Nigerians, Water No Enter My Mouth

Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari apart from being a daring and abrupt ultra-Ijaw nationalist, is also a Cyclopean comedian. Perhaps, ethnic nationalism spiced with politics is a wrong trade for him.

Humour and amusement merchandizing would have been the best for him. During last May’s remembrance ceremony of Major Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro, the far-famed student leader and Ijaw revolutionary of the 1960s, Dokubo-Asari was in his typical nationalistic and comic temper. The Boro’s forum was organized by Asari’s group, the Niger Delta People’s Salvation Front (NDPSF), the political arm of the armed Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force (NDPVF). In attendance were ethnic and civil society formations across the deltaic region. Celestine Akpobari, a diminutive, lively and youthful man I have known since the late 1990s, then an official of the Risom Palm workers union, attended the above event on his Ogoni Solidarity Front (OSF) platform.

I was told that the forum ended up in peace and crucial lessons learned from the life, time and struggles of the famous Ijaw revolutionary. I also gathered that after the meeting, Akpobari and few others also queried Asari why he has not been attacking the government of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as he had done to other governments before. Dokubo-Asari was said to have adjusted his massive hat on his head, leaped his legs lightly and glistened with deep throat laughter, casted his fingers gently across his mouth, and bellowed satisfactorily in Pidgin English, “My brothers I no go fit talk again. Water don enter my mouth”. In same Pidgin English Language, he detailed how the Jonathan’s government has been awarding mouth-watering contracts running into millions to him. As Warri folks of the western Niger Delta would say in their own Pidgin English type, Asari don pick money.

Dokubo-Asari has given us a piece of comic relief in a season of national tragedy, suffering and mourning, a season with comedy and comedians on the rampage. “Water don enter my month” is now a popular comic story among civil society activists in Port Harcourt and beyond. The phrase is paradoxical and periodic in content and context. It connotes corruption, cooptation and bribery. 

On Monday January 9, 2012, Nigerian masses across the country and in the diaspora occupied the streets, to express their rage and travails over the sudden and harsh hike in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (fuel) by President Jonathan as his New Year gift to Nigerians. Though, I participated actively in planning the protest, I couldn’t participate in the protests that quaked Port Harcourt, the slummy, garbage infested oil city. I had told friends and colleagues during the pre-strike strategy meetings that I would travel to Abuja, to attend a meeting earlier scheduled by the British Council (BC) under its new “Nigerian Stability and Reconciliation Programme (NSRP)” which I am its coordinator for the Niger Delta zone, and I have to be there. Though, I was at the BC/NSRP meeting. My mind was with millions of Nigerians on the streets, expressing peacefully their anger against a bad policy that will further pauperize them, for as the famous Nigerian Musician Fela Anikupo-Kuti would say “Our minds are in those places “. It is the masses that were protesting, and not us. We merely supported them. Nobody should personalize the people’s struggle for selfish ends.

The oil city massquake had just begun when Celestine Akpobari and Ken Henshaw reportedly told the crowd that this writer, is in Abuja in a meeting with Miabiye Kuromiema, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) and Oronto Natei Douglas, Senior Presidential aide on Research and Strategy to brainstorm on how to scuttle the people’s strike in Rivers State and other places. And that I collected a worthless N5 million bribe from the duo to do their biddings. My colleagues in Rivers and Bayelsa States confirmed this to me as well as other participants in the historic March. It is bizarre indeed, Joseph Inyang, the Ibibio winsome activist and petro-chemical engineer who visited me during one of our programs session in an Abuja hotel, not Aso Rock, told me that Douglas was away from the country for medical reason throughout the period.

It is quite unfortunate that Akpobari and Henshaw who I have worked with closely for over a decade can cock such a frivolous falsehood to destroy me without any bit of investigation. They should have contacted Dr. Ukoha Ukiwe, the unassuming and distinguished scholar and researcher I respect, and others at the meeting with me since they no longer trust me. I don’t really know what they intended to achieve from such an unfounded frame up. I learnt of the Kuromiema’s meeting from a textual massage I got from Celestine Akpobari, the Khana Local Government chairmanship candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the May, 2011 flawed Rivers council elections, few hours before the commencement of the meeting. This is a season of blackmail and untruth, and I am the wrong one in the dock. From this society where the innocent and just are always the ones on trial, and suffer the worst form of misfortune is where I hail. Here where the villains are celebrated. In our society, one says all sorts of slanderous things against somebody and put up a counterfeit smile when their victims appear at the scene. Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels of Nazi Germany was Adolf Hitler’s Chief propagandist who warned us that if a lie is told repeatedly, and remained unchallenged, it becomes a truth.

