UK scholar, nuclear weapon expert… things to know about Dokubo, new amnesty coordinator

On Tuesday, President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Charles Dokubo as coordinator of the presidential amnesty programme for former Niger Delta militants. He is replacing Paul Boroh who was sacked after spending three years on the job.

Dokubo, a seasoned diplomat was, until his appointment, director of research and studies at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA).

HE WANTS WOMEN TO BE INVOLVED IN POLITICS

One of the experts who spoke on Theresa May’s emergence as British prime minister is Dokubo. In an interview with the Guradian newspaper, Dokubo argued for women to be absorbed into mainstream politics.

“Women are also citizens,” he said, adding that women should be involved in politics, just as men.

“We have seen women that became heads of state in Africa: Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sir-Leaf and Botswana’s former president, who was also the daughter of a former president of the country. Women can also show their potentials, as they are not less politically endowed than men. They should not say because a leader is a woman, she would have less hurdles to scale.”

Dokubo who believes that it will take some time for women to focus on empowering their kind, advised that women work within the system so that their peers can nominate them. “We don’t even need to have female president to nominate women. In Rwanda, President Paul Kagame has a lot of women in his administration and women are more empowered. That can also be as a result of the post-conflict situation, where they became pillars of organisations that led to resettling the crisis that emerged after the civil war. Women are few in politics, but they can be given places. Female technocrats are being appointed based on their knowledge of particular issues.”

He, however, noted that women will face the exact challenges that men face, as heads of government, and heads of administration. “The fact is that gender doesn’t make any difference. Definitely, they will have to deal with their challenges, as they emerge,” he explained.

HE THINKS TRUMP MAY BE IMPEACHED

During a roundtable conference organised on Nigeria-US relations by the department of political science, University of Ilorin, Dukubo, in his paper titled “The Phenomenon of Donald Trump in America,” argued that US President Donald Trump may be impeached if he would not change his approaches on policies that concern US.

He urged Trump to understand that election rhetorics do not translate to realities.

HOLDS A PhD IN NUCLEAR WEAPON PROLIFERATION AND ITS CONTROL

Born in in Abonnema, Akuku Toru local government area of Rivers state in March 1952, Dokubo had both primary and secondary education in Abonnema, before proceeding to the UK for his A’ levels at Huddersfield Technical College in West Yorkshire.

He was admitted into the University of Teesside at Middlesbrough, and between 1978 to 1980, he studied for an undergraduate degree in modern history and politics.  He moved to the University of Bradford for a master’s degree in Peace Studies, and there he continued his doctoral degree in Nuclear Weapon Proliferation and its control. He was awarded his doctoral degree in in 1985. He worked with the university as a temporary lecturer before returning to Nigeria in 1993.

Dokubo whose scholarly interest is in security and diplomacy related matters have published works that include; “Nigeria’s security Interest in Africa, Nuclear Proliferation and the Probability of Nuclear War: the effectiveness of the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Regime, and Defence Policy of Nigeria: Capability and Contest.”

In 2009, the late President Umar Yar’Adua had announced a 60-day unconditional amnesty period for militants in the Niger Delta, as a step towards resolving the protracted insecurity in the region.

Dokubo’s new job as the coordinator of the amnesty programe is to ensure security stabilisation in the Niger Delta through the disarmament, demobilisation, rehabilitation and sustainable re-integration of ex-militants as a precondition for medium and long-term development.