₦airaland Forum

Bros, forget Sun Newspaper with their so-called London-based research group, International Institute of Social Science Research (IISSR). That is Atiku's propaganda

@Banom
175 only joked. Don't abuse him.

11

Oct

2010

Dokpesi And The Elastic Conscience

* Reno Omokri
* October 11, 2010
* More from this author

Dokpesi and the Elastic Conscience



I just read Raymond Dokpesi’s interview with news men on his ordeal at the hands off the SSS and I am again appalled at the level of double speak our politicians are capable.

In adducing reasons why he is being allegedly persecuted, Mr. Dokpesi alleges that the Goodluck Jonathan team wanted him to head their campaign; however, there is some reason to doubt this claim. Raymond Dokpesi is from the South South, the same zone as Mr. President. The question then is how plausible would it be that the President would pick someone from the same zone as himself to head his campaign? Does it make sense when conventional wisdom compels Presidential aspirants to not only look outside their geo-politcal zone but beyond the Niger. Thus if a candidate is from the North, conventionally he would pick a campaign DG from the South and vice versa. So the question is would a politician of President Jonathan’s pedigree consider a fellow South Southerner as his campaign DG in an election as heavily fraught with zonal issues as 2011? In my humble opinion I think this very unlikely.

The other issue that beggars belief in Dokpesi’s interview is the reason he gave for rejecting the headship of the Jonathan campaign and supporting IBB instead. Said he ““It is not a matter of saying, ‘this is what is good for my people and that the other people can go to hell. We don’t care; we will bulldoze our way. I strongly believe that it is right and appropriate that what is due to John should be given to John and what is due to Benson should be given to Benson.” Dokpesi then challenged the PDP “to follow the path of honour by sticking to” zoning.

Now on the surface, the above argument does sound altruistic. However let us go down memory lane. In 2006 after Obasanjo’s two terms of four years, going by the zoning logic, power was to be zoned to the North. There were many contestants for the PDP ticket chief of which was a man called Peter Odili from the South South who according to Dokpesi would have emerged winner of the ticket had former President Obasanjo not intervened. Now the thing is that Mr Raymond Dokpesi was the campaign manager for Dr. Peter Odili’s 2006 presidential campaign organization!

So when did Mr. Dokpesi develop his scruples about sticking to the zoning agreement? Was it before or after he served as Odili’s campaign manager in 2011 when Odili was running against a Northerner and the party had zoned the ticket to the North? What happened to Mr Dokpesi’s logic that “what is due to John should be given to John and what is due to Benson should be given to Benson” in 2006? Did it take a holiday?

The truth is that Mr Dokpesi like many-oh too many- Nigerian politician has an elastic conscience that expands and contracts according to the needs of the owner.

Could it really be that Dr. Dokpesi would have wanted to serve Dr. Jonathan in the same capacity as he served Dr. Odili but was rejected in his overtures? Personally I think Mr Dokpesi revealed the real reasons why he is not on the Goodluck train when he said that ““AIT, for its efforts at the U-17 World Cup was initially owed N5.7 billion by the federal government, but the figure has risen to N19.7 billion” Mr. Dokpesi further informed journalist that “President Goodluck Jonathan earlier sent text messages as Vice-President, to him pleading with him to bear with the government over the debt as the President, late Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua, was sick and that the debt was delegated to him to pay. But also when Jonathan became President, I was told that he was quoted that the AIT should bear the cost as part of national service”.

Well now, we are coming to the crux of the matter. It seems that we are now being told the real reason why Mr. Dokpesi has an ax to grind with the President and it has nothing to do with zoning at all. Mr. Dokpesi really just wants his bills paid (funny though how N5.7 billion could balloon to N19.5 billion without any change in the service rendered) and is willing to help make anybody who would pay the bill President of Nigeria.

Please Nigerians connect the dots. Here is a man who has serious financial challenges and almost lost his media empire but for the intervention of Peter Odili in 2005/6 and who is once again in deep waters financially to the extent that the staff of his media emoire are owed many months’ salary in arrears. Is it not trite knowledge that a drowning man would clutch at straws!

