LEADER of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Alhaji Mujahid Asari-Dokubo gained his freedom last week after twenty months and twenty five days in detention. In this interview with journalists in Port-Harcourt, he spoke extensively on his prison experience and other sundry issues.
How has it been with you since your release?
As you know, I came back on Saturday and after the reception in Port Harcourt, I went to Buguma. Then we went to Obuama where I was accepted into the Obuama Council of Chiefs. Then, I came back to Buguma, my father�s place. My mother�s people also made me a chief. And now my name has changed. I am now Alhaji Mujahid Abubakar Dokubo Asari Edbali. In Kalabari land where I am from if you become a chief, you will take the title and the name of the chieftaincy house where you are becoming a chief. The house in which I became a chief is known as Edbali.
The Amanyanabo of Kalabari, His Majesty, King Theophilus Amachree, the 11th also gave me a title, �Sebromabo�,meaning saviour of the nation. The nation, �Sebromabo� maybe the Ijaw nation. So, as the day proceeded, against my will, I was admitted into the highest Kalabari cult. I was initiated into the Kalabari Ekini Society, which is the highest Kalabari mystery organization.
What was your prison experience like?
Let me start by saying (that) I will fight General Olusegun Obasanjo until he is brought to justice for the gross abuse of human rights and inefficiency that were widespread in his government. In eight years of Obasanjo�s government, there is nothing to show for it, no roads, infrastructure dead.
In the cell in which I was kept for ten months in solitary confinement, you can�t find mosquitoes, there were no cockroaches, no living being, it was complete darkness when they took light. That�s where I was kept for almost ten months because 30th of June would have made me ten months in solitary confinement.
In that environment where I was detained, many people went mad. At least, I know four people that went mad and started stripping themselves naked. They did all sorts of things, using their faeces to throw at people, to smear the wall. I was kept alone. I was treated like an animal. Food was passed through metal gauge to me. I ate and gave it back to them.
In my upbringing, I�ve never seen poverty and suffering. I�ve always had more than enough and the best of all things. But General Olusegun Obasanjo thought he could break my spirit and every morning when he came up, he found me that I was very strong. I was doing my exercises and reading my Koran 24 hours a day.
If we don�t bring General Obasanjo to justice, whatever we are doing, whatever government that had come in place, if we don�t bring him to justice, there is no way this entity called Nigeria can move forward. A man who invested N1.3 trillion in the power sector, 60 times more than what had been invested all the period of the existence of the entity called Nigeria, he could not generate up to 3,000 megawatts of power. I say he destroyed Nigeria.
I am not a youth. I became 43 years on the 1st of June this year. I was born in 1964. On the issues that we are canvassing, let us look at it vis-a-vis other nations. In Canada, they have Quebec, they are fighting for self determination. Nobody has gone there to arrest people and lock them up and occupy Quebec. Quebecois have carried out three plebiscites to see whether they could leave Canada and each time, the plebiscites would be defeated and they are still in Canada.
In South Africa, there is agitation among the Zulus for a Zulu nation. Nobody has gone to arrest Zulu leaders. They talk of apartheid. But myself and Uwazurike have never been given fair hearing. Judges were imported. Judicial processes were manipulated. The Nigerian entity is a rotten entity.
What sort of justice is this? That there can be justice for some and not for others. But that there cannot be justice for Alamieyeseigha .There can be no justice for Mujahid Dokubo Asari? They said Alamieyeseigha stole money, accusing Alamieyeseigha, you are a thief. You are stealing your people�s money. Now, other people who are thieves are going out and they are patting them on the back and say return property. And they kept Alamieyeseigha for almost two years in prison and the man is dying presently. As we are talking, Alamieyeseigha is having a heart by-pass surgery in Dubai. Obasanjo�s policy was that he�s going to teach us a lesson and nothing would happen. They killed Boro, Saro-Wiwa, bombed Odi, Odioma nothing happened. We would kill Asari and nothing will happen.
