A former military officer from the Niger Delta, Colonel Tony Nyiam (retd) has disagreed with a former militant leader in the region, Asari Dokubo, for accusing the Yoruba of betraying the people of the region after helping the South-West to ensure President Bola Tinubu, won the 2023 election.
Colonel Nyiam said Dokubo should stop crying over spilled milk because he should have learnt from the power dynamics that played out during the tenure of the immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari.
The former military officer, who is from Cross Rivers State, was reacting to the rage expressed by Dokubo in a viral video, in which he strongly criticised the Yoruba for alleged compromise on certain issues affecting the Niger Delta under the Tinubu presidency.
However, Nyiam in a message he forwarded to the Nigerian Tribune at the weekend, absolved the Yoruba of betrayal as being portrayed by Dokubo, saying he did not heed the consistent warnings of some prominent leaders like Chief Ayo Adebanjo.
“The betrayal isn’t from the Yoruba people as being portrayed, lest we have forgotten Chief Ayo Adebanjos and the Deles’ consistent warnings.
“The Omo Oduduwas, especially the Omoluabis, are as betrayed as our son, the High Chief Asari Dokubu,’ he said.
According to Nyiam, what Dokubo perceives as an act of betrayal is indeed the use of divide and rule antics by a few power-mongers to have their way in the country.
“The betrayal is as a result of many of us falling for the divide and rule tactics of the elites who have the habit of the Nigerian State’s capture for their own selfish reasons.
“The betrayal is often craftily organised by a corrupting power monger, whose mastery of the exploitation of the mutual distrust between the major ethnicities, is devilish,” the ex-military officer said.
Nyiam said the situation that has led to Dokubo expressing frustration over alliances would subsist as long as the people take political decisions whimsically.
“Our aggrieved son should’ve learnt from Muhammadu Buhari’s betrayal of Rotimi Amaechi. It’s relevant for us to be reminded what I’ve, for decades, been cautioning about, otherwise, we’ll be going in circles as we always do and regret later.”
Dokubo had claimed that committed his personal resources to mobilise votes for Tinubu during the general election, only to be abandoned, with a vow to forge an alliance with the North in the build up to the next elections.
Dokubo apologised to leaders of the Niger Delta for not backing their decisions to form an alliance with the North in the past, stating that the Ijaw and indeed, the Niger Delta people will no longer work with the Yoruba, describing them as “betrayers.”
He said: “I apologise to our fathers Melford Okilo and Prieye that they were not wrong for forming an alliance with the North, and as young men, we will now start same alliance with the North now.
“As from today, I will work; work to form alliance with the North and crush any other opposition, because for those who hate us, we do not mean anything to them. Whatever Ijaw people do does not mean anything to them.
“All over Ijaw land, we will spread the message that it is only northerners who can work with Ijaw people. We cannot work with Yoruba people they are betrayers. We risked our lives, voted, and did everything and this is what we get?”
President Tinubu, last Wednesday, announced the scrapping of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs in a cabinet shakeup and established Ministry of Regional Commission to supervise all the geopolitical development commissions.
The Niger Delta Ministry was established under the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to assuage the stakeholders over environmental degradation and facilitate skill acquisition by the restive youths in the region.
The government equally initiated the Presidential Amnesty Programme to transform ex-agitators into entrepreneurs and/or employable citizens who will become net contributors to the economy of the region and the country.
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