ASARI DARES PATIENCE JONATHAN, CALLS FOR OGONI GOVERNOR IN RIVERS COME 2015

Alhaji Mujahedeen Asari Dokubo has said the first Lady Dame Patience Jonathan has no right to impose supervising Minister of Education Nyesom Wike as Rivers state Governor come 2015. This came after the first lady openly pledged her support to Nyesom Wike On Tuesday . He had this to say in his interview with LEADERSHIP NIG

“To make Wike a governor in Rivers State in 2015 is not morally right. All the fellows endorsing him for whatever reason should know that it will injure PDP, it will injure Goodluck Jonathan. If Goodluck’s name is brought into it, that he is in support of the perpetuation of an Ikwerre hegemony in Rivers State, which is not right by population, which is not right under any calculation, it will injure him and PDP,” Dokubo stated.


He further said Wike could not become the next governor of the state in view of the interests of the three ethnic clusters in the state, and that an ikwerre man had no business in Rivers government house come 2015 having ruled for 16 years. He called attention to the two other clusters in the state, the Ogoni's and the Ijaws to be given a chance to Rule.

“As far as we all know, there are three ethnic clusters in Rivers State: the Ijaws, the Igbos (Ikwerre is part of the Igbo cluster) and the Ogonis. After Bayelsa was excised from Rivers State, the Igbos have ruled for many years. Odili was an Idoni Igbo; he ruled for eight years. Omehia/Amaechi, who are also Ikwerres, by 2015 would have ruled for more than eight years, making over 16 years,” he explained.

Insisting that it is impossible for an Ikwerre man to emerge as successor of the incumbent governor Rotimi Amaechi, he said: “It is morally wrong for any anybody to say that Igbo cluster should produce the next governor in 2015. I am an Igbo man also, by virtue of my origin, and so I am not against the Ikwerre people or against the Igbo. I repeat, I am an Igbo man; I can narrow it down: I have Ikwerre blood flowing in my veins.

“Having said that, the next cluster are the Ijaws, made up of the Kalabaris, the Obolo and Ibani people, the Wakrike; Okirika is just one town in Wakrike, Ukoro and others. These people have produced a governor. In terms of local government spread, they are in 11 local government areas out of the 23 local government areas; the Igbos are spread in eight and the Ogonis in four local government areas.

“In terms of population, when you remove the cosmopolitan population of Port Harcourt and Obiakpor, which is about 80 per cent of the population, is non-indigenous of those local governments. That is old non-Rivers indigenes and Rivers indigenes, who are not indigenes of Port Harcourt and Obiakpor local governments. If you remove those populations, the Ijaws are the majority as a single block.

“When you look at that, for somebody to say another Ikwerre man should become governor is wrong. Yes, constitutionally, he has a right to aspire, everybody is free to aspire, but it is not moral, it is not right. Something can be legally right but it might not be morally right.”

Making a case for the Ogoni, Dokubo said the age-long domination and oppression of the Ogoni people must end in 2015.

According to him, it would be unjust and unfair to continue to exclude the Ogoni in the scheming for the highest political office in the state. The Ogonis are the only people who have never produced governor because the whole Bayelsa that left were Ijaw people, he stated.

“So if we are saying there should be justice in Rivers State… if we are crying against domination by others, we should not also oppress other people. The people that morally should be allowed to produce the next governor of Rivers State is the Ogoni cluster made up of the Ogonis proper and the Eleme people.”

“The first lady need not to be told that it is morally and politically wrong for her to support another Ikwerre man by 2015, after the Igbo bloc would have spent over 16 years. She has every right to support who she wants but that must be done in a morally and politically correct direction and manner.”

Debunking the claim of his Ijaw kinsmen to the coveted seat in 2015, he said: “The arguments of the Ijaws are weaker. That an Ijaw governor should come in 2015 is weaker because Ada George and Melford Okilo have been elected governor; they can say it was old Rivers State — even in old Rivers State, the Ogonis should be in the right position to contest for the governorship. Yes, I will prefer an Ijaw man to become governor any day, anytime but when you are fighting oppression, you should fight it anywhere you see it. When you fight discrimination, you should fight it anywhere you see it.

“And in Rivers State, I believe the people who have the moral authority to produce the next governor of Rivers State are the Ogonis.”