted for.
So I don’t know who is using youths as political thugs. Most
of the elected politicians and political office holders fall within the age
bracket of youths. The
general advice for the Ijaw people is that we really do not have anything at
stake in the Nigerian state so there is no need for us to engage in fighting
each other. Whatever
position we aspire should not be the position that will make us kill ourselves
because we are powerless. Our Houses of Assembly are powerless, our governors
are powerless. Instead of Nigeria
running a federal state we are running a unitary state where all powers are
vested in the government in Abuja. So
there is no need for us to kill ourselves.
There is actually no difference between the parties we have today, they
are all the same. They all
represent the tyranny of the state of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Can
you expatiate on the tyranny issue? The
Nigerian state has been hijacked by the Hausa -Fulani oligarchy and their
collaborators; Igbo, Yoruba hegemonistic nationalities.
They have collaborated to steal our culture and our God given resources. The
exploration of oil and gas has brought about decay in the moral fabric of Ijaw
man. Today in most of our villages
you’ll find out that most of our ladies have gone into prostitution.
Things that were unheard of before like homosexuality are being
practiced. The Ijaw man is slowly
being killed by the Nigerian state. All
facets of our life, our economy, our religion or culture is dying. so how can we
encourage such a state? even what happened to South Africans during the
apartheid regime is child’s play compared to
what is happening to us. We the Ijaw youths have sworn that the gods of
Ijaw land should descend on any Ijaw man that campaigns or votes for Obasanjo
during the next presidential polls. He is public enemy number one of the Ijaw
people. Any Ijaw man that campaigns or vote for him is under a curse. If the
curse dose not affect him or his family now it would in future. Obasanjo seized
our land through the Land Use Act and gave it to the federal government. He
seized our resources through the Petroleum Act. It did not end there, he took us
to court and got a fraudulent judgment where by he took our resources. Inspite
of all the votes we gave to him in 1999 he has been very ungrateful to us he has
been so arrogant. All Ijaw people must come out and vote against him. We
must pull him down. The IYC has launched a project called Operation Pull Down
Obasanjo and we’ve been going round all ijaw communities campaigning against
him. The
PDP, President Obasanjo’s Party, controls all the states where the Ijaws
except Ondo state which is controlled by AD, don’t you think your campaign is
more of an anti-PDP thing? Those
governing the states where we have the Ijaws should tell Obasanjo that his days
in Aso Rock are numbered. But if these governors go against the people, the
people should go against them. We cannot vote our enemy to power again. Obasanjo
has brought a lot of suffering and pain on our people.
Whether the PDP likes it or not Obasanjo can never get the vote of the
Ijaw people again. What
is the cause of your face off with the former Petroleum Minister, Professor Tam
David West? It
is unfortunate that we have problems. Prof. Tam David-West’s mother and my
mother are children of the same father. By that we are cousins. But he has been
annoying our people. He has always been given appointments by regimes that are
Ijaw enemies. The question is that to what extent has he contributed to the
advancement of the Ijaw nation. He himself has fallen victim of those oppressive
people who have always subjugated us. He
was jailed and later released by them. These oppressive forces are of the belief
that any Ijaw man who rises to the pinnacle of power and authority and opposes
them should be pulled down. That is the way they killed Isaac Adaka Boro, Ken
Saro- Wiwa and several others. The issues are very clear. I am not on the same
path with Professor Tam David-West. He is on the path of retrogression,
salesmanship (selling the Ijaw man). We are on the vanguard of the struggle for
the liberation of the Ijaws so we can never agree. What happened was that he
wanted to impose a candidate as Amanyanabo in Kalabari and I opposed him. I
insisted that the due process and tradition should be followed. I have no regret
doing that. He came out flaunting his connections and credentials. I may not
possess any of that but I have the support of my people. It is not because I am
close to the corridors of power. By the nature of the organisation I am leading
I am not supposed to be close to any government that is not protecting the
interest of the Ijaws. But if a government protects Ijaw people’s interest I
will support it. I want to state it clearly and put it on record that I am a
supporter of Dr. Peter Odili, the
Rivers state governor. I love him as an individual. I appreciate his qualities.
Let me advice people that we should not fall into the same trap that others have
fallen into. We are fighting against oppression, let nobody tell me that because
Dr. Peter Odili is not an Ijaw man so he should not be voted for by the Ijaw
people. What is of interest to us is that, what has he done, that we are
campaigning against him. If there
are proofs that he is anti-Ijaw then I will have no option than to fight against
him but I have no proof of such an anti Ijaw behavior in him.
