Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati, declared Dokubo's utterances as emanating from a crab mentality, arising from a wrong premise, which does not reflect the feelings of Nigerians about the present administration and the President.
He said the militant leader's tirade came as a surprise to the Presidency as it deemed Asari-Dokubo to be "a member of the house."
Abati also refuted Asari-Dokubo's claims of a rift between Jonathan and former President Olusegun Obasanjo, saying the President regards the ex-leader as a father and would not be disrespectful to him, because he "is a man for whom President Jonathan has the utmost respect and they have an excellent relationship."
According to the presidential spokesman: "I read that interview granted by Asari-Dokubo and I was quite surprised that he would talk like that because as he himself admitted in that interview, he is close to government. And his interview was full of proverbs.
"So, I don't know whether it is a wise thing for you to be a member of the house and then for you to stand outside and urinate into that same house.
"Doing so may serve the purpose of sensationalism and it may please some mischief makers, but the truth of the matter is that wise people may think that that is not really the right way to go.
"In spite of the content of his interview, in which he was saying the president has a rift with former President Obasanjo, I keep saying it; there is no rift between President Jonathan and former President Obasanjo.
"The President has the utmost respect for the former President whom he regards as his father.
"He even calls him 'Baba'. And I don't think anybody can say he has any evidence anywhere where the President has been disrespectful to the elderly man.
"So, those things that you see in the newspapers about people saying President Jonathan and former President Obasanjo are quarreling are exaggerated. They do not reflect the truth.
"He (Asari-Dokubo) claims that there is a rift between President Jonathan and former President Obasanjo; so, you can see that the whole of that commentary is based on a wrong premise."
Abati advised Asari-Dokubo to remain consistent, see the big picture and worry less about greedy people accused of preventing other Ijaw from reaching the President, asking him to remember that Nigerians know him as a very strong supporter of the Jonathan administration, who has said a lot of positive things about the administration.
His words: "There is also a comment from him (Dokubo) about people who surround the President whom he says are greedy and who have cut him off from his roots and all that.
"What you just take from all that is this crab mentality theory of human relationship and I think that there is a lot of this crab theory at play in Nigeria both in terms of interpersonal relationship and in terms of how people respond to public issues.
"What is that crab theory all about? If you put a number of crabs in a bucket and one of them tries to go to the top, the other crabs will be struggling to pull that one that is trying to go to the top down.
"They will keep reminding that top crab that you are one of us; this is where you belong and you cannot leave us; we are together.
"When you translate that crab theory into the governance arena, you find that it puts people who are in leadership position under enormous pressure because there are too many other persons saying they don't want progress because they all want to be at the same level.
"But I want to believe that the interview granted by Asari-Dokubo is merely consistent with the principle of freedom of speech.
"These days, it is fashionable to make some noise and gain attention, and that it doesn't quite reflect his innermost feelings about the Jonathan administration and about President Jonathan in particular.
"I believe that he, having been a very strong supporter of the administration and who has been on record as having said a lot of positive things about the administration, having made whatever point he has now made, will also see the need to be consistent, honest and truthful, and to see the big picture and to worry less about greedy people who are preventing other Ijaws, as he seems to be making out, from reaching the President because at the end of the day, President Jonathan is not running an Ijaw project.
"He is running a Nigerian project, and I keep saying he is a man who is very conscious of his place in history.
"At the end of the day, whether the people say they are being blocked from having access to him or even those of us who work for him and even everybody, whoever it may be, it is important to remember that the only person that will be called to come and give account is President Jonathan.
"That is the man Nigerians voted for and all of us, whether we are his kinsmen or we are his staff or we are his friends, I think we should focus more on the Nigerian project, the Nigerian assignment that President Jonathan has been given and worry less about insinuations l.
"And I repeat, for the purpose of emphasis, President Jonathan has no problems at all with former President Obasanjo.
"But of late, we have seen in the media a situation whereby people are just bringing things up to set up the two leaders, and I believe that both leaders are experienced enough to know that sometimes people use the media just to create drama, and you know, drama is a very important element of politics and governance."
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