By Yemi Oyedele, South-West/South-South CorrespondentOne of the biggest supporters and kinsman of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, has declared that the president has lost the support of his political base, the South-South and the South-East owing to the failure of his government to deliver on its promises.
Dokubo-Asari, at a press conference in Abuja on Friday, said that it would be tough for Jonathan to win the presidential election in 2015 if he decides to run based on the poor showing of his administration.
He said that his decision to speak out was for him and others who are ardent supporters of Jonathan not to be blamed for his failure in 2015.
He said: “I want to start with an Ijaw proverb, which says: the eyes watched its seven children to death. Instead of advising them, it was just looking at them until they died, while the mouth talked its only child to life and success. “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 silence cannot be golden. We
mainly speak out in issues that are very critical to the survival of our people, the survival of the people of the South-South and the South-East, which happens to be the political base of Goodluck Jonathan. Jonathan is surrounded by very greedy people who are only in the Presidency to enrich themselves at the expense of Goodluck himself. This brings us to another Kalabari proverb, which says: where there are elders, a goat cannot be allowed to deliver tied to a stick. If we don’t talk and we continue to brush it aside, tomorrow we will be blamed and people will say: 'Mujahid Dokubo-Asari was around when Goodluck Jonathan was president and he didn’t talk'. Then I will be an accomplice and accessory after the fact. 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.”
Dokubo-Asari said he will continue to speak out despite the fact that he had benefitted from Jonathan, adding that one of those causing trouble for the President remains the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Chief Godsday Orubebe.
He said: “I have benefited immensely from Goodluck Jonathan with my stake but benefit alone is not enough to make me to keep quiet when the period is very challenging for our people. So, some of us are tempted to ask this question: why are all these things happening? Why has the President allow some ministers like Godsday Orubebe to continue in government? Everyday people die on the East-West Road. If Orubebe is incompetent as he has shown himself to be, he should be removed. Nobody voted for Orubebe. And why is Orubebe so important to the President that he can’t remove him even in the face of his obvious incompetence and several allegation to corruption? We feel very ashamed and embarrassed. Orubebe was one of us. He was attending meetings with us, sleeping on the ground with us, entering night bus with us and we nominated him to be appointed a minister. We have gone to him and complained to him that we don’t like they way things are going in his ministry and told him that if the President leaves in 2015 without the completion of the East-West Road, we are finished. And the man keeps telling us there is no money. When IBB (former military President, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida was there, there was money. When Abacha was there, there was money. When others were there, there was money. How come the money disappeared when Jonathan got there? Jonathan and orubebe will account for the death in the East-West Road.”
On the face-off between Jonathan and former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Dokubo-Asari said there was no need for it. He said that no matter what Jonathan feels, he still remains a beneficiary of Obasanjo’s large heartedness.
He said: “First, there was no need for Goodluck Jonathan to disagree with Olusegun Obasanjo. I don’t like Obasanjo. I don’t like his face. But he was instrumental in bringing Goodluck Jonathan to power. And the greedy people around Jonathan have not managed him enough to the extent that the President and people around him will allow Jonathan to disagree with Obasanjo openly. 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 to put to the president. Some people say Obasanjo is manipulating Goodluck Jonathan, that is why Jonathan is disagreeing with him and we ask: what has Goodluck Jonathan’s 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. So what are the advice that Obasanjo gave to Jonathan that were so difficult for him to fulfill, that made him decide to fall out with Obasanjo? 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. I have a feeling that Fulani man Buhari would have done more for Niger-delta than Jonathan has done so far Jonathan has done nothing for Niger Delta actually. It is getting more and more difficult to support him, the second niger bridge is another issue. Even his allies are denouncing him. What a shame!
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