In a state where the Ijaws are not the most populous group, yet we have
the majority of the Commissioners, Permanent secretaries and other political
appointees and somebody starts saying that the Ijaws are being marginalized. I
will tell such a person that it’s a LIE!.
In Rivers State the Commissioners for Finance, Health, Works, Power,
Employment and Empowerment, and several visible political office holders are
Ijaws. If these Ijaw political office holders are not performing well, we should
hold them responsible for non-performance. If they say that Odili is not giving
them a free hand then we’ll tell them to resign. But they have not said so.
Each time that accusations are made against him by some Ijaw people, he Dr.
Odili had been very willing to meet with us and give cogent explanations. We
have discovered that most of these anti-Odili people are selfish contractors.
How have they supported the Ijaw struggle? What has been their contributions?
Has any of their children joined us in this struggle? Are we fools? Are
we their servants? We face bullets
every time we close down flow stations or go on demonstrations. Some unfortunate
ones amongst us die, some are maimed, and some are arrested and detained. Are
their children more important than us? If they love the Ijaw nation why are they
and their children not participating in the struggle? They benefit from the
struggle. We were able to influence
the payment of 13 percent derivation to oil producing states, today are we on
the board of the Niger Delta Development Commision-(NDDC) ? Are we in the
National Assembly? Are we commissioners? Most
of these selfish people are the immediate beneficiaries of our struggle.
None of them has contributed up to N200,000 to the struggle.
Every month the IYC spend millions of naira to keep the struggle going. But in their case when they want to share and they’re
being cheated, they see us as their thugs who should go and fight for them. We
cannot be their thugs. They are not more important than our fathers! They can
say I am arrogant, that is their cup of tea! Their children are not as important
as me so they cannot use me. How
did Odili come to power? Were there
no Ijaw candidates in PDP when they decided that Dr. Peter Odili was the best
candidate to present at the polls? What
is now happening? Oh,
so they are no longer sharing or contracts are no longer coming to them.
Is it now that they suddenly realized that Odili is an Ndoni man? Nobody can use the IYC for dirty projects!
The IYC is a platform for the liberation of the Ijaw people and some
friends of the Ijaw people are better than even some Ijaw people.
Most of our political elites are triators.
What have they done about the resource control war? The elections are
round the corner and most of them are talking so that they can be considered for
appointments. The IYC cannot be
bought by anybody. If Odili says
“don’t support me because you are against Obasanjo” then we will say
“thank you very much we are not supporting you.” Nobody can buy the IYC, or
Alhaji Dokubo Asari. We are focused
and we know what we are doing. After
all Bayelsa State have Ijaw governor, while we Ijaws also have Speakers of two
Houses of Assembly, how have we faired in those states? We know they have not
met our yearnings. Hither
to now the youths use to be the vanguard of such actions like seizure of oil
station, lock-up-of oil farm and flow stations to register their grievances.
Today we are witnessing the women folks who are the mothers, wives, sisters and
daughters of the Niger Delta who now resorts to those actions as exhibited by
the Ijaw, Itsekiri and Ilaje women. We
are encouraged by the efforts of our women to play a leading role in the
struggle for the actualization of our people’s aspirations for some time now.
