Why Do They Take Dokubo-Asari Seriously?

By: Sam Nda-Isaiah 

inShare3

Last week, I received calls from several well-meaning but very angry people from all over the country complaining about a stupid comment made by a certain Mujahid Dokubo-Asari. I wondered why so many serious people were so angry with such a person and even paid attention to what he was saying. I told them I usually did not waste precious time reading comments from people like that. If I have to waste my time, I have better ways of doing so. I am very concerned about many things in Nigeria but Dokubo-Asari is certainly not one of them. And I sincerely wonder why a militant who had lived the better part of his life as a thug should engage anyone’s attention.
First, Dokubo-Asari is a creation of the kind of leadership we have helplessly allowed to reign in the country. The Obasanjo government specifically created people like Dokubo-Asari, Tompolo, Tom Ateke and company. It was during the 2003 elections when Obasanjo was so desperate to win in spite of his unpopularity all over the country that he and some of his devious governors armed youths all over the country, especially in the south-south and south-east. They gave them guns as well as police and army uniforms to intimidate and kill their opponents. After the election, it became impossible to disarm the thugs and many of them took up other criminal causes. Several of these criminals and militants in the region started hiding under the veil of the fight for the emancipation of the Niger Delta.
Many of these people, from different backgrounds, became wealthy. Someone like Dokubo-Asari appears educated and speaks decent English. But has anyone listened to Tompolo, who has now assumed the role of “First Militant” on account of his chumminess to President Goodluck Jonathan, speak English? Yet, he is the one that holds court with the president almost every day, gets the biggest contracts with the government including the most irresponsible one of the government handing over the nation’s maritime security to him. I even hear that the president addresses him as “my general”. Yes, I am talking about the president and commander-in-chief of Nigeria’s armed forces. If the president wants to sit with his kinsmen, I know many serious people in the Niger Delta he should be sitting with. The Niger Delta, like any other region, has many decent and serious people but it appears the president prefers other types.
All of these executive militants derive their strength and mojo from President Jonathan. So we should leave people like Dokubo-Asari, Tom Ateke and Tompolo alone and know where to face. They are simply symptoms of the irresponsible leadership the nation currently has. When Abuja, the nation’s capital, was bombed by MEND on October 1, 2010, and MEND claimed responsibility, President Jonathan quickly said it was not MEND that did it. He went on to say that MEND were his people and he knew them. With a statement like that from the president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, why should we be surprised that a miscreant like Dokubo-Asari would be saying things like that?
The Nigerian nation is sinking fast under Jonathan and we should know why. The fact that the police, which arrested former governor Ahmed Sani of Zamfara State for saying “there will be a crisis if having met all the conditions, INEC still refuses to register APC”, or something to that effect, has not as much as invited Dokubo-Asari who said much worse – that “If Jonathan is not elected, there will be war” – should explain to all of us why Nigeria is in such a bind. Public institutions have been turned into private institutions. If Dokubo-Asari had said, “If Jonathan wins re-election, there will be war,” he would have promptly been arrested. Do we still need to know who the current Nigerian police are working for? Do we also need to know why agencies like the Nigeria police and other state-owned institutions have failed so badly? These are the issues that should agitate our minds as a nation and not the nonsense from a thug who simply craves to improve his naira value with Jonathan. Is it not the same Dokubo-Asari who recently said that he would not vote for Jonathan in 2015? After Jonathan got the message and called him aside, didn’t his rantings change? We should not waste our time with hirelings like Dokubo-Asari. Let’s face where the problem lies squarely.
If what Nigeria has become today has made Nigerians know how important the office of president is, then, something good at least would have been achieved. But, if in spite of all these, we sit back and allow just anyone to rig the 2015 elections with all the money stolen from government, then, Nigeria will surely sink. The only way to save this country from that is to make sure that President Jonathan becomes a former president by 10am, May 29, 2015.