People are saying I shouldn�t talk but we will talk. We will strike, fight. My mother died at 28, I am alive today, I am 43 years old. So, if I die today, it makes no difference. The issues we are talking about are fundamental and any lover of truth and justice will know that we have been unjustly treated. Look at Port Harcourt, in 20 years from now, Port Harcourt will be the same. I was in detention in Abuja, I came out I couldn�t recognize Abuja. As we were leaving, I asked my chief, �is this Abuja Area 1?� I couldn�t recognize it again. They were building bridges on land while they cannot build bridges over river. People say Asari talks anyhow. The issues at stake are fundamental. We have inalienable rights. It is our fundamental right to own our land and this is not negotiable. It will never be given up.
Ten million collaborators can be with them (government) but only ten people who refuse to collaborate with them will have victory because we stand on the side of truth and justice. People say �don�t talk, you are old enough, go and enjoy yourself; you have 11 children� and I laugh. What is enjoyment when my people are suffering? I am not a poor man. They wanted to bribe me. I was told they would give me oil bloc.
I asked them: �When you give me oil bloc, what about my people?� I rejected it. I was offered Director of Youths in NDDC, I rejected. If it�s money I am looking for, there is so much money in the creeks. I don�t need to go to Abuja to make money. Obasanjo decided to lay pipeline to build Olokola LNG, while Brass LNG is comatose. We are going to see whether it will work.
If there is justice, we will allow them to build refinery anywhere. We will allow them to build LNG anywhere. But when there is no justice, somebody will tell me that the oil which flows from the North is sedimentary. The time when they will bring their armies to frighten us is over. You cannot crush the Ijaw people, the Niger Delta people. The only way these problems can be solved is to convene a sovereign national conference where the mistakes that have hounded us since 1914 will be re-examined.
In Ijaw land, Kalabari signed a separate treaty with Britain. Bonny, Nembe also signed separate treaties with Britain. So, Nigerians should sit to talk on the way forward. Where did we decide to become Nigeria? That document you called a constitution is a fraud. Open the constitution, it says people of Nigeria.
You and I know that there was no time we sat down anywhere to fashion out that constitution. And they say �we the people of Nigeria.� When did �we the people� sit down? So, from the very beginning the constitution was dubious and fraudulent. That document cannot stand the test of time. One day, it must surely crumble. What we are saying is that we don�t want bloodshed, let us sit down and talk.
What is your stand on hostage-taking?
We come to the inhuman practice of hostage-taking that has gotten into our struggle which is unknown. We must condemn it in all ramifications. If we want people to do justice to us, we must do justice to others. The people we are taking hostage and keeping against their will, is it justice? They are businessmen. They called them to come and do business anywhere. But they too have their blames. We say �leave our land� but they are trespassing on our land. We say go, they say the Nigerian military is there to protect them. They should leave our land, they should go home peacefully. When we have resolved at the Sovereign National Conference, they should come back.
If Ijaw people say we want to be Nigerians because I have children from Ibibio land, I used to have a Fulani wife, so I would not want to miss these people. Ninety percent of my friends are Muslims, amongst them, 80 percent are Yoruba. And the others are scattered in other tribes and nations. I can say because of my children, I want to be a Nigerian.
Hostage-taking is evil. It has brought easy wealth, laziness, criminality in our midst. It has destroyed the moral fabric of the Ijaw man. What I am saying is this, you are Igbo, Yoruba, you have all assisted in releasing me. But if you stand for justice, there is a legal maxim that says he who owns the land owns everything. And the legal maxim is used in Nigerian courts. If they want to acquire oil rich land in Niger Delta, one square meter is 15 kobo. But in Abuja , one plot can be up to N100 million. Arid land will be more expensive than resource filled land! They make laws, so one square mile of oil rich land is 15 kobo! What sort of injustice is this? When there is oil spillage, I have never seen, I have never shared oil spillage money and I will never share. I am not a fisherman. I don�t have nets and traps.
This is what they do, they say economic tree is 5 kobo, debt 2 kobo. This now force people to build many shrines, claiming that their gods have been polluted, then they will pay them. Before, there�s no oil spillage that Shell will pay you N20 to N30 million.
Now, there are the people they call militants. That word has been abused, I don�t even know the meaning of that word. It�s an insult to call me that. Me, I am not a militant. I am an Ijaw nationalist in the Ijaw struggle. Look, nobody should call me a militant. I am not militating against anything. So, for me, the issues, if you want hostage taking to end, you must do the right thing.
