The Asari Dokubo Show In Presidential Villa
LEON USIGBE writes on former-Niger Delta agitator, Moujahid Asari Dokubo’s recent outburst against the military at the presidential villa, and the attendant claim of public reactions.
Moujahid Asari Dokubo is not one known to exercise a lot of discretion. Some may say his background as a former militant strips him of the ability to be circumspect in some of what he says or does so that he may not embarrass or hurt other people’s feelings.
His views on matters of politics and ethnicity have often been adjudged in many quarters to be extreme, just as his love for brandishing AK-47 on social media while issuing threats without as much as being reprimanded by the authorities.
As leader of the Niger Delta Volunteer Force (NDVF), Asari Dokubo was arrested and charged with treason in 2005 for allegedly seeking the break-up of Nigeria over which he pleaded not guilty. He was nonetheless remanded in prison custody amid strident demands by his supporters for release as well as battles between troops and militia in the Delta region who sided with him.
Since he was freed from prison in 2007, as part of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s initiative to bring peace to the Niger Delta, the drama around him has hardly dissipated.
In 2015, Asari threatened war if the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Goodluck Jonathan, was not elected in that year’s election. “The man should be arrested for his unguarded and reckless utterances,” former Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Theophilus Danjuma (retd.) said in his reaction to what he considered inflammatory remarks at the time, adding: “We should not allow some miscreants to hold us to ransom. Nigeria belongs to everybody and we must do everything possible to safeguard her unity.”
Asari now considers himself as a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as he vigorously supported Bola Tinubu’s quest to be elected the president in the just concluded 2023 election.
Since his inauguration on May 29, President Bola Tinubu has thrown the doors of the presidential villa, Abuja, open to all and sundry, perhaps, acting in deference to his innate typical politician’s instinct. In the few weeks he has held sway as president, he has played host to a wide spectrum of guests, including politicians across all divides, diplomats, entrepreneurs, students, among others, but none had generated controversy as much as Asari’s recent presence and performance at the seat of power.
His meeting with Tinubu on Friday, June 16, though scheduled, was not disclosed to the correspondents. Thus, it raised a bit of curiosity when he walked past reporters’ waiting room and on to the president’s office. With interest already stoked over his mission, the reporters waited for his return to take him on. That is standard practice.
However, something unusual happened. As an ordinary citizen, he got the opportunity to use a platform with a national coat of arms reserved for the president, ministers, elected officials, business partners, diplomats, and other top government functionaries to ventilate his anger against the military.
The usual practice for guests of his calibre is to be interviewed standing as they emerge from meetings with the president. But walking the short distance from the president’s office to the reporters’ waiting area, Asari Dokubo needed to catch his breath, perhaps because of his health condition. He was provided with a chair by some security aides outside the president’s office, to sit and rest for a short while before continuing the short trek.
After a few minutes rest and with what looked like a sense of entitlement, he sauntered into the briefing room where the Press Corps leadership determined that it may be too much stress for him to field questions standing. Therefore, against the unwritten protocol, he was allowed access to the presidential platform and the ex-Niger Delta agitator wasted no time using it to descend on the armed forces.
“I also want to say that oil theft is encouraged by the military. The military is at the centre of oil theft and we have to make this very, very clear to the Nigerian public. Ninety-nine percent of oil theft can be traced to the Nigerian military, the Army and the Navy especially,” he alleged.
“The Army and the Navy intimidate the Civil Defence, who are, by status, the people who are supposed to guard these pipelines. They receive a lot of money from NNPCL and the IOCs and just across the corner, you will see a houseboat a few meters from the houseboat, you will see an oil bunkering refinery or tapping directly from oil well ends,” he further blurted.
“So, the main culprits are the Army and the Navy and there are notorious naval commanders who are known to be kingpins of these bunkering activities. Even if they give N1 billion contracts to everybody in the Niger Delta, because these military men are armed from the Army and the Navy, nothing will happen,” he declared.
The Nigerian Navy promptly dismissed the allegations as spurious and unguarded utterances. Its spokesman, Commodore Adedotun Ayo-Vaughan, challenged the ex-militant to reveal the names of officers involved. “If Asari Dokubo is seeking some form of relevance and he alleges that there are cabals of military personnel who are involved in crude oil theft, let him bring the names. Nobody is afraid of getting the names of those involved in crude oil theft. You cannot make such serious allegations and think that we just sweep it down the carpet,” he said.
Commodore Ayo-Vaughan suggested that oil thieves were angry because the land, maritime and air components of the “Joint Task Force Operation Delta Safe” and other operations providing a relatively safe and peaceful environment for business activities in the South-South have sustained the efforts to deny oil thieves avenues to sabotage the economy.
“The Nigerian Navy as an organisation is actively involved in the fight against crude oil theft and the resources in the Niger Delta. So, for anybody to say there is a cabal of military officers, the only simple thing is bringing the evidence, bring the names,” he emphasized.
Other stakeholders have taken exception to Asari’s outburst against the military. One of them is a former Federal Commissioner for Information and Culture, Major-General Ibrahim Haruna (retd), who demanded his arrest. “Is Asari Dokubo free from oil theft? Is he not a beneficiary of oil theft? How did he finance his empire over there? Maybe he is accusing soldiers and lower people who steal Jerrycans of petrol while he is behind the stealing and enjoyment of millions of dollars stashed in their bank accounts,” he alleged in an interview.
“I think talking about Dokubo and others, (it) is because of the impact of security and its operations have failed. Those who are accusing the military and other services, they point one finger at the military and the other three are pointing at them. In the Nigerian situation, they cannot get to where they’ve gotten if the spills of oil are not dripping from their ears and mouths,” the wartime military general stated.