EARSHOT
The Nasarawa Police Pogrom
It is very depressing that the Nigeria Police which used to be classified among the best in the world in those days, has now been reduced to a mockery of itself. Last week, many of them were cheaply massacred by a thuggish group in Nasarawa State. At other times, the police have been made a laughing stock by the Boko Haram. Armed robbers make a mince meat of them and nobody sends them near the Niger Delta militant camps anymore. These days, instead of the police offering you protection, it is the police stations that need to be protected by soldiers in some parts of the country. The only use for the Nigerian police these days is in arresting journalists and opposition politicians, and rigging elections.
The main reason why our police have become so useless is because of corruption from the very top or, as Nigerians now prefer to say, “from the ogas at the top”. Their appropriated budgets are not given to them as appropriated. They are, therefore, ill-equipped and ill-trained for the challenges of modern policing especially in an environment that is increasingly defined by terrorism and high crime. These days, the police depend on the generosity of governors in the different states to do their job. State governors now fund the police even though it is not their job. They now do that in addition to funding the different JTFs in their states. The current Nigerian police is useless to Nigerians, except those who use them for their personal gains.
But, isn’t it time for both the Senate and the House of Representatives to live up to their responsibilities and come to the rescue of the police, for the sake of every one of us, by ensuring that the police get 100 per cent of its appropriated budgets and also monitor the police high command in the utilisation of such funds? If the police intelligence units were working well, truckloads of policemen would not be ambushed so cheaply and all the policemen killed so easily. Has Nigeria been reduced to such a useless country by its leaders?
As I write this, the police colleges are dead (we saw a photograph of one of their hostels recently), police intelligence units are dead, police salaries very, very poor and in most cases they use weapons that are no better than dane guns against the superior and more sophisticated weapons of criminals. Many failed states are better than Nigeria today.
Leadership

Why Do They Take Dokubo-Asari Seriously?

By: Sam Nda-Isaiah 

inShare3

Last week, I received calls from several well-meaning but very angry people from all over the country complaining about a stupid comment made by a certain Mujahid Dokubo-Asari. I wondered why so many serious people were so angry with such a person and even paid attention to what he was saying. I told them I usually did not waste precious time reading comments from people like that. If I have to waste my time, I have better ways of doing so. I am very concerned about many things in Nigeria but Dokubo-Asari is certainly not one of them. And I sincerely wonder why a militant who had lived the better part of his life as a thug should engage anyone’s attention.
First, Dokubo-Asari is a creation of the kind of leadership we have helplessly allowed to reign in the country. The Obasanjo government specifically created people like Dokubo-Asari, Tompolo, Tom Ateke and company. It was during the 2003 elections when Obasanjo was so desperate to win in spite of his unpopularity all over the country that he and some of his devious governors armed youths all over the country, especially in the south-south and south-east. They gave them guns as well as police and army uniforms to intimidate and kill their opponents. After the election, it became impossible to disarm the thugs and many of them took up other criminal causes. Several of these criminals and militants in the region started hiding under the veil of the fight for the emancipation of the Niger Delta.
Many of these people, from different backgrounds, became wealthy. Someone like Dokubo-Asari appears educated and speaks decent English. But has anyone listened to Tompolo, who has now assumed the role of “First Militant” on account of his chumminess to President Goodluck Jonathan, speak English? Yet, he is the one that holds court with the president almost every day, gets the biggest contracts with the government including the most irresponsible one of the government handing over the nation’s maritime security to him. I even hear that the president addresses him as “my general”. Yes, I am talking about the president and commander-in-chief of Nigeria’s armed forces. If the president wants to sit with his kinsmen, I know many serious people in the Niger Delta he should be sitting with. The Niger Delta, like any other region, has many decent and serious people but it appears the president prefers other types.
All of these executive militants derive their strength and mojo from President Jonathan. So we should leave people like Dokubo-Asari, Tom Ateke and Tompolo alone and know where to face. They are simply symptoms of the irresponsible leadership the nation currently has. When Abuja, the nation’s capital, was bombed by MEND on October 1, 2010, and MEND claimed responsibility, President Jonathan quickly said it was not MEND that did it. He went on to say that MEND were his people and he knew them. With a statement like that from the president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, why should we be surprised that a miscreant like Dokubo-Asari would be saying things like that?
The Nigerian nation is sinking fast under Jonathan and we should know why. The fact that the police, which arrested former governor Ahmed Sani of Zamfara State for saying “there will be a crisis if having met all the conditions, INEC still refuses to register APC”, or something to that effect, has not as much as invited Dokubo-Asari who said much worse – that “If Jonathan is not elected, there will be war” – should explain to all of us why Nigeria is in such a bind. Public institutions have been turned into private institutions. If Dokubo-Asari had said, “If Jonathan wins re-election, there will be war,” he would have promptly been arrested. Do we still need to know who the current Nigerian police are working for? Do we also need to know why agencies like the Nigeria police and other state-owned institutions have failed so badly? These are the issues that should agitate our minds as a nation and not the nonsense from a thug who simply craves to improve his naira value with Jonathan. Is it not the same Dokubo-Asari who recently said that he would not vote for Jonathan in 2015? After Jonathan got the message and called him aside, didn’t his rantings change? We should not waste our time with hirelings like Dokubo-Asari. Let’s face where the problem lies squarely.
If what Nigeria has become today has made Nigerians know how important the office of president is, then, something good at least would have been achieved. But, if in spite of all these, we sit back and allow just anyone to rig the 2015 elections with all the money stolen from government, then, Nigeria will surely sink. The only way to save this country from that is to make sure that President Jonathan becomes a former president by 10am, May 29, 2015.

