Interview from the past: I am a baptized Deeper Life Church member- Dokubo -Asari

Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, formerly Melford Dokubo Goodhead (Jnr), has a conflicting identity. Controversial Asari means different things to different people. To those who are close to him, Asari is a caring, humble, simple, and down-to-earth fellow; a caring father who spends quality time with his many children, teaching and praying with them. But those are not close to him, he is a monster, a drunk and drug addict, who finds joy in making controversial statements and fomenting trouble. Irrespective of the views one holds of him, it is undeniable that Asari is an enigma. Dokuba-Asari, the Alabo Edi Abali of Kalabari and a great scion of the King Amachree dynasty, in this interview with The Union on Saturday, March 15, 2014, talks about current political issues, life in the Greeks and moral background, among other issues. Excerpts.

What is your view on the national conference being convoked by President Goodluck Jonathan?

It is a little step in the right direction. Look at the delegates to the national conference, only the Yorubas are coming with the first eleven, the north has its radical elements like Junaid Mohammed’s. But the delegates from the South-South and South-East are pacifists -people who don’t believe in the sacrifices of Isaac Boro, Ken Saro Wiwa, and many others, that is why Ralph Uwazuruike is not there and I am not there. But we are not going to give up on the conference.  We will be on the sideline to fire the shots if our delegates there don’t talk. If they don’t say the things that our people want them to say, they will not return home, we will not allow them to come home.

Why are you not a delegate to the conference?

Because our politicians are afraid of us, they only benefit from the gains of our struggle. But that does not mean that we will not support the conference. We believe that whatever comes out of that conference, Nigeria will never remain the same again.

What is your take on 2015?

A lot of our people don’t understand the upcoming battle. 2015 will not be like any other election, it is beyond our imagination and we must all stand to fight to free ourselves otherwise it will take us a lifetime of struggle to gain our freedom again. We must not allow the born–to–rule to come back in 2015 and continue to loot and squander our resources.  This fight is not for Goodluck Jonathan, so narrowing it down to him will be a mistake. My very survival and that of my people is at stake.

Because of this fight, we are meeting, we are networking. Our enemies are spreading a pamphlet in the north against me, accusing me of all sorts of things. They shared pamphlets in the mosques, accusing me of being behind the attacks in the North-East to realize the Biafra dream. They said that I claimed to have been converted to Islam to lure people away from linking my actions to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). They called me a spy and the worst enemy of Islam and Nigerian Muslims. They said I have established a university in the Republic of Benin where insurgents are trained. They made all sorts of allegations against me. I will take the matter to the Department of Secret Service (DSS). I don’t owe the North any obligation, I don’t become a Muslim because of them. I am a Muslim because of my faith and belief in Allah.

Recently, you were arrested in the Republic of Benin, what led to your arrest?

I have been in the Republic of Benin since 2008. I have been doing business there and nobody knows me, only a few people I interact with.  I have over 500 people under my employment in my three schools. The government of Benin said they received a security report from some prominent Nigerians who are interested in making sure I should not be around in 2015. Chief among them is General Olusegun Obasanjo. Obasanjo and his All Progressive Congress (APC) allies believe that if I am around in 2015, it will be difficult for them to execute their plans against President Goodluck Jonathan and since they can’t find any way to silence me, they decided to send my name to Interpol so that I would be arrested and detained. Acting on the allegations, the government of Benin arrested and released me after interrogation because they found out that the allegations against me were false, ill-conceived, malicious, and witch-hunting. Several attempts have been made by Obasanjo and his evil plotters to kill me, but my hands are clean, so they can’t get me. I have been arrested more than 73 times and invited several by security agencies. Obasanjo buried me alive for ten months, and eleven days. They thought I would go bananas, but I don’t. So I have seen it all.

Why do you think Obasanjo is fighting you?

President Obasanjo knows what we are fighting for is fundamental to the existence of this country. We are demanding for our people’s right to self-determination. He knows if our people support me and we fight to a logical conclusion, he will lose the prime place he has in Nigeria.

What business do you do in the Republic of Benin?

I have nursery, primary, and secondary schools in Cotonou. I also have two institutions, King Amachree Art Academy and King Amachree Royal Academy for Automobile and ICT. I have King Amachree Sports Academy.

What is your reaction to Usman Bugaje’s statement that there is no oil-producing state, and oil in the Niger Delta belongs to the north?

Bugaje made such a provocative and inciting comment and his people clapped for him. But when we react, somebody will tell us that Usman Bugaje is speaking for himself and not for the North. In all the positions Bugaje has held, he represented his people’s views, aspirations, and demands. The statement from him is a serious one, and we shall treat it as such because we know that they have an evil agenda against our people. The intention and implication of what Bugaje has said, people might not see, and they will say Asari is an alarmist. He said that the oil in Niger Delta belongs to them, what an insult! First, the only reason why Nigeria was amalgamated in 1914 was because the North was poor,  could not stand on its own, and needed the resources of the South to survive.

