Mr. Asari-Dokubo was one of the major supporters of
President Jonathan.
An ex-militant and one of the most vocal supporters of
President Goodluck Jonathan, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, has
joined the growing number of Nigerians who have
accused the Jonathan administration of failure.
Mr. Dokubo-Asari told reporters in Abuja that the
President is fast losing his support base and might not
be re-elected for failing to deliver on his promises,
Thisday Newspaper has reported.
Mr. Dokubo-Asari, who admitted to have greatly
benefitted from the Jonathan presidency, said he could
no longer keep quiet in the face of the unprecedented
failure of the government.
“What has the Goodluck Jonathan government achieved
to show that it is a departure from other governments
that have existed since 1956? For us, nothing has
changed. It is still business as usual,” he said.
“We have continued as Ijaw people and the entire Niger
Delta and south-south to support the presidency of
President Goodluck Jonathan, but a time has come when
silent cannot be golden.”
Mr. Dokubo-Asari lamented that President Jonathan has
lost the support of all those that were instrumental
to his becoming head of state.
“And if you check, all the people who supported
Goodluck Jonathan and fought to bring him to power,
have openly disagreed with him, what was the cause of
these disagreements, these are the questions we want the
president to tell us.”
He cited the face-off between the President and former
President Olusegun Obasanjo as sign of the president’s
increasing isolation by his former friends and supporters.
“Obasanjo was instrumental and manipulated the process
that illegally removed Diepreye Alamieyeseigha as
governor of Bayelsa State and installed Jonathan as
governor, made him Vice President, fought for him to
become acting president and also fought for him to
become president of Nigeria.
“Apart from Obasanjo, there are so many people who
supported Goodluck Jonathan, some have been pushed out
by those who were not there to give him any support,
while some others are trapped and they cannot talk,” he
said.
Mr. Dokubo-Asari pointed out that the president has
surrounded himself with those whom he referred as
‘greedy’ and have enriched themselves at the expense of
the President. He however failed to mention what he
has done to “benefit immensely” from the administration.
The former militant recently caused national outcry
when the Wall Street Journal reported he got a
contract that pays him N1.42 billion annually from the
government for guarding pipelines in the Niger Delta.
He said if things do not change for the better he
might reconsider his support for the President:
“Monkey no fine, but the mama like am, but then the
ugly monkey becomes so rascal, the mother will desert
it because if the mother continues to like the ugly
monkey in its rascality, she too will die with the ugly
monkey, after all she has more than one monkey child,”
he said.
Mr. Dokubo-Asari said due to a woeful performance, the
chance of the president being re-elected is fast
slipping through his fingers.
“It is alarming because the south-south must have its
uninterrupted eight years tenure which is constitutional,
but with how things are going under Jonathan’s watch,
we are afraid that we may not be able to have our
eight years tenure, because there will be no magic about
it if it is going to be one man one vote,” he said.