Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, the leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Salvation Force, NDPSF, and one of the arrowheads in the struggle to redress perceived injustice in the Niger Delta has said that Biafra will be independent whether some people in the country like it or not. Dokubo-Asari who said that he is a Biafran and not a Nigerian also said that the current agitation for the sovereign state of Biafra is not a call for war but that “Leave us let us go.” He said, Like Pharaoh, the Hebrews should be allowed to leave the north, maintaining that anybody who would not let Biafra go will drown in the Red Sea. “They will drown if they pursue us.” Asari-Dokubo Corroborating what the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu had said some days back, Alhaji Dokubo-Asari also said that the current agitation for the sovereign state of Biafra is not a call for war but that of self independence. Alhaji Asari-Dokubo said, “I’m not a Nigerian. Nations are not imposed on people. People don’t sit down in Berlin or anywhere and make people Nigerians. Nations are created by the will of the people. My people have never accepted Nigeria and so, how can I be a Nigerian? Nobody can impose Nigeria on me.” “The free will of the people create nations. If everybody gathered together, the Ijaw people, you know which includes the kalabari people, nobody forced the Kalabari people to become Ijaw people, because naturally, they know they are Ijaw people.” “So, nobody will force an Owerri man, an Nkwere man to be an Igbo person, he naturally knows he is an Igbo person.” “So, if we want to be Nigerians, then we have to sit down, and decide for ourselves that today, we are going to be, or as separate identities, and accept Nigeria as our country, as our nation and we become Nigerians. We’ve not done that.” “When I go up north, do they see me as a Nigerian? They don’t! They call me ‘Nyamiri.’ They call me Nyamiri! When I go to Yoruba land, do they see me as a Nigerian? They call me ‘Omo Kobokobo.’ That’s what they call me! Omo Kobokobo.” “ When a Yoruba man goes up north, they call him ‘Oyede Banza.’ When a Fulani man comes up to Yoruba land, what do they call him? They call him Gambari!” “I used to hear a story that there were about three people in a bus and the driver asked the conductor, how many people were in the bus and the conductor said two persons and one Gambari. He said shut up your mouth, is Gambari not a human being? But the conductor said that is your business o, me I know that in this bus there are two persons and one Gamari.” “So, if in the north there is a riot, they don’t kill Senegalese, they don’t kill British, they don’t kill Lebanese, they will kill a Yoruba man. They will kill an Igbo man, they will kill an Ijaw man. They will kill an Efik man, they will kill others but they will not kill a Lebanese, they don’t kill a Senegalese, they don’t kill Nigerien or Malian. That clearly shows that they don’t need you.” “Listen to the interview of that rogue that they are celebrating. People who joined to steal Ijaw people’s resources, Ahmadu Bello. What did he say in his interview? ‘That if they want to employ people in the north, they will first of all take Europeans and so on, then when it comes, if they are going to consider Africans they will take Sudanese and so on but when they are going to consider other Nigerians, they will take them on contract. It is there, they can’t deny it.” “What country are you talking about? Obafemi Awolowo said Nigeria is just a geographical residence. But me, I’m not a Nigerian, I will never be a Nigerian!” On his thoughts about Biafran agitation “I’m a Biafran! Yes, in 1967, Biafra was declared and my people were part of the declaration of Biafra. The man who gave the name Biafra to Biafra was an Ijaw man, Chief Frank Opigbo. The man who first plaid the Biafran national anthem was Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson…1967 declaration of Biafra, I am a Biafran. So, the agitation, I am part of the agitation for the realization of the sovereign state of Biafra.” On whether dialogue and restructuring can solve the imbalance in the country “50 years after Biafra, what has been stopping the dialogue? 50 years is not enough for dialogue? 50 years is not enough for restructuring?” “I am 52 years old. So, since I was three years old, they went to Aburi. Aburi failed. So, what stopped them if they really believed we can co-exist? If they really believed we can peaceful;ly live together, what stops them form restructuring Nigeria, from doing the needful in the past 50 years?” “Is it now? So we are going to wait for another 50 years under the bondage of the people we are better than? People the United Nation and all agencies in the world said, in educational index, they are the lowest. In poverty index, they are the lowest. In everything, they are the lowest. Infant mortality, they are the lowest. VVf, it is more prevalent in their place. Are they the people?” “ The people who everyday stand up, bring ‘maitasin, bring the ‘izalah’, bring troika versus ‘quadiriha,’ bring Boko Haram, bring this, bring that one, kill people, election violence,… why will we be able to live together with these animals?” “So, who is fighting” We said we want to go, if they want to die, let them sit with us, we say please oh, we no wan live with you. Na by force?” “You get neighbough, I don’t have any resemblance with you. Even my father self, if I marry, I no go leave my father house? Na by force say I go live for my father house? Na by force say I go live with my brothers, if they are our brothers? Na by force say I go live with my sister?” “So, we are not asking for war? Who wants to die? I don’t want to die. I have 21 children. I want to enjoy my life to ninety-something. My grand mother died at the age of 94. My uncle just died at the age of 98. I want to enjoy my life very well, kokoro to the end.” “ So, who is calling for war? Who is calling for crisis? They are the ones who are attacking IPOB members. They are the ones who are killing people. They are the ones who are said they have the power to kill.” “Nobody is saying we want to kill anybody. Leave us let us go. Like Pharaoh, leave the Hebrews to leave the north. He drowned in the Red Sea. They will drown if they pursue us.” On the solution “The solution is for us to leave! Every one of us. Simple. We want to We wan leave. No gragra, no nothing. Na gragra dey tear cloth.” “I am not a member of IPOB but am a Biafran. IPOB is one of the organization. I am into the Biafran agitation. My method of agitation might be different from the method of the IPOB. But we are going to the same direction so we have to work together. I have to hold IPOB, put our hands together and walk together to our destination. But that does not mean I’m a member of IPOB.” On the varying opinions of some southern leaders in the country about Biafra “ Which leaders? The people who are afraid, people who are lily-livered? People who are sea sick to frown off their mate? They are lily-livered!” “Tha Kano would have 44 local government and Bayelsa will have eight local government and Kano brings nothing, nothing to the sharing at Abuja at the end of the month and you are a leader, why should they take you serious? You have been there always, you cannot talk in front of your people.” “The Governor of Rivers state would like a slave ‘kokokokokoko, take our traditional rulers, go to Sokoto to go and bow down to the son of Usman Dan Fodio and say he is the Governor of Rivers state. But when he is shaking his traditional rulers, his traditional rulers will bow for him. Such idiots are the people you say are our leaders? Who made them leaders?”
SOURCE: VANGUARD