Asari Dokubo

Last updated
Asari-Dokubo
Born
Melford Dokubo Goodhead Jr.

(1964-06-01) June 1, 1964 (age 60)
Buguma, Nigeria
NationalityNigerian (1964-2013)
Beninese (2013-present)
Years active1998-present

Asari-Dokubo (born 1964), formerly Melford Dokubo Goodhead Jr. and typically referred to simply as Asari, is a major political figure of the Ijaw ethnic group in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. He was president of the Ijaw Youth Council for a time beginning in 2001 and later founded the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force which would become one of the most prominent armed groups operating in the Niger Delta region. He is a Muslim with populist views and an anti-government stance that have made him a folk hero amongst certain members of the local population.

Contents

Early life

Asari was born in 1964 into a middle class Christian family headed by a court judge and a housewife in Buguma, Rivers State, who also had four other children. He received both primary and secondary education in Port Harcourt and was accepted into law school at the University of Calabar but dropped out after only three years in 1990, citing problems with university authorities as his reason for doing so. He made other attempts to complete his education but his activism caused him to quit on his degree at Rivers State University of Science and Technology for reasons similar to those at Calabar, Cross Rivers State, Nigeria.

Activism

After dropping out of school, Asari converted to Islam and changed his name to Mujahid Dokubo-Asari to reflect this. He spent much of the 1990s attempting to become involved in regional politics, running for two offices in Rivers State in 1992 and 1998 but failing to win on either.

In 1998, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) was formed and Asari, as a founding member, was appointed to the vice-presidency of the organization. The organization issued the Kaiama Declaration in November, expressing long-held Ijaw concerns about the loss of control of their homeland and their own lives to the Nigerian state and oil companies operating in the region.

The declaration and a letter addressed to oil companies called on them to suspend operations and withdraw from Ijaw territory. The IYC pledged “to struggle peacefully for freedom, self-determination and ecological justice,” and prepared a campaign of celebration, prayer, and direct action - 'Operation Climate Change' beginning December 28. The Nigerian government responded with an immediate crackdown on the group.

Asari became the IYC's president in 2001 and led the group to pursue an agenda of "Resource Control and Self Determination By Every Means Necessary".

By 2004, Asari had retreated from public view. He would go on to create the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF), which would emerge as a major catalyst for unrest in the Delta region. The NDPVF, a militant group, was funded in large part by local and regional politicians who sought great profits from the region's oil revenue. The NDPVF quickly escalated an armed conflict with a rival group, known as the Niger Delta Vigilante (NDV), who were also seeking to control the Delta's oil resources.

Combat was concentrated primarily in Warri and subsequently, Nigeria's oil capital Port Harcourt, as well as areas to the city's southwest. Both groups engaged in oil 'bunkering' and other illegal forms of local resource extraction.

A change in political ideals by the NDPVF caused the group's former sponsors to withdraw their financial support, and begin funneling funds to the rival NDV. Asari's NDPVF then made a declaration of "all-out war" against the Nigerian state.

Although Asari has clearly stated that he does not align himself with any particular Biafra independence organization, he has appeared at events in the past with Ralph Uwazurike of MASSOB. He has also in various interviews praised Nnamdi Kanu of the Indigenous People of Biafra. [1]

Crisis and arrest

The threats to attack oil wells and pipelines by the NDPVF caused companies operating in the area to withdraw most of their personnel from the Delta, resulting in a massive drop in oil production of 30,000 barrels per day and pushing up the price of petroleum worldwide significantly. Due to the crisis this precipitated, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo called Asari and the leader of the NDV, Ateke Tom to Abuja for peace talks which were in large part a failure.

After his refusal to endorse the legitimacy of the Olusegun Obasanjo government and due to his public support for self-determination of his native Ijaw people and independence for the Niger Delta, Asari was arrested and charged with treason by the Nigerian federal government.

On 14 June 2007, Asari was released on bail as part of new President Umaru Yar'Adua's pledge to try to bring peace to the Niger Delta region. [2]

$10M annual cash payment

As part of Yar'adua amnesty incentives to eliminate terrorist activities in the Niger Delta, the federal government awarded massive cash rewards to Asari and other terror leaders of the Niger Delta.

