Mujahid Asari Dokubo is a former president of the Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide. In this interview, he speaks on the scrapping of Ministry of Niger Delta, political crisis in Rivers State and why the South-South will align with the North in 2027, among other issues.
What are your thoughts on the decision of the Federal Government to subsume the Ministry of the Niger Delta under a new creation called the Ministry of Regional Development?
Sadly, this decision was taken by the government led by President Bola Tinubu, who was in the trenches with most of us during the struggle for the restoration of democracy after the annulment of the June 1993 presidential election won by Chief MKO Abiola. We fought together and tirelessly and a lot of people lost their lives.
President Tinubu was at the forefront of the struggle and since then he has been speaking on restructuring the Nigerian state and giving rights to all the component units of Nigeria. This decision is a betrayal of the people of the Niger Delta. There has been this culture in Nigeria of trying to shortchange the people of the Niger Delta and robbing us of our gains.
Before independence, the Ijaws and Ogonis made it very clear that for us to be part of Nigeria, Nigeria must be negotiated on our terms. We made it very clear to the British and they set up a commission to look into the fears of the so-called minorities in order to address them.
After going around the country, the commission came up with a special area for the people of Ogoni and the people of Ijaw and this special area was established in such a way that the government at the centre was to provide five per cent, the Eastern Region was to provide five per cent and the Western Region to provide five per cent and this was a special area.
After the first military coup and the declaration of Nigeria as a unitary state under Decree 32 promulgated by General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, Nigeria looked at our face and abolished a constitutionally established authority, and in its place, every drainage outside the Niger Delta was made a River Basin Authority and they equated this same authority with the Niger Delta Area Authority, a special mandate area for Nigeria to become independent.
The independence of Nigeria was predicated on that report that we, the Ogonis and Ijaws should be part of Nigeria. Having done that, President Olusegun Obasanjo came in 1999 and redefined what Niger Delta is because Niger Delta became oil producing areas.
So, Abia, Imo, Edo, Ondo, Akwa Ibom and Cross River became Niger Delta. He diluted the meaning of the Niger Delta but the Niger Delta was created by River Niger and its tributaries. Nigerians always look for something that does not exist in reality.
What issues do you have with President Tinubu since you said he has disappointed you?
I want to say that my opposition to the scrapping of the Niger Delta Ministry has nothing to do with my relationship with President Tinubu. I’m just an individual and my relationship with him is personal.
I’m a representative of my people and I was chosen and elected by my people to lead them based on a broad-based grassroots movement, the Ijaw Youth Council.
Like I said before, we were in the trenches with President Tinubu and he is the last person we expect to have taking this decision. The ministry came into be on the blood of the people of the Ijaw nation.
I was incastrated in 2005 and the struggle started after the former governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, was also incastrated and oil production came down to 700,000 barrels per day. In other to appease Ijaw people, late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua started with a 7-point Agenda and one of items in the 7-point Agenda was the issue of the Niger Delta and the Niger Delta Ministry was created by President Yar’Adua.
As I said earlier, the people of Ijaw and Ogoni said during independence that for them to be part of Nigeria, the issues of underdevelopment of the two nationalities must be addressed and at that time oil was discovered mostly in the territories of these two nationalities.
And the British Government set up the Niger Delta Development Authority; the Federal Government to contribute five per cent, Eastern Region to contribute five per cent and Western Region five percent.
The government of Sir Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa adhered to its contribution of five per cent but the Eastern and Western regions, like what is happening today, refused to contribute.
After the civil war, they proceeded to create what they called the river basin development authorities for every drainage found in other parts of the country, and they gave them all kinds of fanciful names.
They converted this special area, which was an authority that was embedded in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and equated it with the so-called river basin development authorities they have created.
They destroyed the character and nature of the Niger Delta Development Authority. Yar’Auda came into power and decided to create Niger Delta Ministry because when Obasanjo was in power as head of state, he promulgated through military decree the Land Use Act and confiscated the land of our people and our resources.
After doing that; in his second coming, he created a Niger Delta in his head that does not exist because Niger Delta is supposed to be the tributaries that empty into the Atlantic Ocean. He created a Niger Delta by bringing Imo, Abia, Ondo, Edo, Akwa Ibom and Cross River into it but these are not Niger Delta.
The wishes and caprices of a leader do not amount to the law of the country… They want to make us look little, but each time they try it, they expose themselves
Don’t you think that this latest development will make the ministry and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to be more efficient?