Moreover, Mr. Dokpesi and IBB make quite a pair! I was almost struck dumb to read the reasons given by IBB for not attending the 50th Independence anniversary celebration. IBB claimed that “I don’t believe in the whole concept. The expenditure was too much. There are more effective ways of celebrating at 50. The large expenditure should have gone into universities". Really! This from a man who wasted $12.2 billion and to quote Okigbo whose "disbursements were clandestinely undertaken while the country was openly reeling with crushing external debt overhead.". I mean if IBB was so in love with Nigerian universities how come he withdrew the subsidy on education which more than anything destroyed Nigerian universities and led directly to brain drain? I mean if Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Buhari who had a reputation as a prudent spender while he held sway as military Head of State could attend, then certainly General Babangida had no reasons not to attend if it was the cost of the ceremony that was the issue. I mean how much did the ceremony cost? I believe it was16 billion Naira. How much has IBB spent chasing his presidential ambition? Yes 16 billion is quite on the high side but if General Babangida could spend billions celebrating himself with his Presidential bid, then I certainly can understand spending billions celebrating 150 million long suffering Nigerians. Besides if Genral Babangida loves our universities so much, perhaps he should have donated the millions he paid to fly in Joe the American R ‘n’ B star to sing for his son’s bride to any Nigerian university!

It is really pathetic that a man who gave as one of the reasons for annulling the June 12 elections the excuse that the Federal Government owed Chief MKO Abiola millions of dollars would turn around to appoint as his campaign chief a man who also claims that the Federal Government owes him millions of dollars. Going by IBB’s logic the government would be justified in annulling his election if he won.

But logic is not what guides men like IBB and his new side kick Raymond Dokpesi. Such people are guided by only one motive-what’s in it for me. If you doubt me, then ask them why in the face of the multiple tragedies facing Northern Nigeria, both IBB and his motley crew of desperados have not thought it wise to publicly champion the cause of the millions of people in Northern Nigeria who are affected by the floods in Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi and Jigawa state or the Cholera epidemic in the North or even the lead poisoning in Zamfara. Why would they when there is nothing in it for them?

To Mr. Dokpesi, Nigerians have come very far and no longer have as short a memory as the likes of Mr. Dokpesi would want us to have. If Mr. Dokpesi has forgotten, perhaps it is time to remind him that power was shifted to the South West not because of any zoning logic, but as compensation to the people of the South West for the injustice done to them by the annulment of the June 12 1993 Presidential elections by General Babangida when Chief Abiola was set to be declared winner. When Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar wanted to transition to a civilian democratic administration, he toured the six geo-political zones of the country in 1998 to meet with leaders of thought and opinion moulders and he was told that he risked the South West seceding if something was not done to pacify the zone for the injustice meted out to chief Abiola. He then put heads together with retired and serving military mandarins who came up with the idea of anointing one of their own in the person of General Obasanjo as a way of pacifying the South West while having someone whose chains the North could yank as President. Thus was President Obasanjo anointed President and no sooner had the puppet being sworn in than he came alive and rather than have his chains yanked by the North proceeded to yank the chains of the North as no one before or after him had done. I could go on and on, but suffice to say that power shift to the South West was caused by General Babangida’s callous act of 1993 and for him to contemplate coming back in 2011 is not only an affront on Nigerians but amounts to a case of a criminal profiting from his own criminality.

Good things are happening.
Bomb detractors are evil.

Jonathan/ Sambo has more support from the North than IBB and Atiku put together.
It's surprising when Ciroma started speaking for the north. And Nigerians cannot be deceived, Ciroma is fighting for his pocket and family NOT north.

drmoney:
@ GUK.
Thank you. At least someone with some brains is talking.
Wole Soyinka,Briggs and co never represented people like Boyloaf,Tompolo and the other riff-*****
We know the group these eminent people represented.
GBAM.

Only Henry Okah with his 'Jomo Gbomo' email ID refused to
accept amnesty. Okah's lawyer was trying to use Wole Soyika and co to
obtain money from Fed Government. All MEND leaders and fighters had deserted him.
GEJ and Yar'Adua realized this and tactically declined negotiating with him afterall the deadline had passed.