EARSHOT
The Nasarawa Police Pogrom
It is very depressing that the Nigeria Police which used to be classified among the best in the world in those days, has now been reduced to a mockery of itself. Last week, many of them were cheaply massacred by a thuggish group in Nasarawa State. At other times, the police have been made a laughing stock by the Boko Haram. Armed robbers make a mince meat of them and nobody sends them near the Niger Delta militant camps anymore. These days, instead of the police offering you protection, it is the police stations that need to be protected by soldiers in some parts of the country. The only use for the Nigerian police these days is in arresting journalists and opposition politicians, and rigging elections.
The main reason why our police have become so useless is because of corruption from the very top or, as Nigerians now prefer to say, “from the ogas at the top”. Their appropriated budgets are not given to them as appropriated. They are, therefore, ill-equipped and ill-trained for the challenges of modern policing especially in an environment that is increasingly defined by terrorism and high crime. These days, the police depend on the generosity of governors in the different states to do their job. State governors now fund the police even though it is not their job. They now do that in addition to funding the different JTFs in their states. The current Nigerian police is useless to Nigerians, except those who use them for their personal gains.
But, isn’t it time for both the Senate and the House of Representatives to live up to their responsibilities and come to the rescue of the police, for the sake of every one of us, by ensuring that the police get 100 per cent of its appropriated budgets and also monitor the police high command in the utilisation of such funds? If the police intelligence units were working well, truckloads of policemen would not be ambushed so cheaply and all the policemen killed so easily. Has Nigeria been reduced to such a useless country by its leaders?
As I write this, the police colleges are dead (we saw a photograph of one of their hostels recently), police intelligence units are dead, police salaries very, very poor and in most cases they use weapons that are no better than dane guns against the superior and more sophisticated weapons of criminals. Many failed states are better than Nigeria today.
Leadership

2015: US Can’t Determine Nigeria’s President – Ambassador

United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Terence McCulley, yesterday declared his country’s neutral stance on who becomes President of Nigeria in 2015.

Mr. McCulley was reacting to the purported request by Special Assistant on Niger Delta Matters to President Goodluck Jonathan, Hon. Kingsley Kuku, in Washington DC, urging the US to support the President come 2015, “as security in the Niger Delta is tied to Jonathan’s re-election.”

But the ambassador replied that the US would not support a candidate or party for the 2015 presidential poll.

Speaking on Kaduna based Liberty Radio’s “Guest of the Week” programme, Mr. McCulley said, “We don’t have a candidate for the 2015 elections, except that we want credible and transparent elections and a process where all Nigerians can peacefully exercise their right to vote.

“We are not going to take a position on any individual candidate. We are going to help the Nigerian people to ensure that the elections in 2015 are better than the one in 2011. It is up to the Nigerian people to respond to Hon. Kuku’s statement. We don’t take a decision on individual political candidates.