I had met Ken Henshaw, born of Igbo mother and an Efik father of the Calabar basin, an vigorous youngster and striking philosophy student at the University of Port Harcourt in the expiring days of the 1990s when progressive student activism was in expeditious decline, and I was part of a series of conscious efforts by concerned activists then, to build an independent alternative movement based on the Marxism, Pan-Africanism and other progressive ideologies around Nigeria. Our encounter was great, and my commitment to the cause was whole, making him to fondly nickname me,” The Twenty First Century War Machine “

I didn’t take the wild tale against me kindly. I challenged its originators to prove the allegations. Ken Henshaw told me four days after the false story had swept through like a thunder blast and opinions formed about me, that he never said I took bribe from anybody and that the textual message which read, “We are aware that certain respected CSO actors have gathered in Abuja at the invitation of the state to perfect ways of truncating the popular struggle of the Nigerian people against fuel price increase. While people have a right to attend any meeting they choose, but let if be known that by doing that, they loose all pretext to representing the people. We shall take it upon ourselves to make this truth, known to all Nigerian people” sent to me on Sunday, January 8 at about 11:45am was meant for Mark Oliseh, Henshaw claimed. Oliseh is an Ndokwa-born activist and secretary of the Dokubo-Asari’s Niger Delta People’s Salvation Front (NDPSF) who participated in the pro-Jonathan meeting, and signed some documents in support of the subsidy removal which were published in the Nigerian newspapers. Perhaps, that was his way of defending such infantile mendacity, whereas, Celestine shrouded his face in shame when we met recently at a meeting in his office. This article’s title rendered in Pidgin English becomes necessary at a time like this, because as the old maxim goes, “ I’ ve  done nothing wrong, so I have no fear “ , but as lawyers would confuse us, “ Innocence is no defence “. My concern is not the consequence on my reputation, but its negative impacts on our young comrades.

 I had travelled this bumpy path before, and remained untainted .Before the 2003 violent elections in Rivers State; I was part of an enterprise to put an end to the state sponsored violence, bloodletting, looting and corruption that characterized the government of Sir, Dr. Peter Otunaya Odili. The Rivers Democratic Movement (RDM), a political association, not a political party which had in its cot seasoned partisan politicians, business women and men, the academia, clergy women and men and rights activists was born out of genuine efforts to rescue Rivers State that we used to be proud of. I was elected into RDM’s publicity and propaganda bureau shortly after its formation, and   at that time working with the radical provincial weekly newspaper, The Beacon too. The paper was founded by Minere Amakiri, the late veteran journalist from the Okrika area of Ijaw in Rivers state. I was its special correspondent, investigating and reporting the dangerous beats of state and non-state violence, corruption, extra-judicial killings and environmental degradation in the Niger Delta basin.

That RDM season was also a season of lies, rumour, blackmail and gossips and serious work like our struggles of occupying the streets of recent. Lies, blackmails and gossips, these trio ills have wings and eyes like wild hawks. They fly about freely without perching on its victims roofs. RDM of blessed memory for several weeks was incubating untruth and I was not aware. I was accused of attending RDM’s Central Working Committee (CWC) meetings and leaking the organization’s secrets to Augustine Wikinakah, the hugely built and extremely dark Ogoni man from Kpean who was Odili’s Chief press secretary for a fee. I was shell-shocked when the matter was mentioned during one of our meetings. I didn’t know what to say because I didn’t know what they were talking about neither. I have never met Wikinakah in person, then and even now. I knew his on the pages of newspapers magazine, television and heard his voice on radio. There was no relationship of any form at all between us.

Surprisingly, I had defence of my person from several unexpected quarters. Ms. Ankio-Kio  Oprum Briggs, a notable Ijaw activist born of Ijaw and Ikwerre parents defended me. I had worked with Briggs on some oil spill issues before, and didn’t know she was impressed with my work. Dr. Sofiri Joab Peterside, a pious activist-academic from the Opobo group of the Ijaw extraction I hold in esteem, stood up to defend me too. We have also worked together before. My greatest surprise was the defence put up by Mrs. Miniscent Jaja, a good-natured woman, who has a bag of rib cracking humour, an ex-chairperson of the Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Area I met in RDM. Her defense of me is not what one can get from a Nigerian lawyer no matter the amount one pays. Dr. Precious Ede, an engaging environmental scientist at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST) I had read few of his academic articles before( it was a rare opportunity to have met him in RDM). Ms. Boma Goodhead  Dokubo, a  luminous and outspoken Amazon I have ever met( she is the younger sister of Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari) and was one of the stirring spirits  of RDM, She   was in fact, valuable in arguing that am innocent of the allegations. Alfred Alison, an exceedingly cheerful, honest and hardworking guy from the Bonny Island was always there for me. At every point he would provide an answer to any problem, and few others, I wouldn’t forget these fellows and the RDM experiment at good governance in our dear state yearning for more of the robust engagement even now.

