Jonathan has failed Nigerians, Niger-Delta — Asari-Dokubo

Mr. Asari-Dokubo was one of the major supporters of President Jonathan.

An ex-militant and one of the most vocal supporters of President Goodluck Jonathan, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, has joined the growing number of Nigerians who have accused the Jonathan administration of failure.

Mr. Dokubo-Asari told reporters in Abuja that the President is fast losing his support base and might not be re-elected for failing to deliver on his promises, Thisday Newspaper has reported.

Mr. Dokubo-Asari, who admitted to have greatly benefitted from the Jonathan presidency, said he could no longer keep quiet in the face of the unprecedented failure of the government.

“What has the Goodluck Jonathan 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,” he said.

“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 silent cannot be golden.”

Mr. Dokubo-Asari lamented that President Jonathan has lost the support of all those that were instrumental to his becoming head of state.

“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 the president to tell us.”

He cited the face-off between the President and former President Olusegun Obasanjo as sign of the president’s increasing isolation by his former friends and supporters.

“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,” he said.

Mr. Dokubo-Asari pointed out that the president has surrounded himself with those whom he referred as ‘greedy’ and have enriched themselves at the expense of the President. He however failed to mention what he has done to “benefit immensely” from the administration.

The former militant recently caused national outcry when the Wall Street Journal reported he got a contract that pays him N1.42 billion annually from the government for guarding pipelines in the Niger Delta.

He said if things do not change for the better he might reconsider his support for the President:

“Monkey no fine, but the mama like am, but then the ugly monkey becomes so rascal, the mother will desert it because if the mother continues to like the ugly monkey in its rascality, she too will die with the ugly monkey, after all she has more than one monkey child,” he said.

Mr. Dokubo-Asari said due to a woeful performance, the chance of the president being re-elected is fast slipping through his fingers.

“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,” he said.