Asari received an annual cash payment of US$10 million a year from Abuja as part of the federal "pipeline security protection fee" to protect the Rivers State pipelines and creeks that the militants bombed, kidnapped and killed the workers and guards in the areas. [3]

Citizenship of the Republic of Benin

In 2013, Dokubo Asari became a citizen of Benin and moved his wealth and assets out of the Niger Delta, Nigeria and relocated to Cotonou, Benin Republic where he built several schools, colleges and a university for the school children and students in Cotonou. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ijaw people</span> Nigerian ethnic group

The Ijaw people, otherwise known as the Ijo people, are an ethnic group found in the Niger Delta in Nigeria, with significant population clusters in Bayelsa, Delta, and Rivers. They also occupy Edo, Ondo, and small parts of Akwa Ibom. Many are found as migrant fishermen in camps as far west as Sierra Leone and as far east as Gabon. They account for about 1.8% of the Nigerian population according to CIA Factbook. The Ijaws are one of the most populous tribes inhabiting the Niger Delta region and the eighth largest ethnic group in Nigeria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra</span> Nigerian political party

The Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) is a secessionist movement in Nigeria, associated with Igbo nationalism, which supports the recreation of an independent state of Biafra. It was founded in 1999 and is led by an Indian-trained lawyer Ralph Uwazuruike, with headquarters in Okwe, in the Okigwe district of Imo State.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Niger Delta</span> The delta of the river Niger

The Niger Delta is the delta of the Niger River sitting directly on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean in Nigeria. It is located within nine coastal southern Nigerian states, which include: all six states from the South South geopolitical zone, one state (Ondo) from South West geopolitical zone and two states from South East geopolitical zone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Umaru Musa Yar'Adua</span> President of Nigeria from 2007 to 2010

Umaru Musa Yar'Adua ; 16 August 1951 – 5 May 2010) was a Nigerian politician who served as the president of Nigeria from 2007 until his death in May 2010. He won the Nigerian presidential election held on 21 April 2007, and was sworn in on 29 May 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta</span> Militant group in Nigeria

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) is a decentralised militant group in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. MEND's actions – including sabotage, theft, property destruction, guerrilla warfare, and kidnapping – are part of the broader conflict in the Niger Delta and reduced Nigeria's oil production by 33% between 2006-07.

The Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF) is one of the largest armed groups in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria and is composed primarily of members of the region's largest ethnic group—the Ijaw people. The group was founded in 2004 in an attempt to gain more control over the region's vast petroleum resources, particularly in Delta State. The NDPVF has frequently demanded a greater share of the oil wealth from both the state and federal government and has occasionally supported independence for the Delta region. Until 2005 the group was spearheaded by Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, who is viewed by many Delta residents as a folk hero.

The Niger Delta Vigilante is an armed militia group in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The NDV is led by Ateke Tom. The group is composed primarily by ethnic Ijaws from in and around Port Harcourt and their main goal is controlling the area's vast oil resources. In late 2003 the NDV precipitated a conflict with their rival Ijaw ethnic militia, the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF). The two groups spent most of 2004 in an escalating conflict which was ended when the Nigerian government and military eventually intervened on the side of the NDV in summer of 2004. The government's support of the NDV would eventually precipitate the Nigerian oil crisis, beginning in October 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conflict in the Niger Delta</span> Ongoing military conflict

The current conflict in the Niger Delta first arose in the early 1990s over tensions between foreign oil corporations and a number of the Niger Delta's minority ethnic groups who feel they are being exploited, particularly the Ogoni and the Ijaw. Ethnic and political unrest continued throughout the 1990s despite the return to democracy and the election of the Obasanjo government in 1999. Struggle for oil wealth and environmental harm over its impacts has fueled violence between ethnic groups, causing the militarization of nearly the entire region by ethnic militia groups, Nigerian military and police forces, notably the Nigerian Mobile Police. The violence has contributed to Nigeria's ongoing energy supply crisis by discouraging foreign investment in new power generation plants in the region.