Na waoo. So Jomo Gbomo is not a person?
Even CNN will be surprised to hear this.

GEJ was probably right then.

My best part
"If you look at the tradition of PDP after the zoning of the offices, if for any reason, any of them resigned, then we would go to that zone to pick. That’s why when Ogbulafor resigned, the party had to go to the South-east to pick the current chairman. When Etteh resigned as Speaker of the House of Representatives, the party had to go to the South west. The party did not just go to the south.
So, if anybody is making that argument, then, of course he can only say, then the North-west, then nobody from the North- central, or the North east, because the PDP operates a six zonal structure."

                       Zones in Nigeria
1. North East (states: Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, Yobe)

2. North West (states: Kaduna, Katsina, Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto, Jigawa, Zamfara)

3. North Central (states: Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau) & FCT not a state

4. South East (states: Anambra, Enugu, Imo, Abia, Ebonyi)

5. South West (states: Lagos, Ekiti, Oyo, Osun, Ondo, Ogun)

6. South South (states: Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Edo, Delta, Rivers, Bayelsa)



By my last check only Aliyu Gusau should talk about zoning

Goddex:
Sun Newspaper is turning to another sahara reporters.
They are Pro Atiku and bias against GEJ.

My dear I thought I was alone noticing the rubbish from them.
If it is not North Vs Jonathan, it is Govs deceiving Jonathan or US warns
Jonathan not to contest or Zoning Zoning Zoning Zoning.
They are using that paper to polarize Nigeria.

madejibo:
2011: collect BABANGIDA's money, pally wit RIBADU, mock SARAKI, advise MOMODU then wish all of dem GOODLUCK till 2015

Nice one

N1m.
I called you in the morning.
Reach me on greggmagbor@yahoo.com

This man legalized corruption in Nigeria

$14b?
me thinks it's been overvalued
or is it a ploy to 'cajole' us to buy into it @ 135 naira?

The quality of discussions on this thread amaze me.
I didn't know nairalanders were this intelligent.

PDP has taken a position already -
zoning stays but GEJ can contest to complete
the Yar'dua/Goodluck ticket.
What else does he want to hear?
He is free to accept or decamp to another party.

By the way, why is this on the home page?
Must every IBB story make home page, Seun?

Calabar is beautiful.
I traveled down to watch the match live.

It is so disappointing that a man who once banned politicians for practicing regional and ethnic politics while he was a military dictator is now the champion of regional and ethnic politics. I urge youths from both North and South to reject this type of mentality. People like this will only divide and we have seen the fruits of division-ethnic and religious clashes, North/South dichotomy and mutual mistrust. End this type of politics. Register today and vote for ONLY God fearing and honest leaders with a proven track record. If it is a Northerner or a Southerner so be it as long as he is a Nigerian! - Pat Utomi

Nkem Owoh

The truth is told now.

sin assembly:
this is funny,
one bedroon flat (mini flat) in lagos, (yaba, surlere, ebute-metta, etc ) goes for b/w 200k to 300k
2brm flat  350k to 550k
3brm flat 500k to 850k

These are moderate prices in moderate areas of lagos. I know of the prizes cos i just moved into one in ebute-metta ( after about months of searching) for 750k, and somebody is telling lagos is cheap
hmmm,

You have obviously not traveled wide.
Move out of Lagos and try Abuja and Port Harcourt
In Abuja, a 3 bedroom cost you about 2.2m naira or more and in
PH about 1.5m naira annually. Lagos is not as expensive as these
cities, oga.

1) Abuja

2) Port Harcourt

3) Calabar

4) Lagos

Jonathan can't beat Donald Duke in a free and fair elections. Never.

I don't know this guy. Never heard his music.

Is it still available?

@iceblue
I agree with u
but let Obama too return the visit

@Poster
You don't like tight pussies?

How much?

NECO is playing politics.
It's a deliberate attempt to give us impression
that they have standards.

Where in Calabar is your spouse from?