AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE NIGERIAN STATE

MY POSITION FOR A COMPREHENSIVE SETTLEMENT OF

THE NIGER DELTA IMBROGLIO

INTRODUCTION

I am Alhaji Mujahid Abubakr Dokubo-Asari, an Ijaw of Kalabari extraction. I was born on the 1^st day of June 1964 in Asari in the Kalabari Kingdom of the Ijaw nation to the Late Hon. Justice and Mrs. Melford Goodhead. Being the first child of my family, I was brought up in accordance with the traditional, cultural and religious belief of the Kalabari people under the tutelage of my grand mother. My grand mother, Princess Okukuba Wilkinson Dokubo Goodhead (Nee Tom Princewill) is of the distinguished Amachree Dynasty. She was a bridge between the glorious old Kalabari kingdom and the new modern dispossessed Kalabari within the context of the Nigerian state. The story she used to tell me about the life of old when our people lived with dignity and self respect was replaced with subservience, impoverishment, diseases, shame and death. Our land has been reduced to a barren, infertile wasteland, occasioned by oil exploration, exploitation and production in an unholy trinity of imperialist home government, their multinational oil corporations, and the government of the Nigerian state. Throughout my early education at the Baptist day school Asari (Buguma), Township School Port Harcourt, Baptist High School Port Harcourt, my grand mother always reminded me of our glorious past when we were masters of our own fate and destiny in contract to the destitution and the impoverishment of today. Being schooled in this environment of retrogression, I have no other option than to fight for the restoration of the glorious past. I do not seek any recognition or benefit from any government or individual. For me it is my natural duty to do what I am doing.

CONDITIONS FOR COMPREHENSIVE SETTLEMENT

1. The resources belong to the people who own the land and it is criminal, inhuman and ungodly to dispossess a people of their right to their land. Those in the government of the Nigerian state know that it is unjust and you have continued to appropriate the land and the resources of our people because of your erroneous belief that we are small in number and you are many, we are weak and you are strong, that if we attempt to obstruct your path to the exploration and exploitation of our land, you will crush us as you did to Umuechem, Odi and Odioma. But today, you have realized that this method of genocide can no longer sustain your instrument of oppression and repression against our people. Do we need to pick up arms before you come to the realization of the fact that you are violating the commandments of God, who commanded that thou shall not remove the ancient land marks? You have disinherited us of our natural patrimony and you must return it to us.

2. You disregarded all agreements I had with you on the 1 ^st day of October 2004, marking the 44 years of independence from the British Crown of your Nigerian State. You do not have respect for agreement. Your belief is that you will always have your way, because you have the number and the instrument of intimidation and destruction, but you can realize now that these instruments are not in perfect working condition. For peace to be restored to the Ijaw and Niger Delta region, you must go back to respect this gentleman agreement between us. The question is not Dokubo Asari, the agreement we had that day represents the people at home and they will be the people who will have the final say in this matter.

3. The developmental option which you claim to have adopted is an old sing song of the Nigerian State. We are not dancing to its rhythm and drum beat because we can see through it. Where is the Niger Delta Development Board? Where is 1.5% Derivation Fund Committee? Where is Oil Mineral Producing Area Development Commission (OMPADEC) and Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC)? Your Cheer Leaders and Praise Singers will applaud your new initiatives but we know better. We will no longer be hoodwinked. Our firm belief is that the resources belong to the people who own the land. This is Trite's Law giving by God himself and anybody who want to overturn this is fighting against the natural order of things. We will never compromise on these issues.

4. There is an easy route out for all of us in this imbroglio; it is for us to convoke a Sovereign National Conference of all nationalities that were fraudulently and forcefully conscripted into Nigeria. The outcome/decision of the Sovereign National Conference should be subjected to plebiscite in all the nations.

CONCLUSION

It is only men of great moral standing that can bring an end to this vicious circle of crisis in Ijaw and Niger Delta region. You can choose to be one of them. May God help you to make a good decision?

Thank you.

Alhaji Mujahid Abubakr Dokubo-Asari