By OCHEREOME NNANNA
UNREPENTANT Niger Delta militant, Asari Dokubo, said there will be no peace in Nigeria if President Goodluck Jonathan is not re-elected in 2015. I want to put my mouth in this matter before it dies down.

Yes indeed, Dokubo is an unrepentant activist for resource control in the Niger Delta. He did not accept the amnesty offered the militants by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua. His Niger Delta Volunteers Force, NDVF, to the best of my knowledge, did not surrender arms as other “generals” and “commanders” did (even if they only brought out just a few to give the impression of arms surrender). However, Dokubo and his forces are no longer in the creeks fighting. According to him in his numerous interviews, they have only voluntarily ceased fire because an Ijaw man, President Jonathan, is on the presidential throne.

As soon as he climbs down, the struggle for total resource control will resume. And if anyone, especially the power-famished North, decides to truncate the President’s obvious intentions to get re-elected, the doomsday will be fast-forwarded.

This time, the ex-militants have tasted power at the highest level. They have won multi-billion naira contracts. They have been able to pick up the phone and call the President, or been woken up at night or called out from dance parties by the President. They are bigger boys than ever before and more able to play the game of power.

Now, let me make it abundantly clear. What Dokubo said, about no peace in Nigeria unless the President is re-elected, is what I call “enemy language”. I am not saying that Dokubo, as a fighter for social justice, is an enemy of Nigeria. Far from it. In fact, I stand on the same page with him.

He is not asking to be given what does not belong to him. He is not like some Nigerians whose only reason for remaining in the country is the oil resources in the Niger Delta. It is the wealth of the nation, but there are people who are the landlords of the area where it is exploited. But it is people from another area who roguishly claim it as their booty.

It is this claim that Dokubo fights. To me it is the right cause.

But saying there will be no peace if Jonathan is not re-elected is unacceptable to me. That is putting a gun to our heads. I won’t have anyone put a gun to my head over my democratic rights to choose who leads me. Not Atiku Abubakar. No Adamu Ciroma.

Not Lawal Kaita. Not Ango Abdullahi. Not Muhammadu Buhari. Not even Asari Dokubo. These are people who have, at one time or the other, threatened this nation with violence and lawlessness unless their political demands were met.

When Nigerians ignored the Northern leaders and gave President Jonathan a resounding mandate in April 2011, Boko Haram was unleashed upon this nation, though the truth is that it is the North that has largely remained ungovernable and without peace.

It is North that is the theatre of war. They are the ones suffering the direct hits and collateral damages. It is their economy that is being ruined and it is from there that people who would otherwise play roles in its development are fleeing.

If Dokubo and his cohorts should ever find the opportunity to implement their threat, it is the Niger Delta, especially the oil-bearing communities, that would be turned into a theatre of war. You can be sure that, just as our armed forces are in the North fighting to restore the territorial integrity of Nigeria, they will be in the Niger Delta to engage Dokubo and his militants.

Lives will be lost. Communities will be sacked. Crude oil will run in the gutters and flow into rivers and further pollute the creeks. Those who will deprive this nation of its peace will bear the direct brunt of their acts of sabotage. They will feel the pain. And yet they will not achieve their purpose because no one will use violence and threats to force his will upon Nigeria.

It is very possible for President Jonathan not to be re-elected in 2015. But it will not be because his Northern enemies fund and support terrorists, destabilise the North and blackmail him. If President Jonathan’s performance in his first term justifies his re-election he will be re-elected. Disgruntled elements will not be able to stop that. But if Nigerians think otherwise, not even Dokubo’s threat will stop them from voting him out.

There is only one person who will determine whether President Jonathan will be re-elected in 2015: Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Nigerians are standing by, ready to mark his test papers. Let Dokubo and all lovers of the President channel their energies towards helping him succeed in the mandate he is serving.

But I know the game that Dokubo is up to. It is said that Nigerians only understand the language of force. Dokubo is fluent in that language. Perhaps he wants to show that if speaking the language is an art, the North does not have a preserve of the talent.

Enough of sabre-rattling. Enough of public display of mutual hatred. Let us cooperate with the people we elected into office to succeed. If we eventually find them not up to the task let us try new hands. But if they succeed let us re-elect them because a lot can be said for continuity of performance.

If we hate each other that much, then why don’t we go our separate ways? Between now and December 2013 is the best time to decide what to do with the union called Nigeria. By December we will be preparing to celebrate our Centenary.

Let us not go into the new century hating one another. Let us stay together as one happy, united family. Or go our separate ways.

I like it either way.