[size=14pt]ASARI DOKUBO: Women are my greatest weakness[/size]
By WOLE BALOGUN
Saturday, May 14, 2011


Asari
• Photo: The Sun Publishing 
More Stories on This Section

Most Nigerians know Asari Dokubo as a fearless freedom fighter, but none, is, probably, aware of his challenging private life. In fact, he has sensationally revealed that women are one of his weaknesses.
In this interview, Dokubo told his life story in Port Harcourt. He talked about his family, lifestyle and others.

Could you tell us the story of your childhood?
I was born in Asari, on January 5, 1964, some how a problem day. And then I attended Baptist Primary School, Asari. I attended  Baptist High School, Port Harcourt and the University of Calabar and Rivers State University of Science and Technology. I read Law.  My family is a family of lawyers; my uncles are judges and aunties and several relatives are all lawyers. I have two or three of my siblings as lawyers. I grew up in a disciplined home. Life was easy for me while growing up. It was never difficult; my father was not a rich man, but he provided everything we needed in life; so life was easy for me.

My father believed that people should do things themselves. For instance, he painted our house; he mends his clothes. If the power is cut, he doubles as the electrician to install it. This is because his own father was also a skillful man; my grand father was a teacher, a missionary teacher, and he was the first postmaster in Buguma division. He was a postmaster and had the first industry in Buguma, in the Niger Delta. My mother’s father was a prominent chief, the head of the second biggest house in the Kalabari kingdom. He was a very rich man, a slave owner, a plantation owner and a very big man, with so many children and grand children. Many of these children and grand children have become ministers and governors, among others. I came from a family of several aunties, running into 20, 30, 40 and 50 of them. Most of my family members had education; all my grand father’s children went to school, at least basic education in primary school. Almost all my mother’s children, who are about 50, also went to school. And as a result I had many aunties I could visit and so my youth was exciting.

What were the boyish pranks you played?
I was a very stubborn person. They call me Oshiownu; it is an Igbo language, which meant a very stubborn person. I am also called Kiliwi. Kiliwi Nwachukwu was a super man and because I was always fighting, they named me after him.

What virtues did you learn from your parents?
My father was a very disciplined and honest man. But I took after my grand parents. My father’s mother, a princess and my mother’s father were known to be very firm on all matters. They would stand for justice and would not compromise even in the face of danger. People say I took after them. My dad was a very peaceful man, even to a fault. If you slap him on the right cheek, he could turn the left for a second slap and wouldn’t do anything in return. But for me, I have never lived my life that way. Right from when I was a young man, I had always maintained that life shouldn’t be like that. But surprisingly, in all my university years I never joined any cult group. I have never stolen or violated any woman. I have never even picked something on the road. But if you say fight with people Oh! God, I did that a lot.

And why were you fighting with people?
Oh! If somebody looked for my trouble I don’t allow him to go. I don’t turn the other cheek for a second slap. If you give me a slap, I give you back.
                                                                                                 
What experiences have you had that shaped your present personalities?
I read a lot. My uncle, who is a trade unionist, introduced me to revolutionary books when I was young. I read all these small pamphlets from North Korea, China etc, in which they talk about African Liberation movements in Mozambique, Angola, Algeria, Cuba etc, at a very tender age I have come to see Nigeria as a usurper of our nationhood. 

Tell us about your love life?
I have so many wives. I am 47 years old. I am worth a chieftaincy called Alaweidiaba of Kalabari, the head of Braide votary, group of working houses in Kalabari. I have so many wives and children. My father was a westernised Kalabari Ijaw man, but I would say that I am a typical Ijaw man living like an Ijaw man. I fight injustice but I love everybody. I love my wives. I am a very romantic person and I love women so much. I have 16 children and four wives. All my children are brilliant. I have my own school, which almost all of them attend. Most of my children are ardent in martial arts. My first daughter is a black belt holder. Most of them are vast in qu’ran; they can recite the qu’ran off hand. My first child is about 12. Most of them speak English, French and Arabic fluently. They are going through training, so that they can live under any circumstances. They are being trained to carry on the revolution, if I do not succeed. They can handle firearms if they are confronted in that situation. And they are strong physically and mentally and they share my belief.

What regrets do you have in life?
I regret a lot of things. One is the crisis that befell Rivers State sometimes ago. I was not a member of any confraternity. I only went in to protect the people, but at times I asked myself, have the people appreciated it? Have I not put a stain on my name?  People take liberty for the good I have done. But do I need to regret it? At times, I feel why did I do it? Maybe I should not have done it? Maybe it was destined to be?  Another is about some women I have gotten involved with. Women are my greatest problem in life. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke and don’t tell lies. But when I look at some of the women I have been involved with, I ask myself would it not have been better if I hadn’t been involved with them? Would my life not have been better if I had never known them? So, I have tried to restrain myself and try to refine my life. The greatest vice I have is my weakness towards women. It is my greatest problem. And I do pray to God about this.