“We believe that Nigeria has made great progress in the construction of its democratic institutions and we hope that in 2015, it is going to be peacefully contested on issues and the Nigerian people will decide on who they will vote for,” he said.

InformationNigeria

Female Veterans Blast Military Leadership For Failing To Address Ongoing Sexual Assault Crisis

By Tara Culp-Ressler

Reps. Tulsi Gabbard and Tammy Duckworth (Credit: Politico)

On CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday morning, two female Iraq War veterans currently serving their first terms in Congress sharply criticized the military for its failure to address the increasing number of cases of sexual assault within its ranks.

Reps. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) — who continue to serve in their reserve unites now that they have been elected to public office — are advocating for a measure that would remove sexual assault cases from the military’s chain of command. As the two Congressmembers explained to host Candy Crowley, changing the way that the military currently handles rape cases would empower women to speak up without fear of repercussion from their commanders, as well as ensure that their complaints are handled objectively and fairly.

The Pentagon has traditionally opposed dealing with sexual assault complaints outside of the traditional chain of command. But, according to Duckworth and Gabbard, that drastic change is necessary because the military leadership has failed to adequately diffuse the victim-blaming rape culture that pervades the male-dominated armed forces:

DUCKWORTH: It’s absolutely unacceptable, Candy. I want the military to be a place where women can succeed and thrive the way I was able to. And the military leadership at this point have shown that they have not been capable of fixing this problem.

GABBARD: There are no excuses. It’s not enough just to say this is not something we’ll stand for, we’ll hold these people accountable unless you’re providing a system and process to actually do that. And I think there are two things we really need to look at. What is the core reason why this hasn’t really gotten better over the years? One being we have to make sure it’s a victim-centered response, from the moment the victim makes that report all the way through to the point where the perpetrator is prosecuted, charged, and punished. And secondly, making sure we are investigating those who are retaliating and abusing their positions of command or power.

DUCKWORTH: This issue is a power issue, it’s not a sex issue… The military, because it’s built on power and rank, has the ability to fix it based on that same tradition of power and rank. Commanders can put an end to this. And I am very, very disturbed that they have not been able to do this… We need to do something and we need to come up with a different system.

Duckworth and Gabbard agreed that the current sexual assault crisis signals that the military justice system has failed women. Ultimately, Duckworth explained, “this goes back to empowering the female service members to stand up, to know that when they speak up that they will be listened to and they will be treated fairly.”

Earlier this week, the Pentagon released a report that revealed there were an estimated 26,000 incidents of sexual assault in the military last year, as well as an alarming spike in sexual crimes that went unreported. President Obama called the rate of sexual crimes in the U.S. military “an outrage” and pledged to stand with victims of sexual assault. “I want them to hear directly from their commander in chief that I’ve got their backs. I will support them,” Obama said. “And we’re not going to tolerate this stuff and there will be accountability.”

TP

Why Tambuwal’s Silent On 2015 – Associate

Political associates and aides of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, have stated that he will not make an open declaration on the pressure being mounted on him by some prominent Nigerians and the opposition to throw his hat in the ring come 2015 general elections.

Tambuwal’s qualities were first brought to national consciousness when former military President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida at the recently held 2012 award of Vanguard Newspapers, called on the Speaker to look beyond his current political position and gun for a higher position in 2015.

Babangida, in his argument, said Tambuwal had performed creditably as No. 4 citizen and so it was only natural that he aspires for a higher position –  which many Nigerians have translated to be the presidency.

Since then, Tambuwal has been courted by the opposition which has purportedly promised him a ticket on the platform of the APC.

But an associate of the speaker, who did not want his name in print, revealed that Tambuwal had remained indifferent to the 2015 Presidential race despite calls on him to give it a shot.

“Let me tell you categorically that the speaker has never told anyone under heaven that he is interested in the presidential election of 2015. We have discussed this time without number and he is not comfortable with the speculation, especially as this is pitting him against the PDP and the presidency. But what can we do? He has decided to ignore the speculation, yet it has not ceased,” he said.

The source further revealed the Speaker’s shock the day Gen. Babangida raised the issue where he was honoured by the Vanguard Newspapers, saying Tambuwal “was shocked to the marrow but there was nothing he could do. After all he would not stop Gen. Babangida from expressing his views. He even asked his aides to stop giving it any attention”.

