Did Tinubu & Yoruba Really Betray Asari Dokubo? (EDITORIAL)
One of the leaders of agitation in the Niger Delta region, Asari Dokubo was furious when he was talking, blasting President Bola Tinubu in a video which has now gone viral. He said that the president betrayed him and that he would now take his alliance to the northern region.
Dokubo is not new in the political stage of the country. He used to be a fighter and a militant though the weak Nigerian law could not prosecute him and several others who have become a “law” to themselves.
In the video, the bearded man said that he emptied his account just to campaign for the president, who ran on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). In another video before the 2023 general elections, Asari Dokubo said that he should be blamed if the president failed. Critics said that he has already disappointed Nigerians.
Mr. Dokubo could not provide any document whatsoever that shows a deal between him and the then APC presidential candidate Tinubu. Did they actually make an agreement and what were the terms of their deal?
The Niger Delta militant leader may only be outbursting. He went too far by even talking about all the Yoruba people. You don’t denigrate a people just because an individual in the tribe didn’t fulfil the unstated promises. What was Dokubo expecting from Bola Tinubu specifically?
Is there no contract for him to provide security to the pipelines, something that the country’s security agencies should be doing? If Mr. Dokubo talked on behalf of Nigerians and said that the poor policies of Tinubu have plunged more millions into confusion, poverty, hardship, he would be right. It’s true that the current administration is bereft of ideas to lift the people out of abject poverty.
But the complaint of the former militant was for himself. He said that he emptied his own account without providing evidence though to campaign for Tinubu. That means he is pained when he doesn’t get some juicy offers to commensurate with the emptying of his accounts.
He said, “I apologise to our fathers because they were not wrong in forming an alliance with the North, and as young men, we will now start that same alliance.”
Can Asari Dokubo show Nigerians the performance of the APC presidential candidate in the south-south geopolitical zone? Tinubu was able to win only Rivers State out of six in the oil rich region. And there is no gainsaying in giving credit to Nyesom Wike, the current minister of the Federal Capital Territory, who snubbed his own PDP to support the APC.
Little wonder, the president offered an appointment to Wike. Would the former Rivers State Governor call Tinubu a betrayer? Would he refer to the entire Yoruba people as being “betrayal”? Definitely not!
The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress also did fairy well in Akwa Ibom State. He didn’t win the state, but his performance was different from what the APC used to have. Tinubu went on to let Godswill Akpabio become the Senate President.
Perhaps, Mr. Dokubo has forgotten that thuggery, hooliganism, and all sorts of things are not allowed in the government? They are useful only during the elections; and the one Tinubu won was relatively peaceful in the south-south geopolitical zone. What then did the former militant do for Tinubu? Emptying the bank accounts?
“From today, I will work and form an alliance with the North. President Tinubu betrayed me after I spent all my money and emptied my bank account campaigning for him. The Tinubu I know now isn’t the Tinubu I used to know. We will take this message across that only the Northerners can work with the Ijaw people.”
The president has always been himself. He has always been a “tax collector ” and a lover of the anti-people, but IMF-designed policies. What did Dokubo take Tinubu for?
He added, “We can’t work with Yoruba people; they are a betrayal to us. We risked our lives by voting and doing everything, and this is what we get?”
What Mr. Asari Dokubo should be after is how to get the bad leaders out of office through collaborate with every bloc across the country. He can never stop the Yoruba from contesting and winning the presidential election. And working with the north can’t guarantee good governance. Former president Muhammadu Buhari is an example.
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