You see, I cannot lie and pretend about my feelings and about my belief. Once I don’t like you, it clearly shows because I cannot pretend. I cannot do something wrong and go to God and pretend to be holy or being sanctimonious and so it also affects my relationship with God.

What was the crisis that engulfed the Rivers, which you talked about earlier?
During the 2003 elections, there were so many killings and problems. There were so many dislocations of people in so many communities. And people were just watching, but I couldn’t watch. As the president of the Ijaw Youth Council, I came out on the side of the people to fight the government of Peter Odili. And in that government were people like the present governor. He was a speaker and was one of the greatest beneficiaries of that crisis. There was Sekibo, who was the Secretary to the state government, at that time and Celestine Omehia, a senior aide to Odili, among others. Lives and properties were no longer safe and the people of Rivers State told me to stand up and I stood up, but mischievously people have misinterpreted my position as IYC president. I risked my life. I put my life on the line and I fought what was wrong. At the end of the day, I got blames.

How did you become a freedom fighter?
My uncle, who was a trade unionist, introduced me to revolutionary ideas in primary school and that was how I started reading revolutionary books and I fell in love with the socialist system, especially with the Cuban state, and later with Libya, with Fidel Castro and later with Mummar Gaddafi, when he was a revolutionary. Though, later in life I felt some reservations with Gaddafi, but much later when I went to Libya several times I came to sympathise with him. I may not accept his ways entirely, but you cannot rule out the fact that he has done a lot for his people and I think it is unfortunate that the evil people are the ones controlling the government of the United States and are collaborating to sack the government of a good man, who has done a lot for his people in Libya. He has done so much for the restoration of the dignity of the black race, because he spent billions upon billions of money to free South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, Angola and Zimbabwe. So it is very sad to see that the world would stay and watch, while America and the European allies are repeating the same thing they did in Iraq and Afghanistan. But they cannot go and free the people of Gaza, who have been held in prison and in an open concentration camp for many years. It is only unfortunate that the world would watch.

I have been in Libya for a full year. I have been with the people of Libya and I think if there is anybody who should be given kudos in Africa, for standing on the side of his people, that person is Mummar Gaddafi. It is not a matter of years in government. Why are they not talking about the queen of England? Whatever name they call it, hereditary or monarchy, it is like the Animal Farm. The more you look, the less you see. A queen will stay for life and it is hereditary and they would spend billions of taxpayers’ money for frivolities, like marriage and so on. CNN will show it for everybody to see. So what is the difference between that and a government, a dynasty government in Africa? And people say he is killing. What about those who are dropping bombs? Does bomb save lives? Why did NATO decide to throw bombs? Does bomb save lives? Does it build roads, schools, and hospitals or maintain infrastructure? Why did they throw bombs? Why can’t they use diplomacy? Why are they not throwing bombs in Gaza, Bahrain and Yemen, in Saudi Arabia and others?
                                                                                       
Your activism has brought you into limelight. How do you feel about it?
I am indebted to God Almighty, as a Muslim, and to my people. Whatever I have been is not what my parents intended for me. My father wanted me to become a high court judge, like himself. He prepared the way for almost all his children to become lawyers. So, this is not what he intended for me. He wanted me to follow his footprints and walk with him. But I took a different path and that path is to seek freedom for my people and my people have stood by me and have aided me. They loved me, showed so much love and commitment. And I appreciate that. I am humbled by that affection.

If you were offered political appointment, would you accept it?
I don’t think I will ever take political appointment in my life. I m not trained to be a sycophant. Anything that would make me become a sycophant, I have always resisted it. There are so many people who have had robust relationship with me. They have money and have been good to me, but when I don’t agree with them I don’t hide it. I walk away. Everybody knows my relationship with Bola Asiwaju and the help he rendered to me when I was in prison. He was paying the school fees of my children, gave my family a house and when I came out he was extremely good to me. But when it was time for me to choose between what I believe and what he believes, I turned him down. That was when it became obvious that Goodluck Jonathan wanted to be president and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) could not provide me a comfortable abode because I do not share the same views and aspirations with my benefactor. I opted out. Although we did not quarrel, I ceased to go to his place from that day. This is because I cannot see how I would go and be pretending, as I had declared to stand for Goodluck because I believe that it was the best for my people and that is where my people are going. I cannot take an opposite direction from my people. And at that time people wondered why I would you leave my friend. They wondered why I could sacrifice my friendship for Jonathan. They wondered if Jonathan appreciates that. Jonathan might not appreciate it, but that is my belief and I cannot pretend about it.

