There has been exchange of brick-bats between the Niger-Delta Revolutionary Frontiers led by Alhaji Asari Dokubo and the Northern Governors’ Forum on the vexed issue of oil resources. In this interview with Idowu Samuel, the former militant, who said he once took up arms against the Nigerian Army for 12 months, explained his reasons for referring to the North as parasites.

Your group was reported to have referred to the North as a parasite of sorts in the national setting. The northern governors seemed to have fired back when they averred that the Niger Delta could go to hell with the oil resources it prides itself in. what was your reaction when you heard that?

I just laughed because we found that statement funny. What are we talking about? They don’t need our oil… then let them impress it on the Federal Government to dissolve NNPC and all the resources they had put together to exploit the oil resources from the Niger Delta, and then hand over the oil resources to the oil communities, period! Then, there will be peace. Let them not stay there and be grandstanding. If they have the heart to try it, let them try it and see what difference they would have had with countries like Chad and Niger. I

f they say they have agriculture, is it not our money they would use to develop it? Federal Government would vote huge sums of money for fertilizers, then they will give it to people from the North to do the importation and all the fertilizers are given to them almost free of charge. Notwithstanding, we are better than them in the North. We are well fed in the Niger Delta than any of their people. They have been stealing government money that belongs to everybody in Nigeria, yet they have nothing to show for it. They are just grandstanding. How many of the northern states are rich today with all the money they have been taking from oil revenues and with all the money they have been taking from the NNPC. The dams in the North, it is our money they used, the irrigation projects in their areas are funded with our oil money. Let them leave our oil alone and see what happens next.

Why did you make that offensive statement at all?
The problem is that our so-called leaders from the South-south, South west and the South-east are political salesmen who sell their people. Almost all the governors are ready to do that and that is why the people from the North will not respect the South. Most of them were installed as governors and that is why each time any of them have any problem, they run to the North for solution. But we are saying that these things must stop. We are more than ready now to defend ourselves. Those days when the North would bully everybody are over. Violence is not the preserve of any group.

Are you not worried that the statements you made are capable of causing disaffection within the nation?
Which nation are you talking about?
Nigeria?
I am not a Nigerian and God never created me a Nigerian, so if Nigeria is tensed up that is the business of Nigeria. I am an Ijaw man. That is where God created me. Ijaw nation was forcefully taken over by the British which eventually lumped it into an entity called Nigeria. The treaties are there.


Are you in essence saying that you are trapped in Nigeria?
That is not a new thing. It has happened all over the world. Georgia is trapped, Chechnya is trapped, Kashmir is trapped, and Northern Ireland is trapped. The story is endless.
Then all your struggles are meant to cut the Ijaw nation off from Nigeria?

There is no Nigeria in the sense you are portraying it. Chief Obafemi Awolowo of blessed memory once said that Nigeria is a mere geographical expression. Nigeria only exists in the minds and imaginations of the people in Abuja. If there is riot in Kano, the next thing is for the people to kill yanmiri or berebe, Ibo or Yoruba people. If there is riot in Lagos who do you think the people would like to kill? Is it not Hausa or in some instances, Igbo? What if you have riot in Port Harcourt? Who will the people like to kill? Hausa people .Have you ever seen a riot in Nigeria and the next thing is for people to go after Lebanese or Americans? There is no where in Nigeria, apart from Niger Delta where a riot would happen and then Nigerians would be looking for Ghanaians to kill.

This is the matter. People know that Nigeria does not exist as a true nation. But our leaders are fraudulently holding up to the country because of the oil in Itsekiri land, in Ogoni land, in Ilaje, Ijaw land and Urhobo land and in some parts of Iboland. There was a civil war in this country and the fight was mainly to hold on to the oil. What is holding this contraption called Nigeria together is the oil and for so long the blood of our people has been used to oil the machinery for the continued mindless exploration of the oil resources in the Niger Delta.

Now, it is time to say no. Nigeria should stop shedding the blood of our people to oil the machinery of exploitation of their resources. It would no longer be the blood of Isaac Boro, it would no longer be the blood of Ken Saro Wiwa and 9 Ogoni leaders. It would no longer be the blood of the people of Odi, blood of the people of Choba, blood of the people of Odioma… it would no longer be. In every society, existence should be harmonious and even. No one should wake up one day and say a section of the society is an ingrate. Then look at the one calling his fellow man an ingrate. You are better than him in all respects. In any case, are they to blame? It is the so called leaders in the South-south, South-east and the South-west who have been allowing these absurdities. Whatever crumbs the North offers, our leaders take without asking questions. If our leaders will continue with this kind of rubbish, then it is the time for we the ordinary people of the South-south to stand up and say enough is enough.

