As a Niger Delta youth leader, Mujahhid Dokubo-Asari knows the region in and out. His verdict is that in the last six years, the Federal Government, led by President Goodluck Jonathan, took the region for granted. Its challenges, such as oil spills, gas flaring, coastal erosion and poverty, remain largely unaddressed as a new government takes charge at the centre, writes Mike Odiegwu
President Goodluck Jonathan’s defeat at the March 28 presidential poll sent shock waves across the Niger Delta. The President’s kinsmen never imagined that their benefactor could be sent packing from the Aso Rock Villa. Though, they simply acknowledged that it was going to be the tightest presidential race in the history of the country, defeat to them, was not an option.
When asked by some journalists, what they would do if Jonathan eventually lost the race, a kinsman of the
President who came to cast his vote in Otuoke, Jonathan’s home town, said: “Our brother will not lose.” couldthe unnamed kinsman of the President be speaking the minds of other youths in the region? Without mincing words, there has been grave silence punctured intermittently by threats of militancy in the region since Buhari was officially declared the winner
Asenior government official confided in the Niger Delta Report that President Goodluck Jonathan saved a violent response that would have followed Buhari’s declaration.
“The boys were already in the creeks. They were prepared to start blowing major oil facilities in the creeks when Jonathan immediately conceded defeat even before all the results were announced. That singular act of the President weakened the boys”, the official who pleaded anonymity said.
Events before the election
In fact, the Niger Delta region was gripped in prolonged pre-election agitations. Different groups rose to endorse their kinsman and to list myriads of reasons why President Jonathan must be reelected. Aside predicating their reasons on performance index of Jonathan’s Presidency, they also vehemently argued that it was their birthright to have a second term in office to guarantee balance of power.
No group, however, rattled Nigeria more than the assemblage of ex-militants and their leaders who converged under the roof of Bayelsa State Government House to threaten the collective existence of the country.
Apparently worried by the tide of public opinion against Jonathan and the north’s reaction against his ambition, Governor Seriake Dickson and the Presidential Adviser on Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, met with key ex-militant leaders and hundreds of their foot soldiers at the Banquet Hall.
The gathering was reinforced by the attendance of ex-militant leaders, vitriolic agitators and notable youth leaders, such as Alhaji Mujahid Asari Dokubo, Chief Government Ekpemopulo (a.k.a Tompolo), Ebikabowei Victor Ben (a.k.a. Boyloaf) and Ijaw Youth Council President, Udengs Eradiri.
Also in attendance were Pastor Reuben, Ogunboss, General Africa, General Joshua, Shoot-at-Sight, General Ezekiel and many others. Their emotions boiled over. Dokubo turned the gathering to a war front. In what seemed like a last minute efforts to rescue the President, their kinsman, Dokubo referred to the Presidential election as a war and asked the ex-militants to get ready.
Declaring that nobody would intimidate the Ijaw nation, Dokubo beat the war drum and said the President must win the election. “We are going to war and everyone of you must go and purify yourself. President Jonathan will win. Whatever anger they have, this anger must be kept aside”, he thundered.
Also, Boyloaf said the only thing that binds Nigeria together is oil adding that if President Jonathan fails to return, the Niger Delta region will take its oil back. “They want to use insecurity to push out our own. I am retired but not tired. I can go back to the creeks. Whether they like it or not we will win.
“We own the oil. We own the resources, but they say we don’t have the right to rule. They want to take the seat but we must collect our oil if they take the power back from us”, he vibrated.
Outrage, indeed, was the word used to describe the gathering and warmongering of the ex-militants by many critics. People came down hard on them and reminded them that though oil, the mainstay of the Nigerian economy, is from their area, the country is still bigger than any ethnic group.
Following the bashing and tongue-lashing, the ex-militants backed down on their war threat, clarified the reasons for their meeting and then called for peace. Even Dickson and Kuku sweated many times to convince Nigerians that the meeting was in order and was not meant to cause crisis in Nigeria.
After Buhari’s victory
There have been discordant tunes among the youths and ex-militants since Buhari emerged as the President-elect. Many critical stakeholders and ex-militant leaders have taken the new Nigerian order in good faith. Some, however, have resorted to fire and brimstone.
Among the critical stakeholders that have congratulated Buhari are the Ijaw National Leader, E.K Clark, Tompolo, the Ijaw National Congress (INC) and at some point the President of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Mr. Udens Eradiri.
But Dokubo has remained adamant. He reinstated his threat insisting that the emergence of Buhari has re-energised the agitation for militants to return to the creeks.
“The days coming will be critical. We shall study all the conditions and consult widely before determining the way going forward for our collective existence and survival as a people. The days coming will either drive the quest of integration or further separate us.
“The celebrated victory of Buhari is not the victory of the people but victory of regional conspiracy and supremacy. The voting pattern has clearly shown that the Gambari North and the Yorubas are united in the conquest of the Niger Deltans and the Igbos of defunct Biafra with the middle belt now used as pawns”, he said.