We are talking of law and not effectiveness. The wishes and caprices of a leader do not amount to the law of the country. The NDDC was created by a law. It was not created by the wishes and caprices of a leader that when he decide on an issue it becomes law.
Who decides what is effective and what is not effective? Everything about Nigeria is inefficient because of corruption and all institutions are affected by corruption. So, nobody will say that it is always the Niger Delta that is not efficient.
I called for the scrapping of NDDC last year and the return of Niger Delta Development Area, which was the right nomenclature for that body called NDDC and then create a special authority as it was before for the Niger Delta.
Having said that, they have created the South East Development Commission, North East Development Commission and all the development commissions, where is the money going to come from?
The money of the Ijaw, Ogoni, Urhobo, Itsekiri and Igbo people, and they tell us that oil is no longer important in the world but it is our oil money they are using.
They want to make us look little but each time they try it, they expose themselves. What we are saying is: Who decides what is efficient in Nigeria? Is our railway efficient?
You worked for the President during the election and you even composed songs for him; have you had the opportunity to speak with him on these issues or has the line of communication broken down between you and the President?
I supported Mr. President because I knew him before he became a senator. I knew him before he became governor and I knew him before he became president and God willing, if we are alive, I will also know him when he seizes to be president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. But what I’m trying to say is that this is not about me as an individual called Mujahid Dokubo-Asari.
It is about my people and when I’m speaking about my people, take me out of the way because I’m an individual. My relationship with President Tinubu was very robust and at all times; the benefit I gained from that relationship was like a one-way traffic and from Tinubu alone.
His coming out for president was the only time I was able to pay him back and I did. And even if he comes out tomorrow, I will still do it because at the time Obasanjo buried me alive, he stood by me and I’m not going to be in a hurry to forget about that. But that is personal between both of us.
You talked about the line of communication, there is an Islamic preacher, who said that when somebody becomes an emperor, an emir or a sultan, satan becomes his best friend and adviser because satan will always be there, whispering in his ears.
You said the conversation is not personal but a lot of people will disagree with you because you said if President Tinubu fails, we should hold you responsible. Should your people hold you responsible for the fact that their ministry has been scrapped?
I still stand on that statement and that is why I am crying out because I’m vigorously liable for any infraction of the expectation of the Nigerian people, not just the Niger Delta people.
After all, I stood in front of everybody and I’m not going to deny what I said. Even if it is tomorrow, President Tinubu encounters any problem or difficulty; I will still stick out my neck and stand because if he had not stood for me, I would have been dead by now.
Obasanjo would have killed me if not for people like Ahmed Bola Tinubu who stood by me and did everything for me. So, I’m not going to be in a hurry to forget that.
Would you say President Tinubu is succeeding or failing given the reality in the country today?
Again, you said you spent a lot of money to support him and you are not benefiting anything, what would you like to benefit from him? If you have listened to my broadcast in full, I met President Tinubu both on camera and behind the camera and he asked me:
Are you interested in pipeline contract? I told him that I am not interested in pipeline contract but I can assist those who are doing the pipeline contract in any way I can for his government to succeed. So, I never said that it was a personal gain that I was looking for. I clearly said in all my broadcasts that my needs are very small.
What I’m trying to say is very clear; Tinubu becoming president, I should be able to tell him the truth, particularly what is happening in Rivers State, where President Tinubu is supporting Nyesom Wike to destabilise Rivers State. As a stakeholder in Rivers State, I feel disappointed that the President has allowed his minister to procure judgements and threatening the people of Rivers State.
What they are trying to do is that they are going to remove Governor Siminalayi Fubara and nothing will happen but I’m saying that if they remove Fubara, something will happen. That is what I’m talking about because I’m not talking about any personal benefits. I cannot be appointed as a minister.
I cannot be appointed to any board and I did not lobby for anything. So, it is not personal as I said. Yes, I emptied my bank account and I spent over $2 million and I cannot even count in naira what I spent and I did not take anything from him or anybody except Tein Jack-Rich, who gave me N300 million.
You recently said you are going to work with the North does that mean that you are no longer taking your relationship with the President forward?
I think you are misquoting me. What I said was very clear that our fathers worked with the North and from what Obasanjo and Tinubu have done to us, we the younger generation will go back and align with the North because General Sani Abacha and Tafawa-Balewa created Bayelsa, put in place Niger Delta Development Authority. For us, our relationship with the North is far better than our relationship with any other region.