Look, the Yoruba people stood up during the June 12 and decried the annulment. The Yoruba struggle produced Obasanjo, although the man turned to be a curse on the people because he destroyed their solidarity. Obasanjo destroyed the viable opposition in Nigeria and see what is happening, the Yoruba who have been playing that role meaningfully for Nigeria can no longer do it like before. For this, Obasanjo will pay for his sins.

What solution are you now canvassing for the problems you have enumerated now. A break up of Nigeria?

I have said this times without number that Nigeria does not exist. The only solution is for all the ethnic groups in Nigeria to sit down and hold talks on whether or not we want to really come together as a nation. As for now, I Dokubo Asari and my entire house hold are not Nigerians.

You are advocating a National Conference of a sort?

Oh yes! That is what we have been advocating all along, a peaceful Sovereign National Conference. Nobody wants to die, I don’t want to die and let me say that I have a Fulani wife, and her relations come to me while I go to them too, we are brothers and sisters. We are not fighting against them, but against the evil cabal that had impoverished the rest of Nigeria and their own people, I mean people who are not tired of stealing the Nigerian money but who would in their comfort instigate riots to kill and maim people for selfish reasons while they enjoy the wealth they had stolen. That is what we are talking about. Each time I go to the Mosque in Port Harcourt and I stand on the line for prayers, if I look to my right with about 20 people, 15 of them would be northerners and on my left, if there were about 20 people, 15 would be northerners.
If I go to Hajj, if there are 100 people, 50 would be northerners. In my daily interactions with people, most of my close friends are either northern Muslims or Yoruba Muslims. Even in my house where I pray, the imam in my house is a Muslim. The one teaching my children Arabic is an Hausa man. I have no problem with the northern people. My point is that the North itself should rise up against this cabal who have reduced Nigeria to a pariah state. Look at Nigeria today, we have the problem of mass illiteracy, poverty, sanitation, good roads, power supply and things are not just working generally. It is because these cabal would no want anything to work, so that they can continue to put Nigerian money into their pockets.

Even at that, they continue to make misguided statements. And my feeling is that if the masses in the North decide to fall in line with their oligarchy against the rest of us, we will stand up to them. We will stand up to them. Those days are over. And no one should talk about building bridges of understanding across the country, we will blow the bridges.

The clamour for Sovereign National Conference in Nigeria has never produced any positive result, even though the clamour is as old as Nigeria. Why do you and others continue to insist on that?

Nobody needs to listen to me. Let me say my own and let them not listen. But the time has come when the truth must be told. Very soon Nigeria will know the truth.
What makes you think so?
When I was a small boy, if Sanitary Inspector came to my village, everybody would flee, just ordinary inspector, not to talk about tax collector or court bailiff. But today, if the army come to my village with jet fighters, even a 90 year old man would come out to look and ask wetin dem bring today. The fear of death is far removed from the heart of our people. Everybody is lionized in the Niger Delta and they are rearing to go. If they want peace, the minimum option is the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference. In Somalia, the people held a referendum. In Ethiopia, the peoples held a plesbiscite and that enabled Eritrea to leave the country. The whole black race is backward because of the Hausa-Fulani People. It is about their dominance. In Asia, the Chinese are the dominant people and the entire Asia is progressing today because of the progressive nature of the Chinese. Why is Europe progressive today? Is it not because of the influence of the Anglo-Saxon with superior minds and adventurous nature? Why is Africa not progressing today. Is it not because the Hausa-Fulani are the largest ethnic group in Africa, and they are corrupt, bankrupt and primitive. That is why the whole of the black race is in darkness.

I have an impression that the turn of events in Nigeria today is the function of treachery and conspiracy of the colonial people. The fact is that if the Ibos, the Ijaws, the Yorubas had been left alone on their own, they would have gone so far. The whole thing is like a thief who came to your house and stole a lap-top as he goes out, he was conscious of the possibility of arrest and then he decided to fling the lap-top at a give away price. He could even sell the product for N15,000, although he would first make some shakara by placing N50,000 price on the stolen lap-top. When they begin to make shakara that they don’t need our oil, what have they done since? Everybody is living on the oil resources from our area and they are doing it in a hurry thinking that a day would come when the opportunity would cease. For 12 months, I stood up in arms against the Nigerian military, nothing happened.