I was really discouraging for me that my friend, Charles Harry, an ex-banker from the Kalabari clan of Ijaw of the eastern delta and chairman of RDM then, though its cat’s paw, heard the fabrication and maintained a subdued conspiratorial silence over it for weeks  without telling me. I was deeply angry and started slowing down on my participation in the rainbow coalition called RDM until it demise later. The cock and bull story dictated Harry’s relationship with me until RDM’s end and beyond. I diverted my energy and passion to my activist-type advocacy journalism. Before my exit from RDM, Deacon Elekpa, a stoutly framed man with much energy from the Emuoha area, and a fervent supporter of Sergeant Chidi Awuse, an overwhelming Rivers politician then, met me at the late Marshall. Harry’s house at Abonema wharfs, west of Port Harcourt and apologized to me that he started the lie, and that I am innocent. I forgave him. Month later, we met at Visa Karina, Awuse’s hotel where he told me that Charles Harry is a traitor. He said all kind of shocking things against him. That he allegedly used RDM to curry millions of naira and favours from Odili. Several ex-RDM activists also corroborated this.

As a friend I tried frantically to contact Charles Harry in those days to hear him out on this, but to no avail. Several years had passed and events have overtaken that. My relationship with Harry dates back to early 1990s, and we shared many anti-military, pro-democracy activities, and later with the late Chief Gani Fawehimi’s National Conscience Party (NCP). His arrest and detention after a NCP forum where Comrade Gani Fawehinmi was bid to address Nigerians in the state sometimes in 1994, is still fresh in my memory. The aero plane that brought Gani was ordered by over-zealous security operatives to take him back. Same day, stern-looking security operatives raided my No. 13 Victoria street residence under the scorching afternoon sun of the tropics; I narrowly escaped through my neighbour’s house back widow door.   Charles’s family house in D/Line was raided simultaneously. He was not lucky like me. State operatives kidnapped him; and he was in their custody for sometimes. Not long after I was arrested too, for conspiring with Charles, Paul Ekadi now living in the US and others to bring Gani and Sam Amadi, a versatile lawyer and activist working in Fawehinmi’s chambers then, to incite Rivers people against the General Sani Abacha’s home grown fascism, and that I incited secondary students in the Port Harcourt township area with others at large to riot against hike in transportation fare.  All these cemented our relationship until RDM estranged us.

According to Dason Nemieboka, a self-effacing and talented Okrika author and analyst I met during my days as The Beacon newspaper reporter, in page 30 of his 336 pages book, Understanding Rivers politics – A Tribute to Dr. Marshall Sokari Harry (2005), he writes, “The internal contradictions, insincerity and strategic bankruptcy led to the inevitable demise of RDM in Rivers State, which was quickly followed by the cross-carpeting of Mr. Ipalibo Harry, the former running mate of the ANPP governorship candidate, and Mr. Sam Agwor into the PDP. Chief Albert Horsefall led scores of his NDP officials and members to decamp to the PDP many months later. In the same way, Chief Tonye Graham Douglas, Chief Sara Igbe and others moved over to settle with the government privately. There was also detour by a section of the local press, which soft pedaled on its harsh criticism of the Odili’s administration”.

Adieu! Our RDM, their RDM of blessed memory. The most important way to live is to live simple, natural, happy, unconventional, kind and generous, avoid profligacy, cosmetic and flamboyant lifestyle and operate within your income and budget. Hard work doesn’t kill, the late Saro-Wiwa advised us in those days when he was alive. Work Hard. I don’t like “free money” or “miracle money” and don’t want it. I am guided by acceptable ethics, passion and humanist values. These are the principles that had guided my career as a labour leader, activist, journalist and researcher spanning over   two decades, and will continue to be my roadmaps. I don’t have a price. I am un-bribable. Those in Brick House (Port Harcourt), Aso Rock (Abuja) or elsewhere and even those who blackmailed me know this. I don’t worship money and won’t do it in my “old” age. I am a hungry and poor man with dignity. I have turned down juicy offers from corporations, governments, groups and individuals because I have only NEEDS which my meager income can take care of, and not GREEDS. It is really not easy to live here above board where free money flows everywhere, enough of these despicable and immature shots at blackmailing me.

My conscience is my mirror. We live in dangerous times with its turbulence and torrents. The decisive moment is now! I repeat if any one has anything, facts or opinion to contradict my claims, please say it now. Not when I am dead and gone and mischief makers will dance naked on my grave. I have often heard such lies peddled against heroes like Gani Fawehinimi, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Dele Giwa, Dr. Ola Oni and few others in death. Fellow Nigerians, water no enter my mouth, and I would not allow it to.

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