Many people dismissed the outburst of Dokubo. They argued that the controversial agitator is more of a businessman than a selfless activist. They concluded that Dokubo may simply at every point in time be seeking his advantage instead of the collective interests of the Ijaw and the Niger Delta region. According to them there is no investment that can be traced to Dokubo in the region. Most of his assets and developmental projects are sited in Benin Republic.
Ijaw youths to decide on Buhari
Ijaw youths across the country have scheduled a crucial meeting to review the defeat of Jonathan and the victory of Buhari. The meeting will have all the Ijaw youth leaders, past leaders of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide and other members of the IYC in attendance.
The youths are rattled by the victory of Buhari at the poll which according to them had taken political power away from them. The IYC Spokesman, Mr. Eric Omare, said the decision to convene the National Congress of IYC on Buhari was taken at a meeting of the national executive council and consultative meeting of the group in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
He said the congress will assemble at Tuomo community in Burutu Local Government Area, Delta State, on April 5 to take a collective position on Buhari’s victory and determine the next direction of their struggle for self determination.
Besides self determination, he said the youths will decide on renewing agitation for resource control as enshrined in their historic Kaiama Declaration.
“We call on all Ijaw Youths to be alert and ready to heed the call to the service of the Ijaw nation at this crucial time of our history and struggle for survival in the Nigerian state in the face of the grand conspiracy between the north and a section of the south west to continue to suppress and exploit the resource of the Ijaw nation,” he said.
He said the youths recalled that when their kinsman, Jonathan, won an internationally-acclaimed free, fair and credible election in 2011, Buhari and his people never congratulated or supported him.
He said: “Instead they killed hundreds of innocent Nigerians and fought President Jonathan from the day he became the Acting President of Nigeria in 2010 until the north conspired with a section of the south west to take over the Presidency from President Jonathan and the minorities of the south-south in an election fraught with irregularities.
“It is also significant to note that none of the northern socio-cultural groups such as the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and others congratulated or supported the administration of President Jonathan.
“Northerners created Boko Haram and blame it on President Jonathan deliberately to incite the northern populace against President Jonathan and make him unpopular in the 2015 election so as to take back power in a grand conspiracy with a section of the south west.
“Therefore, the April 5, 2015 meeting of all Ijaw youths would determine the position of the Ijaw Youths on the 2015 Presidential election and our next line of action.”
Militant group issues threats to Shell
Militant group finds voice, threatens Shell
Suspiciously, a militant group operating in Bayelsa State resurrected few days after Jonathan lost at the poll. The group notoriously known in 2005 as, Iduwini Volunteer Force (IVF) gave the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) 14 days to vacate communities in Ekeremor Local Government Area of the state.
The militant group came into the limelight in 2005. Members of the group abducted six oil workers including two Germans working for the SPDC in the community. The development led to the intervention of the then Governor of Bayelsa state, Goodluck Jonathan, and subsequent signing of a surveillance contract in 2007 to calm frayed nerves.
But the group claimed that as part of the contractual terms, SPDC was expected to pay N8million yearly to its members in exchange of pipeline security. In a letter it addressed to President Goodluck Jonathan and signed by one Commander Johnson Biboye, IVF said Shell only observed its contractual obligations in 2007.
It said: “It was then resolved that for the peace, security and safety of oil companies activities within the Iduwini area of SPDC operations, a running surveillance contract amounting to N8, 002, 350. 00 (Eight million, two thousand, three hundred and fifty naira) per year be awarded to the leadership of the Iduwini Volunteer Force and it was awarded.
“The surveillance contract which started in 2007 and was dutifully carried out by the leadership of the Iduwini Volunteer Force and payment for 2007 made.
“In 2008 without any known breach of contract, SPDC, unilaterally stopped the contract till date, although our boys are still rendering the services of securing oil facilities in the aforementioned areas as contained in the contract paper.”
It gave the oil giant a 14-day ultimatum to vacate Ijaw communities in Ekeremor Local Government Area or face unrest. Why now? Niger Delta Report gathered that the militants only respected the Presidency of Jonathan and decided not to begin fresh unrest in the home state of the President during his government. Having, however, seen that Jonathan had lost out, the militants resumed their agitation.
But the group said: “We make this demand in good faith not minding the political situation in the country so that those who do not have the history of our struggle in the Iduwini area will not be quick to add that Ijaw people have started making trouble now that President Jonathan has purportedly lost election.
“Our struggle predates President Jonathan’s presidency and the struggle to get our rights and privileges restored has been on and known to notable government agencies like the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources and notable Nigerians who have intervened to no avail.
“We have, therefore, directed all units commanders and commanders alike to be on red alert that at the end of the 14 days, should SPDC and its cohorts refuse to see reasons, we will have no choice but to commence immediate attacks and processes of restoring our full rights and privileges as contained in the surveillance contract documents”.