One by one they will all get the gist and one day the truth will be told and Biafran vision of 40 years ago will be vindicated and those that murdered sleep and hoping to sleep soundly will realise their folly. The South South are gradually getting the gist. Hopefully one day the South West will realise the folly of playing the beautiful bride in a sinking ship called Nigeria and hopefully one day the northern masses will realised how they had been used by their elite/cabal Kaduna Mafia.

The truth is like pregnacy, you can never hide it forever.

@ You're too often now sounding like Jubril Aminu, the illiterate quota proffessor from Adamawa.

I'm Not Nigerian & North Will Die Without Oil- Asari

@ Eziachi


If I may ask why do you have such profound hatred for the north? The way I see it you are afraid to confront the Yoruba’s knowing fully well that you risk onslaught from their ever representative members in nairaland. But perhaps the most compelling reason is that your memory shrinks and your post are all geared towards ethnic division. This relative fluidity of identity is one of the factors, which make the Diaspora of Post Colonialism a nation afloat.

I advise you to wither away with the wind.

Na truth you talk my brother.

MC Usman:

@ You're too often now sounding like Jubril Aminu, the illiterate quota proffessor from Adamawa.

I'm Not Nigerian & North Will Die Without Oil- Asari

@ Eziachi


If I may ask why do you have such profound hatred for the north? The way I see it you are afraid to confront the Yoruba’s knowing fully well that you risk onslaught from their ever representative members in nairaland. But perhaps the most compelling reason is that your memory shrinks and your post are all geared towards ethnic division. This relative fluidity of identity is one of the factors, which make the Diaspora of Post Colonialism a nation afloat.

I advise you to wither away with the wind.

With all due respect to Eziachi I think he is stuck in the past and is suffering from post Biafra withdrawals. I believe every peoples have a right to self determination but the Nigerian experiment is working in many underlying aspects which Eziachi is unwilling to acknowledge and is bent on focusing on the negative effects of several situations.

Even if the Igbo or Biafra were given the the south south part of the country today, the inbred corruptive nature of the Former NIgerians will linger in that state and probably will ultimately destroy it.

morpheus24:

With all due respect to Eziachi I think he is stuck in the past and is suffering from post Biafra withdrawals. I believe every peoples have a right to self determination but the Nigerian experiment is working in many underlying aspects which Eziachi is unwilling to acknowledge and is bent on focusing on the negative effects of several situations.

Even if the Igbo or Biafra were given the the south south part of the country today, the inbred corruptive nature of the Former NIgerians will linger in that state and probably will ultimately destroy it.

@MC Usman
I don't know how you get the idea of my hatred for the north based on what I said in my contribution. I call for the masses in the north to wake up and see that they had been used by their elite is loooked at as hate to you, well that is your opinion.
It's useless to keep yapping that Biafra will be the same as with Nigeria, no it won't and we will make sure it won't and that is why those people you are refering hate their idea and will rather die than to see it happen because they knew they face a life in exile or dead. That is why many othem can't sleep a night in their village without a truack load of army to protect them but they will go tot Abuja and call themselves our leaders.

@morpheus
Regarding your jibe about Eziachi stucked in the past and is suffering from post Biafra withdrawals. I believe every peoples have a right to self determination but the Nigerian experiment is working in many underlying aspects which Eziachi is unwilling to acknowledge and is bent on focusing on the negative effects of several situations. That is your opinion AND YOU DESERVE IT. If experiment as you call it is working for you, well good luck to you and I wonder how many years you keep experimenting? That is the problem with people like you suffering from Nigerian withdrawal, they don't believe in past or history and they want to pursue a future without looking at the past. You can't have a future without the past or you will keep making the same error.

A man without a past doesn't exist, I am quite happy to live in the past, because it makes me self concious of the future.

I was emphasising on what Asari was saying that he is not a Nigeria and that Nigeria exist only on paper as nation but in reality it doesn't, a statement that would had been unheard of few years ago

All I can say is wow!!!!. The people of SS SE are finally smelling the hot coffee burning. Nigeria has never been a real nation and its laughable that we have people too stubborn to realize it. I support the man's statement. He has the right to be who he wants and whoever he has always been an IJAW.

The North can surely do without oil and its smarter to let em know that so they can easily be persuaded to move and form their Islamic Republic. Why tell em they need us more than we need them? All they gonna do is stick to us like leaches. Abeg let my people be. Move on with your lives and cattle. If we need cow we will import em from the North or any other country.