What Bugaje said started when Ken Saro–Wiwa started the Ogoni struggle, and Bala Mohammed came out and said the oil segmented from the North to the South, as if the world is horizontal. They are hand in glove in this struggle to subjugate and steal what did not belong to them. The Prophet Mohammed said: ‘He is not a Muslim from whose hand and tongue his neigbhour is not safe’. These people have already said they are not Muslims, they do not know Islam but have always used Islam to deceive their people and get favours. What they are doing is to instigate their people and spread hate messages. So the Nigerian security agents should look at what Bugaje has said and call him to explain because his statement is a prelude to genocide against our people and the Nigerian state should not joke with it because Bugaje is not an ordinary person. People should not play with his statement. The weight of what Bugaje said will re-vibrate for years to come.

When and where did you begin your revolutionary struggle?

I started fraternizing with older trader unionists who had contacts with the former Soviet Union and Cuba. I read a lot of literature, pamphlets, and books about the former Soviet Union, China, and Cuba. Later on, I read about Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau. What I read about the struggles in these countries influenced me. In my primary 5 and 6, I read The Twelve Day Revolution a play by Simon Adaka Gberemo. I also read The Revolution by Isaac Adaka Boro. When I was in the university, I became a student unionist at the University of Calabar, where I joined The National Union of Rivers State Students in my first year and I later became president of the union.

The 1979 Iranian revolution that overthrew the Shah made me study Islam, and I became attracted to revolutionary Islam. I read Sayid Kutd and became close to revolutionary Islam personalities like Asari of Sudan and several others. I began to look inward and visited several countries attending revolutionary and progressive conferences and seminars. before then I had met M. K Akogbo, a federal commissioner for petroleum, I met Comrade Harcourt Whyte, Comrade Fubara, Comrade Ola Oni, Papa Omoshola, and several other seasoned socialists who advocated for socialism in Nigeria. Our struggles suffered a setback with the fall of the former Soviet Union when Mikhail Gorbachey sold out to the West. Gorbachey made the world a unipolar world where America can continue to bully people and countries. The demise of the Soviet Union brought about all the evils that America and Zionist Israel are committing in the world today. Today, comrade brother and revolutionary icon, Muammar Gaddafi, was murdered and Libya has been destroyed. So, I have always been involved in the revolutionary movement.

When do you get into the Niger Delta struggle?

There is no difference between my international struggle and my struggle to liberate my people. You can’t fight a revolution without a defined territory and enemy. That is the greatest problem of people who try to theorize revolutionary struggle. They talk about revolution without defining the territory. There must be a defined territory you are fighting to liberate and your enemy must be known. In our struggle, the enemies of the Ijaw people are those who invaded our lands and rivers took our resources, and prevented our people from having access to good things of life. There are our enemies and we must fight to take what belongs to us.

When you took your battle to the Creeks, why were you fighting the federal government instead of the enemy you mentioned?

Who owns the federal government? Who decides who gets what from the government? The federal government is an institution that is owned and controlled by the Fulanis and Gambaris. They are the owners of Nigeria, only they have the right of ownership of Nigeria and everything in it, others are slaves. Whether Goodluck Jonathan or Olusegun Obasanjo is president, the sole of Nigeria is in the hands of the Gambaris. And these Gambaris are invaders.

Who are you referring to as Gambaris?

The Gambaris are invaders from Fouta Djallon, they know themselves. They said they were born to rule. And I ask them, if you are born to rule, what am I? Born to be ruled by these invaders from Fouta Djallon? No way. I reject it in its totality.

What is the basis of your fight?

That Nigerian state is a fraud. Some people were not consulted when Nigeria was promulgated to become a nation by the British colonialists. Nations are built by arbitrariness, nations must be founded on the wishes of the people. That is why we demanded for convocation of a sovereign national conference, to ameliorate the malady of the creation of the Nigerian state by the British.

When you were in the Creeks fighting, how were you coping or surviving?

Life was very easy and fun in the Creeks, everything needed was much available.

Everything like what?

Food, guns, resources, everything was available.

Who was providing the resources?

The resources were available. We were not looking for them. The oil is there, the sea is open.

Were you into oil bunkering?

No, no. there was no need for that. We had access to our God-given resources, and we refined and sold our oil for the good of the people.

Do you mean you could refine oil and sell while in the Creeks?

Yes, it is not this very backward and primitive kpoo fire refining they are doing now. When we were in Creeks fighting and refining our oil, there was no spilling or environmental degradation, everything was done under international best practice. We were not directly refining the products, but those who supported us were refining the product and we put the price and sell to our people. We had ministers in charge of every aspect of our life, Boyloaf (ex-militant leader, Ebikabowei Victor Ben) was our minister of petroleum.

Where were you selling your product?

We sold to our people in the Creeks and communities. While the Nigerian government was selling at N60 per litre, we were selling at N13 per litre to our people. That was why they called it Asari oil.

A lot of people believe you are a drug addict, are you one?

