Needless mudslinging against Prof. Quaker-Dokubo

It is normal for a public figure, a successful one for that matter, to attract occasional sneer, derision or outright envy. It is however, abnormal when such a thing is turned into an organised mob of muckrakers with a mandate to smear the target personality by every available spit they could get. This is the […]

It is normal for a public figure, a successful one for that matter, to attract occasional sneer, derision or outright envy. It is however, abnormal when such a thing is turned into an organised mob of muckrakers with a mandate to smear the target personality by every available spit they could get. This is the case with an on-going mudslinging, against Special Adviser to Mr. President on Niger Delta Affairs, Professor Charles Quaker-Dokubo, using the free passage of all garbage offered by the handy social media.

A recent example of such trashy offerings; one that went viral on account of the key words deliberately used to attract curious readers and to easily smear is titled “Dokubo’s ties with strange woman worries Osibanjo,” penned under an obvious pseudonym, and published by Newsdiary online in August, 2018. The write-up stated that Professor Quaker-Dokubo “lost concentration of the huge challenges of the Amnesty office” because of his lust for a lady who glories in impersonation. It added, “There are plans by the Chief of Staff to the Vice President to query Professor Quaker-Dokubo for such infraction”. From the very first sentence of the piece, the emotion of the hatched men is laid bare. The intent, as the opening line crudely puts it, is to paint Professor Charles Quaker-Dokubo’s more than 30 years of public life as one characterized by “betrayals and treachery”. Lies upon lies are lined up; spun from contemporaneous events of Professor Dokubo’s private life and purported historical antecedents to smear his reputation.

First, let me say that I am an innocent bystander in this issue. I am intervening because I am knowledgeable enough about most of the issues raised in the initial article. I am not holding brief for Professor Quaker-Dokubo, and the fact that someone wants to get him pilloried on false ground, gives me the pleasure to state what I know without inhibitions or guidance from him. The said article stands on no factual ground. It is sheer concoctions. At best, it is not more than a spectacular fictional narrative skewed together by a fertile mind with agenda for grave mischief. To accuse Professor Quaker-Dokubo of losing concentration of the challenges of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, is not only funny but a dear assault on truth, and on the man’s personality and intelligence. In truth, chasing shadows (which is what the mendacious story is all about) is an infra dig to be associated with Professor Quaker-Dokubo’s dealings as a public servant.

Second, early in September, 2018, some miscreants who claimed to be militants went on rampage at the Mbiama junction of the East-West Road; and held motorists hostage for hours. Vehicular movements from Bayelsa state to Delta state, or from Bayelsa state to Rivers state, and vice versa, grounded to a halt. They were chanting tribal war songs and carrying placards with inscriptions that Professor Quaker-Dokubo “must be removed”. Their grouse was that Professor Quaker-Dokubo denied them entry into the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP).

Suffice it to state that from the outset, federal government has compiled names of registered number of repentant militants, or shall I say, ex-agitators in the Niger Delta. These persons surrendered their arms and embraced the amnesty declared by late President Umaru Yar’Adua when he dangled the ‘carrot’ on June 25, 2009. Thus, Professor Quaker-Dokubo cannot increase the number of ex-agitators without formal approval by the federal government. His predecessors in the PAP office (Kingsley Kuku and Paul Boroh) dealt with these registered number of ex-agitators without increasing the number. Therefore, the foregoing time-tested aphorism is the answer to those miscreants.

To further enlighten those “who do not know”, the Amnesty as a way of managing the Niger Delta crises is encapsulated under Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration. This is a peace building mechanism best suited for post-conflict peace consolidation, and recognized by the United Nations. Of course, the first two phases of Disarmament and Demobilization were completed in the past couple of years. It is the last phase of Reintegration which is still underway, and which Professor Quaker-Dokubo is grappling with. He is targeting about 30,000 ex-militants who are undergoing reintegration, as far as government record is concerned. Miscreants and Hoodlums jostling for recognition as Niger Delta militants should forward their applications to join the Presidential Amnesty Programme through their state governors to Mr. President. This is the surest way the federal would realise their existence, and do something about them.

Professor Quaker-Dokubo is a man of faith with a strong sense of gratitude to the almighty who elevated him from being an academic in a Research Establishment (NIIA), to becoming Special Adviser to Mr. President on Niger Delta Affairs. This has never been lost on the Professor Quaker-Dokubo that I know. For him, and all people of faith, chasing after another thing when you are not half-way into what God Almighty blessed you with is some mark of ingratitude. For emphasis, Professor Quaker-Dokubo has never had divided attention since assuming the position of the Special Adviser to Mr. President on Niger Delta Affairs. He has executed his mandate in such a way that today, few months into his tenure, the consensus in the Niger Delta Region is for him to carry on the good works he has started. It should also be stated that as someone who is a Professor of Peace and Strategic Studies and has been imparting knowledge to military and civilian alike, and he has therefore, developed extensive network of friends, associates and admirers.

One is entitled to disagree or even hate Professor Quaker-Dokubo for whatever personal reason, but the allegations levied against him is almost the zenith such malicious undertaking could attain. It is not just because Professor Quaker-Dokubo’s personality is smeared but also because of the dangerous namedropping and dragging of the names of very important and responsible personalities just to achieve the sinister aim of portraying Quaker-Dokubo who from all indications, is minding his business – in a very bad light.

The people who inhabit the Niger Delta are hurting. The Nation needs a clear direction of how the problems confronting the Niger Delta can be resolved. What is going to happen to the youths, the unemployed, the businesspersons, roads, electricity, security of lives and properties, education, food, water, etc? We should stop this pull him down (PhD) syndrome; we do not want to know who heads the PAP but who would readily perform the onerous assignments of the vision and mission of the PAP. For now, Professor Quaker-Dokubo is doing a good work. He has been attending to his assignments with zeal and resourcefulness.

The unnecessary attacks on Professor Charles Quaker-Dokubo are nauseating and must stop. Enough is enough.

Ehigiator wrote this piece from Abuja.