Press Statement..
Journalist for Democratic
Rights- JODER
September
23 2005
Journalists
for Democratic Rights, JODER, has asked the Federal Government not to
employ the same intrigues to Alhaji Asaii Dokubo's arrest that led to the
death of the late foremost environmental rights activist KenuIe Saro Wiwa
barely ten years ago.
A statement signed by JODER's Executive
Director, Adewale A.deoye, states "that the arrest of
Dokubo bears a lot of resemblance to the
politically motivated arrest and subsequent hanging of
Saro Wiwa.
''What we see is a local and global
conspiracy of governments and individuals bent on stalling the agitative
efforts of the Ijaw nation for the control of oil. It is on record that
Dokubo's position on self determination is legend. We do not think his
arrest and prosecution and the current legal framework are practical
solutions to these obvious political problems."
JODER urges President Olusegun
Obasanjo to demonstrate a combination of statesmanship and stewardship in
addressing the obvious political crisis arising from the exploitation and
perpetual poverty of the Niger Delta people. The president should be wise
enough to know that the mechanism employed in dealing with a leaf-carrying
activist like Ken Saro Wiwa should not be , the same in dealing with the
Ijaw nation, who have sought armed protection as a direct response to the
seeming economic and political genocide continuously committed against them
by the Nigerian nation.
"Adeoye
stated further: "Nigeria is on a cliff edge with a great potential for a
slip into ethnic anarchy and even armed conflict. While many nationalities
are agitating for autonomy and selfactualization, the federal government is
bent on keeping” the people of Nigeria together by sheer force of arms.
Instead of resorting to meaningful logic and uncommon sense in addressing
these problems,
Nigeria
seems to have lost its utilitarian values with the collapse of
infrastructure and dwindling economic fortunes of the nation state."
"The leadership seems to be at wits
end and has demonstrated a lack of vision in addressing a
very
simple problem."
JODER believes that the anger of the
Nigerian people, their pains, pangs, anguish and frustrations against a
regime that seems to be heartless, cannot be denied by all lovers of human
freedom across the world. According to Adeoye, Dokubo is a product of
harmful political processes and the recalcitrant attitude of the government,
which has obviously failed to admit its blunders in addressing, the
socio-political crisis that continues to paint.Nigeria as a patriarchal
state in the community of nations.
Adewale Adeoye
Executive Director, Journalists for
Democratic Rights