People can call me any name, if they say I am a drug addict so be it. If I deny it, what difference will it make to them? Since I was born I have never drunk, I have never smoked. Who will I tell that I don’t drink alcohol or that I don’t smoke and the person will believe me? Why should I even try to convince anybody? Let them say whatever they like, those who know me, know what I can do.

You mean all the while you were in the Creeks you didn’t take alcohol or drug?

I have never smoked anything, nor have I taken any form of drug or inducement. But if you talk about women, yes. You say Dokubo-Asari likes women, I will say yes I do. I can’t deny that, but I told God that this women’s matter is too much and asked Him to help me overcome women’s wahala.

 Is it as a result of your Islamic faith that you neither drink alcohol nor smoke but love women?

No, even before I became a Muslim, I didn’t do any of it. Before I became a Muslim, I was baptized in Deeper Life Church, before then, I was a Baptist. So I already have a moral upbringing. The vice of women was very much later in my life that I picked it.

 Do you think you will have the courage to surmount your love for women?

I have tried sometimes,  I keep away from women including my wives, but later I still see myself doing it. But I know one day I will overcome it. Sometimes it is very difficult to come out with certain maladies. All one needs is personal discipline and God to overcome any habit you think is bad.

Are you a fetish?

What is being fetish?

Do you believe in Egbesu or any other god that is not Allah as a Muslim?

Why would you ask that sort of question about belief? There is freedom of belief and religion in the constitution. Your question is an insult to other people’s beliefs. I don’t believe in Egbesu or Amatemeso but I respect the people who believe in Egbesu because the belief is Egbesu and whatever they believe was there before Islam and Christianity came in. So nobody should be ashamed of his or her belief.

When you were fighting the government in the creeks, what was protecting you?

God Almighty, Allah whom I believe in, was protecting me. Ninety percent of people around me believe in Egbesu and Amatemeso, every Ijaw community has an Amatemeso, the protecting deity of the community or nation,  I respect them because they chose to follow me even though I do not share the same religious bias or preferences with them. But I know what  I saw with my eyes that the people with me, who followed the commandment of Amatemeso when they shot them, didn’t die. The guns were ineffective.

Were you being shut then?

Yes, I have been shot several times and the bullets didn’t penetrate.

Why?

I don’t know. All I know is that I pray and read my Quran. Before my people go to any engagement, I fast and read Sulatu Yasin, Sulatu Mulk, Sulatu Kafi, and several other potent parts of the Quran, I recite them and recite the name of Allah.

Can you share one of those experiences that made you believe Amatemeso was real?

On the 8^th of September 2004, the Nigerian military attacked Camp Boro and Camp Figberesima from the Ogbama River. They came with 19 gunboats, a helicopter gunship, and a jet fighter. As they came to attack us, the river between Ogbama and Camp Figberesima dried up, this is not magic, and people are alive to testify to this. Everywhere became dry land.

What happened after?

The soldiers jumped out from their gunboats which could no longer sail and ran away.

You didn’t attack them?

We don’t need to attack them again since they have been defeated. But as they were running, they were shooting, we too were shooting but we didn’t bother going after them. Even the bomb that they dropped, didn’t affect even a dog in our camp.

Do you know that some people see you as a monster?

That is very good. There is no problem. It means my enemies will continue to be afraid of me because some people who do not know me say I am a monster, and it will give me an edge over my enemies.

A lot of people believe you are stupendously rich, and that you get patronage from the government, is that true?

Why shouldn’t I be rich? I am Alabo Edi Abali. My grandfather Edi Abali was the richest man of his time, in Bonny, Grand-Bonny, Kalabari, and Okirika, he was an Arusa, the highest point of wealth. I am also the son of King Amachree, the King of the land, the forest, and the sea. Then I am again, the son of Isinwananaku. I am also the son of another Arusa, Obu, so why shouldn’t I be rich? If the princes of other lands are rich, why should I be poor? I ought to be rich, and I have never hidden it. But rich in what sense? That is what I have always asked. Who gives me the wealth? That is what I ask the people who say I am rich. Am I as rich as Dangote, who is being patronized by the federal government? Am I as rich as Adenugu who got PTDF money to establish Glo Mobile? Am I as rich as Femi Otedola? Where did they get their so-called wealth? Is it not Ijaw money, Itsekiri people money? Ikwere people money, Urhobo people money that has made these people rich?

Now that an Ijaw man like you is president, are you and your people not benefiting what others benefited before?

No Ijaw man will claim that he is benefiting from Jonathan what the Gambaris benefited and are still benefiting from our oil. Jonathan is a politician who believes that Nigeria works. However, we are happy with Jonathan because his presidency has given us time to hibernate and if Nigeria does not get it right at the conference, we will come out of our sabbatical.

What do you do in your free hours, I mean how do you relax?

In those days, I used to read, but these days I am very agitated. These days, I am always on Facebook quarreling and abusing people, they abuse me, and I abuse them. They write against me, I write against them, all the Gambaris and their collaborators. So I spend a lot of time on Facebook.