Nigeria’s President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, today came under scathing attack from one of his most prominent supporters, his fire-spitting kinsman, Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo Asari.

In an explosive interview he granted the large-circulating tabloid, Sunday Sun, the foremost Ijaw nationalist who militarised the Niger Delta struggle before accepting the olive branch from the Nigerian State, declared unequivocally that Jonathan has GONE ASTRAY. He went ahead to dismiss the administration of the former zoology teacher, the first person from the oil-rich Niger Delta to rule Nigeria, as a disappointment.

One of the things which Dokubo has against Jonathan is his abandoning those who helped him to acquire power for fair-weather friends, while the other is his decision to rule with Nigeria’s “last eleven” while leaving out the country’s first eleven. Dokubo cited Minister of the Niger Delta, Elder Godsday Orubebe – who has failed to construct the East West Road that links the Niger Delta with the western part of Nigeria – as one man who does not deserve to remain in Jonathan’s cabinet. Wondering what Orubebe is still doing in the cabinet, Dokubo said: “Look at the East West Road. Why would Jonathan continue to retain such an incompetent person like Orubebe in government?”

To the question, “For now, are you saying the Jonathan government is a disappointment?” Dokubo replied: “It is unfortunate but hat is the truth. As long as the East West Road remains the way it is, as long as the economic fortunes of the South-South and South-East have not improved, then it is a disappointment. The only way out of this is for him to overhaul his team of last eleven men he has recruited around him.”

Dokubo, who is the leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), berated Jonathan for abandoning people who helped to make him President, using, among others, former President Olusegun Obasanjo and former Information and Communications Minister, Prof. Dora Akunyili, as examples.

His words: “Because of lack of management of all the goodwill, all those who supported Jonathan to the presidency have been made to go away, including Olusegun Obasanjo and this will affect the eight years uninterrupted rule of the people of Niger Delta.

“… So, it is not in our interest that Jonathan will be fighting the man. He has no basis to quarrel with Obasanjo at all. Where is Pastor Bakare who was demonstrating for Jonathan to be made president? What about Professor Wole Soyinka? Go and ask Chief Edwin Clark, ask Professor Ekpebu, Joshua Fumudoh and others. Why should Jonathan kick out Professor Dora Akunyili, from his government, the woman who moved the motion for him to become president and people say she is a busy body? Why would Jonathan look at Obasanjo and Anenih and prefer Anenih, the man who said Yar’Adua can rule from anywhere? That is the man he wants to make the BOT Chairman of the PDP. He thinks Anenih has forgiven him for not using the INEC and security to aid in rigging the Edo election. The man will bring out the dagger and stab Jonathan from the back come 2015.”

Dokubo made it clear that unless Jonathan retraces his steps and does the right thing, the president’s ambition of a second term in office come 2015 would end up as a pipe dream.

•Photo: Dokubo.

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