TRIBUNE NG
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.