InformationNigeria

Why Security Situation Was Better During Our Time – Atiku

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has described the current wave of insecurity in Nigeria as worse than the Nigeria Civil War, which lasted for three years.

The former Vice-President said on Friday that the situation was made worse due to President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration’s lack of attention to security of lives and property.

Atiku made this known on Friday in an interview with the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation monitored in Kaduna.

He said, “All you see today are security men with guns, which should not be the case.”

He said the dimension of today’s security challenges makes it hard to tackle because the money meant for the purpose had been allegedly stolen.

Atiku said, “To tell the truth, all through my lifetime in Nigeria, I have never witnessed such a deteriorating state of security like what is happening now, it has surpassed even what happened when we fought the civil war.

“But there are reasons for that; first, our governments could not pay attention to the issue of security; secondly, issues of security now are different from what obtained in the past.

“Before, we had different categories of security agents; we had those at the federal level, at the state level and those at the local government level. But within the past few years, you know, this arrangement has been collapsed into one.

“But with the kind of sophistication that is emerging, unless those who understand it are engaged, it will be difficult to resolve all these problems about insecurity.”

“They are unable to pay attention, especially in releasing money for security and training of security agents and buying of security gadgets for the agents to use in the protection of lives and property.

“This money is stolen; in fact, they steal this money….if not, why are we not seeing improvements? We don’t see the security agents today with the gadgets that are necessary for them to work with, we don’t see that.

“In Nigeria, the only thing you see security agents holding is a gun. A gun is not the only thing a security agent should have, there are many other gadgets.

“There is a difference between what obtains now and what obtained when we were in power. I remember when we were in power; I told the President that the number of policemen in the country was not commensurate with the population.

“The President at that time allowed me to be recruiting about 50,000 policemen every month. We started recruiting them for about two years, and I bought working equipment for the police. But after two years, it was stopped. So, you shouldn’t accuse us. During our tenure, the situation had not deteriorated the way it is now.”

TalkOfNaija

President Mahama calls on West African leaders to equip security services

President Mahama calls on West African leaders to equip security services

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On Saturday, President John Dramani Mahama renewed Ghana's commitment in collaborating with the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in the West African Sub-Region. President Mahama

has, however, appealed to member countries to sufficiently equip the law enforcement agencies in their various countries to enable them to act swiftly against the practice in the West African sub-region and beyond.

He said this when he addressed the 12th Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) Ministerial Committee Meeting in Accra.

The countries in attendance include Ghana, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Togo, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, the Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sao Tome and Principe.

The meeting would among other issues create awareness on money laundering and its repercussions on the development agenda of the West African sub region and to institute measures that would stem the practice in the region.

President Mahama said, Ghana had made tremendous strides in putting in place the right measures and legislations that had enabled GIABA to repose confidence in Ghana to host the current Ministerial Meeting.

He said the current arrangement in Ghana with the passage of legislations would empower the West African state to fight against money laundering, terrorism and the financing of terrorism that were becoming perennial menace in the world.

President Mahama reiterated the government's commitment to fight against the practice in addition to global crime and tasked other African leaders to remain loyal to the tenets of GIABA and other international bodies that had campaigned against other negative practices that could thwart their development.

The President commended GIABA for its tremendous role in supporting Ghana to put in place measures that had now empowered government to initiate rules and legislations to legitimize their conscious fight against bad economic and governance practices.

Dr Abdullahi Shehu, Director General of GIABA, commended President John Dramani Mahama and Ghana in general for creating a fertile environment for the organization of the meeting in the country.

He also congratulated the government of Ghana for taking a number of measures including the passage of the necessary laws and regulations to stem money laundering in Ghana and the entire African continent.

The Director General indicated that one of the aims of GIABA is to maintain standardized practices that would help African leaders to eliminate money laundering in the continent and to introduce better economic measures that would stir up good financial managements that would enhance development.

Mrs Niale Kaba, Ivorian Minister for Economy and Finance, called on African leaders to first ensure political stability that would pave the way for rapid economic development and to give impetus to their development agenda.

iPAID A BRIBE Naija