In Rivers State, the governor is wooing me. All others are trying to broker peace between us, so that we can work on how to move the state forward, but my spirit cannot accept Amaechi, because it was wrong the way he came to power and whenever I try, my conscience cannot allow it. Look, our people never elected this man. A fraudulent judicial system in Nigeria imposed the man we never voted for. My spirit cannot accept it. But that does not affect my relationship with my people working with him. My concern is the injustice done to the Rivers State people. And now they are rigging election to continue in office. So it is my belief that what I say I will not do, even though people are saying I should do it, I won’t do it. In the recent elections, my wife contested and they rigged her out, but because of the greater goal of Goodluck Jonathan, there are certain things we refused to say. But when my people saw that my cousin, Tonye, who is a speaker, was going for an election, and the community said that he couldn’t lose, I reasoned with them and said no problem. They have the right. It is the community that has produced me. If they are in danger I am also in danger. One man cannot stand alone. He stands when his people are standing with him. And as far as I am concerned, my people count more than any other thing that is why I have been risking my life for their sake and I will continue to do that until God calls me home.

What was your experience during the time you were arrested and detained by the government?
It is a natural consequence. I have been arrested more than 46 times. The longest period of my detention was 22 months. I expected it to happen to me, as a person. I was detained at the kuje Prison and from there I was taken to police Area 10 and from there I was taken to an underground prison, a solitary confinement at the State Security Service headquarters, where I stayed for more than 10 months.

How were you treated?
Nobody beat me, because there was this thing about me. People were afraid to come close to me. I was only put in a solitary confinement, where I was in thick darkness, which later affected my eyes. Today, I can’t read without wearing glasses. Nobody is blind in my family. But I see it as a prize I have to pay because I grew up having everything in life. My father was a civil servant, who became a high court judge. And like a middle class family, I had my books and shoes to go to school. I don’t have a story of ‘I had no shoes’ when I was going to schools. I never walked to school, as there was always a car to take us to school. So, I had everything I wanted, but I chose poverty for myself and I feel that these are prizes I have to pay and I have been paying them. And today I can go to anywhere. I can sleep anywhere. For me, I think the prison was quite a very educating experience. I believe God wanted to put me there. And I thank God for that. I have no regrets whatsoever, but it has added to my profile as somebody who is ready to pay any prize for his belief.

Some people have called for sovereign national conference to solve Nigeria’s socio-political problems. What is your take?
I think it is the most fundamental issue to solve this logjam, as I have said before. It is the most fundamental, a sovereign national conference must be convened and that has always been our minimum demand for the resolution of the Nigerian quagmire.

Some corps members lost their lives in the recent carnage in Bauchi, and people have called for the scrapping of the NYSC. What is your view?
I think there is a positive and negative consequence of what has happened. The national youth service corps has not really achieved what General Yakubu Gowon had intended it to achieve, in bringing us together. If it has done that, nobody could kill corps members with a shining uniforms on them, rendering service and providing free and fair elections that would produce a government that the people wanted to be in place. So, I think that the issues of nationhood has to be settled before programmes, like this can be put in place. The NYSC had been used fraudulently by the North to send their people here and get them employed in oil companies. The programme has given undue advantage to the North, while our people are sent to remote villages in the North, to be teachers, to serve at local government headquarters. Their people are sent here to the oil companies and the big federal parastatals and when they finish their one-year mandatory service they are retained. So coupled with what has taken place, the senseless killing of these corps members, it clearly showed that this programme has not achieved its purpose and I think it would the best to scrap it.

What is your take on the view that Nigeria thrives on politics of ethnicity?
These are the issues that we have been talking about, since some people consider themselves superior to others, for no just justifiable reason. How are they superior to other? Is it economically, socially or religiously? There is none. And people have been condoning it. People have been condescending and condoning these acts of superiority. I am the head of my family; my ancestors were kings in their own rights. They were never conquered by anybody, not even by the British. They only signed treaties, subsisting treaties with the British. How would anybody feel that he is superior to us? And because government has been in their hands, because of government patronage that goes to them, they have free access to resources that were not available to others. So that is why they are fighting for power with impunity. They just want to continue to have that vantage position over and above other peoples. That is just the situation, but we say no, it is not possible.