This article is about the particular significance of the year 2006 to Nigeria and its people. See also Timeline of Nigerian history

Major Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro, fondly called "Boro", was a Nigerian nationalist and soldier of Ijaw descent. He is considered a pioneer of minority rights activism in Nigeria.

Ijaw Youth Council is a civil rights organization in Nigeria, founded in 1998, which supports the interests of the Ijaw ethnic group of the Niger Delta. At the point of the establishment of the IYC, leadership of the organization spread across the Nigerian states where the Ijaw people resides. Hence, in the South-South Nigeria, Pronto Douglass led the IYC while Pere Camfo was the leader of the IYC in Ondo State From 2001 to 2004, it was headed by Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, until Asari split from the movement to found the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force.

Marshal Sokari Harry was a Nigerian politician. He was the former National Vice-chairman (South-South) of the All Nigeria People's Party, who was assassinated in Abuja in 2003 during the presidential elections. He was buried in Obuama, 40 kilometres South of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on 5 July 2003.

Cletus Komena Emein was Governor of Niger State in Nigeria from 9 Dec 1993 to 22 Aug 1996. He became a member of the Niger Delta Committee, tasked with solving the endemic violence in the oil-producing region, in September 2008.

Ufot Ekaette was appointed the first Nigerian Minister of Niger Delta on 17 December 2008 by President Umaru Yar'Adua. He left office in March 2010 when acting president Goodluck Jonathan dissolved his cabinet.

Chief Alabo Tonye Graham-Douglas was a Nigerian politician who was appointed Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture in 1989, then Minister of Aviation in General Ibrahim Babangida's cabinet. In 1999, he was appointed Minister of Labour and Productivity, and in 2000, Minister of Tourism in the Olusegun Obasanjo cabinet, leaving office in January 2001.

Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo predominantly referred to by his sobriquet Tompolo is a former Nigerian militant commander of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta and the chief priest of the Egbesu deity, which is the Ijaw god of war.

The 2016Niger Delta conflict is an ongoing conflict around the Niger Delta region of Nigeria in a bid for the secession of the region, which was a part of the breakaway state of Biafra. It follows on-and-off conflict in the Christian-dominated southern Niger Delta in the preceding years, as well as an insurgency in the Muslim-dominated northeast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Ekiyor</span> Nigerian dental surgeon

Chris Ekiyor is a dental surgeon and the president emeritus of the Ijaw Youth Council. He is the founder of RAHI Medical Outreach, an NGO that meets the health needs of rural Africa with a focus on the Niger Delta region.

ChiefMofia Tonjo Akobo was a Nigerian politician and his major campaigns were on environmental and resource control issues. He was the first Minister of Petroleum Resources in the Federal government of Nigeria. He was trained as a medical doctor and a soldier and was deployed in the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970). As the first Minister of Petroleum, it made him a key figure in developing the economy after the war, unfortunately still heavily reliant on oil.

Godknows Boladei Igali is a Nigerian public servant, diplomat, author and scholar. He was appointed by President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua in September 2007 as an ambassador to the Scandinavian countries - Sweden, Denmark and Norway, a position he occupied until he was appointed a Federal Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Water Resources on 4 May 2010.

References

  1. ↑ "Asari Dokubo As A Biafran! By SOC Okenwa". Sahara Reporters. 2017-07-09. Retrieved 2019-03-22.
  2. ↑ "Uwazurike's wife celebrates Asari-Dokubo's freedom". Vanguard. 16 June 2007. Archived from the original on August 20, 2007. Retrieved 30 June 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  3. ↑ Drew Hinshaw (22 August 2012). "Nigeria's Former Oil Bandits Now Collect Government Cash". WSJ. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  4. ↑ "Asari Dokubo Renounces Nigerian Citizenship Relocates To Benin Republic - Nollywood, Nigeria, News, Celebrity, Gists, Gossips, Entertainment". naijagists.com. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.