Lately, the media had been awash with reports calling for the replacement of the Special Adviser/Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Prof Charles Dokubu.

While awaiting the justifications for such calls, it is important to offer this piece of advice to the Ijaws who are bent on pulling their fellow Ijaws down.

The attack on Prof Charles Dokubo, especially from the Ijaw, is becoming worrisome. Prof Charles Dokubo is a son of the soil.

There is an adage that says that if one’s family does not bring you out, nobody can harm the person. But that is what is going on in Ijawland where Ijaw people are trying to pull down Prof Charles Dokubo.

It is a disgrace on the Ijaw nation. The habit of not encouraging ourselves is wrong. Nobody is above mistake.

The mistakes we feel that he has been made can be corrected. If the entire Ijaw nation is encouraging him, he would be a better person. Love conquers everything and if we show love to him, he would be a better person. We need to encourage him, not to pull him down.

There is the North East Development Commission (NEDC), and no Niger Deltan can get close to it.

Unlike the Niger Deltans, those covered by the NEDC love themselves and protect their own. Can'’ we replicate that?

Sadly, the reverse is the case in the Presidential Amnesty Office which seems to belong to the whole world.

It is so because we don’t cooperate. Let us show love to our own.

Prof Dokubo is an academic. He didn’t lobby for the position, rather God gave it to him.

We should think about this and realise that God chose Prof Dokubo out of millions of Niger Delta indigenes.

Unfortunately, our people are fighting the innocent man. I am appealing that we should give him a CHANCE. As a result of the attacks, Prof Dokubo feels the Ijaw don’t like him.

We have to let him know that we love him and we are going to stand by him.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who appointed him, had his reasons for doing that.

We have to be very careful the way we are attacking Prof Dokubo because the world is watching.

This same treatment was given to Prof Dokubo’s predecessor, General Paul Boro, retd.

They eventually succeeded in pulling him down.

Now, we want to pull Prof Dokubo down. Who do we want? Do we want God to come down physically and present Jesus Christ to us as the head of Amnesty Office?

If that happens, we are still going to have a problem. If we don’t wash our dirty linen outside, nobody would rubbish us.

As a people, who provide the wealth of this nation, we should behave like one.

A big man should behave like a big man. It is incumbent on us to respect ourselves as people who provide the wealth of the nation, instead of sponsoring publications against ourselves.

People should wait for their turn. The late King Robert Ebizimo said, “Eyemene Efiefie” meaning that everything has time and season. Unknowingly, the Ijaw people attacking Prof Dokubo, has succeeded in making him feel as if the northerners have his interest at heart more than Ijaw people.

Now, I want to send a message to Prof Dokubo. Sir, this is just a piece of advice to you as the head of the Amnesty of Office.

The office was established as a result of the efforts and blood of the youths of the Niger Delta. The people of the region have the powers to keep you there and also to remove you. You should be guided by this reality.

The Niger Delta people have the powers to make your appointment useless if they make the region unstable. That is why the Niger Delta mothers are urging you to give listening ears to the Ijaw and Niger Deltans as a whole. Nobody hates you. They love you but they are correcting you wrongly. We want you to also give the Ijaw and the Niger Deltans a second chance.

I saw publications that called for the sack and replacement Prof Dokubo. These kinds of publications do not portray the Ijaws in a good light. What is happening is a disgrace to the Ijaw nation. It is for this reason that Ijaw Women Love and Care Group are calling on every Ijaw person to support Prof Charles Dokubo. If he succeeds, the glory won't be for him but the Ijaw nation. If he fails, it would be a collective failure. In light of these, the only option for the Ijaws is to help him succeed.

•Ebikemefa Warikeme, a concerned Ijaw, writes from Warri.

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