Look, Major Gideon Orkar said that these people should be removed from Nigeria and that is what the just-concluded election clearly showed. All the states Gideon Orkar said should be removed are the people that voted for Muhammadu Buhari, apart from southern Kaduna. If you see the Kaduna result it was almost balanced with this southern Kaduna. And he said these people should go. We are not the same. That is the truth. They don’t want us. We don’t want them. It has nothing to do with religion. Look at the Yoruba states. Virtually all Yoruba governors are Muslims. Ajimobi that is taking up the affairs of the state, in Oyo is a Muslim. Amosun, in Ogun state, is a Muslim. Raji Fashola is a Muslim. Rauf Aregbesola is also a Muslim. It’s only Fayemi of Ekiti that is Christian. Even Mimiko was a Muslim. I knew Mimiko when he was a Muslim. His brothers and siblings and his mother, who is still alive, are Muslims. So, you look at it critically, what is Islam? Abiola that won an election that they cancelled and murdered was a Muslim. And he was on a Muslim/Muslim ticket for the first time in the country. And the people overwhelmingly voted for him. They cancelled the election and murdered him with impunity. The people who did this are walking freely.

What advise would you offer Nigerian youths, as we enter the next political dispensation?
My advice is that people should think of how to work hard. When people see me carrying seats and doing some work they wonder. You cannot send others to do your work for you. You must do it. And that is one of the reasons I am against amnesty programme, because it is done in such a way that they indulge people. You give people free money. If it is training, it is okay, but free money is bad. It solves no problem. There should be a central training programme for all the Niger Delta youths, those who carried guns and those who did not. The Niger Delta ministry should have a programme for capacity building, for development of the individual. As you develop infrastructure, the greatest development should be that of the individual. That would be more enduring and more sustaining than building roads and schools, which, after some years, would go into dilapidation. But when the individual is developed and made to stand on its own, it would trigger off other development and you are creating an empowered society.

What do you cherish most in life?
My faith as a Muslim is what I cherished most in life and I pray that God should give me time to make amends about my sins and to show remorse and repent and the day I will die (he recites qu’ranic statements.), in sha Allah ta Allah, I will die as a Muslim.

What is your philosophy of life?
My philosophy of life is that I should do well to others and not expect from them anything other than what I have done. My philosophy in life is that I should always do the right thing and also expect others to do same to me. If they do it, fine; if they don’t do it, fine.

Who are your mentors?
I admire so many people. But today I admire King Amakiri of my kingdom, the founder and my progenitor; Mandela, Mummar Gaddafi and my grand mother.

Could you share with us those moments in exile?
It was on January 17 last year. The Nigerian government, during the Yar’Adua years, would have adopted me but they failed. And in exile, I travelled a lot. My friends were very helpful all over the world. They gave me a chance for almost a year. I visited more than 60 countries. It defined my worldview about life. I discovered that in Nigeria we take many things for granted, like basic facilities and infrastructure that we need and when people do it we celebrate and government people put up posters and advertorials on papers to show off that they did them. But these are just basic things the government must do. They are the rights of the people they governed. People have right to them; so they are not things to be celebrated. Go to Libya; houses are provided for everybody. Go to Belgium, you have these windmills that supply electricity. This can be done in our coastal areas. They do not pollute the environment. Go to other places, like China and see the wonders that are going on. These were things I had the opportunity to see in my days on exile.

Have you been close to death?
I have been close to death several times. See my hand (full of scars). This is an accident from a bomb. I was wearing a bullet-proof belt. My compatriot, Tekema Efrebo, who was carrying the bomb, was affected when the bomb incidentally detonated and the explosion cut off his head and finished him. It affected all my side here. It was my bullet-proof that saved me. There was a time, during the crisis, when one of my aides was standing beside me and we didn’t know where a bomb came from. The bomb hit him, beside me and killed him. We turned and saw him dead. Also, there was a time some people fired at me and I didn’t see the bullets. But I don’t carry any charm, as a Muslim. I don’t consider doing that. It is not to please anybody, but it is my belief. I don’t believe that it can help me. It can help others, but I don’t believe in the efficacy of its power. I have submitted that it is only Allah, the most merciful, kind and great, who will assist and protect me because He has always assisted and protected me in the most dangerous period of my life.

What do you do at leisure?
I read so much. I took this Goodluck project as a do or die one, even more than Obasanjo. I travelled from place to place and met my friends, from the west to everywhere. I was going on my own, not because Jonathan called me, but on my own. In the North I have many friends.

What are your likes and dislikes?
I like the truth and I hate falsehood. 

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2011/may/14/national-14-05-2011-018.htm