It used to be the youths before now that were leading the struggle but this time
around, the women folks, our mothers, our sisters, our wives have joined the
struggle. We all know that the IYC is a broad based mass movement with the sole
aim of liberating our people, from the shackles of oppression. In this war our
mothers, our wives, and our sisters have been maimed and some killed because of
their actions. Today our Itsekiri neighbours have seen that it is not only the
Ijaw people that are suffering the fate of the brutal attacks led by the regime
of President Obasanjo. We
on this premise want to call on all foreign embassies, home countries of the
multi-national oil companies to pull out all their citizens and finance interest
from the Niger Delta, because it is our blood (the people of the Niger Delta
blood) that is being used to lubricate the economic machinery in their various
home countries. America and other countries of the western world cannot be
talking of containing terrorism all over the world, while it has installed a
terrorist government in Nigeria that is terrorizing the innocent people in the
Niger Delta. We
call on all men of goodwill all over the world to call our President Obasanjo to
pull out his army of occupation in the Niger Delta because if he fails to do so,
sooner or later our people will rise together hand in hand and we shall pull
Obasanjo out of Aso Rock come 2003 election. With
the look of things so far highlighted, how do you see President Obasanjo
re-election bid? Let
me tell you, Obasanjo has done nothing to merit a re-election. The Nigerian
economy has totally collapsed. There is no economy so far. Obasanjo has nothing
to show for his re-election. We
call on Nigerians to summon President Obasanjo to the Anti-graft commission. The
commission should try Obasanjo for corruption because there are glaring
evidences of corruption that is very pervasive in his administration. The
Naira has collapsed. Mr. President spends more time outside the shores of this
country than in carrying out the business of governance of this country. We
call on him to immediately for the sake of honour stop outright his campaign for
his re-election because he has nothing to offer Nigeria other than to insult our
sensibility at all times and regard us as a people who are senseless. He regards
us as a people who are nuisances to him. He is the know it all and the be it
all. We want to call on every Nigerian that loves humanity, every Nigerian that
loves the black race to appeal to Obasanjo and the INEC Chairman Dr. Abel
Gbuobadia including his group of corrupt INEC commissioners to bow out
honourably before it is too late. Not
too long, it was reported that you, along with others, on behalf of the people
of South South, paid a solidarity visit to Mr. President, Chief Obasanjo in Aso
Rock. How did you get to be involved in the picture? Honestly
some prominent Ijaw leaders in South Africa informed me of proposed visit to Aso
Rock, during the World Earth Summit there. I was told that the president, Chief
Olusegun Obasanjo would like to meet with the South South leadership and when I
returned from South Africa precisely on Saturday September 7, 2002, I proceeded
straight to P.H the following day which was Sunday and by Monday September 9, I
left P.H for Abuja. On getting there I meet the rest of the delegates in Abuja.
To cut everything short, I then insist on seeing the address to Mr. President
for obvious reasons, I was politely denied the document by the organizers, I for
one at the instance then decided to walkout of the group.
My Deputy President IYC, later beckoned on me, not to walkout but be
present to see what they are doing. Hence, we returned back to the group and we
were ushered into the presidential executive conference hall. Inside there
rather than having the usual interactive session that accompanies such visits,
where we are expected to express our grievances and position to Mr. President,
what we discovered thereafter was a charade. It was all an arrangee forum
organized to give Mr. President the false believe that the South South Zone is
in support of Chief Obasanjo. What
then did you do at that instance? We
were at that point already inside the conference hall where everybody was.
The press, cameramen and others. We sat through out the period the
programme lasted, even through we
were not happy with what was happening. First
Professor Turner Isoun, the Minister of Science and Technology opened the
session by saying “Mr. President meet your die-hard supporters from the
South-South Zone who had come to give their solidarity support to you”. After
this opening speech in that light, one time Deputy Governor of Cross Rivers
State Chief Ofobuche was then asked to read an address on our behalf. Permit
me to say, the address was worse than any address that can be read from any book
of mediocrity. The address can win the Noble Prize on sycophancy and mediocrity.
Remember
that as this was going on the press and their cameramen were doing their job.
That was how the whole thing went at the public open session. After
that, we were now led to a close door session. When we got in the elders still
continue playing their game of trying to praise sing Chief Obasanjo. So I cut in
and I stated the position of the Ijaw people and insisted that until our lands,
our rivers, our creeks are restored back to us and until our rights, which is
our inalienable rights bequeathed to us by our ancestors are restored back to
us, the people of Niger Delta will not give our support to Obasanjo. I also told
him that we do not have any preferential candidates for the presidency in
Nigeria, what we believe in is that what belongs to us most be restored back to
us. I
told him the IYC and the Ijaw people cannot afford to support the presidency of
Olusegun Obasanjo because he has never wished us well. When he was the Head of
State in the 70s. He promulgated the land use decree and disposed our people of
our lands and our rivers. And now again that he came back, he took us to court,
through a dubious Supreme Court verdict, he took away our lands from us and that
until he purges himself of the hatred, contempt and dislike he had for us, then
and only then, shall we reconsider our position. Meanwhile I told him we cannot