Then the oil companies. As far as I�m concerned, the corporate social responsibility of an organization is to pay its taxes. Why should you ask them to go and construct roads? That is the duty of the government that collected tax from them. No company has any corporate social responsibility other than that provided for by law of that land. And you cannot force them. You see the whole African presidents go to G-8 meeting and be begging for money.
They are not ashamed. All those African leaders going to G-8 to beg should be disowned by their people.
While Nigeria is selling public corporations, ARAMCO is buying the world. Indorama is buying our petrochemical plant. Indonesian company is coming to buy our petrochemical. World Bank imperialists are telling us to sell our national patrimony. America is now putting in place new laws to prevent ARAMCO from ravaging them. United Arab Emirates is buying everywhere. Their companies are buying everywhere. The world is changing.
The Arabs are using the petro dollars to upturn the world. Malaysia is constructing the world�s longest pipeline. Somebody will be talking and then you journalists will be praising them. Why should Indorama come here and buy our petrochemical and the same world Bank will not tell Indonesia to sell Indorama? Why should ARAMCO go to United states and buy refinery? Why should Yugoslavia be building refineries all over the world? Do you know where all the PMS we use comes from? Sometimes, when I sit down and hear them talk, I say, these people, where did they get their professorship, PhDs from? Do they think we are all fools?
Everyone of you has a responsibility to stand up. It is not Ijaw matter now. It is what Nigeria has that these men are selling. For me, as you know, I�m not as educated and articulate as you. I say things as raw as I see them because truth is not in black and white. Truth has only one colour which is white.
Concerning my release, they said they released me on bail. I was not in court when they did that. I never knew I was granted bail. I was inside my cell when they came and said I had been granted bail, and that I should go. I said: The judge don die? They say im dey alive. I say, wetin make una grant me bail now? They say they don grant me bail. I say no problem. I went to the IGP, I asked him, wetin happen, they say I�ve been granted bail.
If I am not in court and you say I should not attend political rallies, I am not a politician. I am not a PDP man or AC man, that I�ll come and address political rally. If my people come, I�ll talk with them. And in talking with them, if it is a rally, so be it.
What�s your view on the new political leadership at the centre, particularly with Goodluck, an Ijaw man as Vice-President?
On the issue of Goodluck Jonathan, because I know you will ask me, I am 100 percent in support of him if his activities will be in the interest of the Ijaw and Niger Delta people. But if he goes there to sit down, them say kill us and them come kill us, then I no go fit support am. We no go accept that one. As I came out, I found out that Jonathan has overwhelming support among Ijaw people. Ijaw people feel that for the first time, an Ijaw man has been placed in such a high position. Then who am I if I say I am an Ijaw leader to go against him? My own personal opinion in this issue does not matter.
If the opinion of my people is overwhelming in support of an individual in this position, then I will have to join the majority. And for that purpose, Jonathan cannot bribe me because the money with which he will bribe me is my money. So, I support Goodluck for as long as he is doing good.
Now that he is starting, I�ll encourage him with all my powers and all that I can muster for him to succeed. Since I came, I�d been talking to people. When I came out, some people took some hostages in Schlumberger. They met me and I said I was tired.
They met me again and said, �na we take the Schlumberger Oporobos. So, I said na una take the Schlumberger Oporobos, they say yes. I said, wetin una want, they said call Schlumberger make we release the people, make them go because you don come. So, I called Schlumberger, they said the man talking has no authority, he will call somebody else tomorrow, I said I�ll call him.
When I told him that I�m Asari, he said are you sure you are Asari or you are one of those people?
I said there�s no way I can convince you I am Asari but I am telling you that I am. And these people told me that they have your staff. This is the stage hostage taking has reached in the region. What I am going to do, I�ll assist but it has gone beyond what an individual can change overnight because the money don sweet for people mouth. So, anytime dem see oyinbo, dem go catch am and if them see you sef dem fit catch. Because dem no say money fit come.
So, these are the issues that I want to raise. I believe that if Yar�Adua is sincere to have a nation that will be strong and compete with other nations in the comity of nations, he should do the right thing by convening a Sovereign National Conference.