vote for him. This is true because it will be suicidal for any Ijaw man to vote
for Chief Obasanjo again in the coming 2003 elections. What
is the relationship between the IYC and INC like? The
relationship between the Ijaw National Congress (INC) and Ijaw Youth Council (IYC)
to some extent, we will say it is cordial but
recently through the efforts by Governor Alamieyeseigha to find a
solution to the crises rocking the INC executive that brought back Dr. Kimse
Okoko as the president of the congress. We have not seen anything they have
done, but we believe the resolution effort is sincere and it was in the best
interest of the ijaw nation. We do not have any preferential person to become
president of INC or a member of the exco of the INC what we believe in is if
they are committed to uphold the interest of the people of Ijaw nation, then
there is no problem between we and them. We will work with them to see that they
succeed and we are looking forward to seeing them succeed. How
would you describe Ijaw leaders concerning the resource control struggle? Like
I said earlier most of the Ijaw leaders if there is any are not committed to the
issue of resource control and I want to clearly state that let us not hide under
the word resource control. Resource control
means nothing when it is not translated to action. What has happened in
Nigeria is that our land has been taken away from us, our land is our right our
rivers have been taken away from us, our air is being polluted what we are
saying is that every Ijawman is duty bound to work. It is compulsory for every
Ijawman to take back or repossesses our land, we are the only people in Nigeria
that have been dispossessed of our rivers and creeks, we must use our formative
action to repossess our land, there is nothing new about it all over the world. In
Palestine, in South Africa, in Zimbabwe, in Chechnya in everywhere, in Bosnia
people are repossessing their land, we must take back our lands, we do not need
the government to take back our lands, we do not need anybody to give us back
our land, it is for us to take formative action and chase those multinationals
away, they are on our lands and we must take back our lands. In
this case do you remember what happened to Odi, what if the situation repeats
itself again? There
will be many Odi in our struggle to repossess our lands, we have to pay the
ultimate price to get back what our ancestors bequeathed to us. There is no way
we can prevent the occurrence of another Odi because this is the historic and
heroic fact that all those who fight for freedom passed through, there was
Chaville, there was Soweto, there was Jennin. We must pass through the process
that others have passed through as Ijaw people. We can not get freedom on the
platter of gold. We will get it through blood and sweat and if anybody is
telling us that we can get freedom through the negotiation table we are
deceiving ourselves. Peace can only come by following the path of heroic
struggle for the liberation of our land because those who oppresses us in Abuja,
those who have dispossessed us, who have taken our wealth will never ever agree
to give it back to us without a fight, and we must fight
every inch for all of our land that have been taken from us. How
do you describe that conference you and some South South leaders had with
president Obasanjo in Abuja It
was the worst thing, the darkest day for the people of the Niger Delta. How
do you mean? It
was the darkest day in the sense that as the most deprived people in this part
of the world we went to play sycophancy, we went there to praise President
Olusegun Obasanjo and to tell him that he has done a lot for us when he has
actually done nothing. Chief
Olusegun Obasanjo is the worst leader in the history of Nigeria as far as it
concerns the people of the Niger Delta and we want to put it on record that we
shall not be accepting the Niger Delta created by Olusegun Obasanjo. Imo
, Abia, Edo North, Cross Rivers and Akwa Ibom North are not Niger Delta. Niger
Delta are the people that are living within the confirms of the tributaries of
River Niger, so anybody who have created a Niger delta of their own which
Obasanjo has created to deceive our people, to further dispossess our people, to
distribute our wealth to other people and to present us as people who are only
interested in fighting our neighbors. What
Obasanjo is trying to do is to present us as people who loves fighting our
neighbors. Tony
Anineh is not a Niger Delta man, so if he is given appointment because he is
from Niger delta is a big LIE. There is no oil flair in his place, there is no
tidal erosion in his place, he does not feel any of the effects of oil
exploration and exploitation so he cannot be a Niger Delta man. And so he does
not feel the pains, so we must not accept those things that are not in the
interest of our people. The
Niger Delta people are those who habit the Niger Delta region that was declared
in 1963 by the Nigerian constitution and the Willinks commission which define
the Niger Delta as Ijaw and the Ogoni territory anything outside that is not
Niger Delta. So
we must make a distinction between the South South Zone and the Niger Delta,
there is a South South zone and the zone is comprising of nine states of the
dubious Nigerian Federation but the Niger Delta as it is defined by the 1963
Republican constitution and the Willinks commission is the Ijaw, Itsekiris and
Ogoni territories, that is Niger Delta, all other things are South South or oil
producing communities and states they are not Niger Delta people. Finally
Alhaji, we lately observed that you and other members of the IYC Executive
Committee have been attending various forums across the country to brain- storm
and dialogue for the way forward. What has been the position of such meetings?
Like recently you were in Lagos with the OPC leader Gani Adams. So
far we have discussed the possibilities of averting ethnic crisis like we had
witnessed not long ago. We brain storm more on common grounds of agitations.
Such as harmonizing our perceived differences and forgeing ahead to jointly
fight injustice and bad governance in all ramifications in the project called
Nigeria.
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Last modified: January 07, 2003 |
