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Tag: Clark

  • Biafra: Clark, Niger Delta elders advocate restructuring

    Biafra: Clark, Niger Delta elders advocate restructuring

    Niger Delta leaders have recommended immediate restructuring to address the nation’s socio-political crisis.

    The Chief Edwin Clark-led Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) in a statement by its Central Working Committee (CWC) of the PANDEF said only restructuring can save the nation from persistent agitations.

    The statement was signed by co-Chairman of PANDEF, Obong Victor Attah yesterday.

    The leaders pointed out the success of the recent Biafra agitators’ sit-at-home order was an indication all was not well with the federation.

    They said though dismantling the federal structure was never a good alternative but asked the federal government to address nagging issues fuelling angry reactions like the Biafra’s agitation through restructuring.

    They charged the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to urgently adopt the recommendations of the 2014 National Conference, insisting restructuring does not mean the dissolution of the Nigerian union.

    “The challenges that we face today have been as a result changes that have been introduced into this system.

    “Today we live like jealous siblings of a polygamous parentage. We are at each others’ throats, fighting and clamouring for more from an incapacitated father who has lost his ability to provide for his children.

    “Rather than the competitive development that characterised the past, we are now stagnated by destructive rivalry.

    “Biafra is born out of a deep-seated and agonising feeling of marginalisation and discrimination.

    “So, as has been advised, let us listen to the Ibos and the Biafra agitators.

    “We listen to them, knowing that there is no harm in discussing the unity of Nigeria; we listen to them with the clear understanding that Nigeria is better off united and that disintegration is not in anyone’s interest,” PANDEF stated.

    They went on: “We in PANDEF are convinced that the solution to the challenges that agitate us today are contained in the over 600 recommendations of the 2014 National Conference.

    “The answer is to restructure as recommended by the conference. Restructuring does not, by any stretch of the imagination, suggest a break-up of the country.

    “We also acknowledge that restructuring cannot happen overnight or in one fell swoop but must be diligently embarked upon for our harmonious coexistence.

    “The conference report did not suggest the abolition of states but carefully spelt out the steps to be taken to restructure our federal system without pain.

    “The wisdom of implementing the recommendations of that conference cannot be overemphasised.”

  • Clark, Niger Delta leaders reject return to militancy

    Clark, Niger Delta leaders reject return to militancy

    Stakeholders in Niger Delta want restive armed groups in the region to call off their planned resumption of violent attacks on oil and gas installations in the region.

    Some militant groups, during the week, threatened to resume bombing of oil and gas facilities as well as violent engagement of the nation’s military forces, citing alleged reluctance by the federal government to keep its most recent promises to the people of the region.

    But some of the critical stakeholders of the region, who spoke to The Nation in Warri on the matter, expressed the view that violence would not give the desired development, peace and clean environment to the people, the seeming unwillingness of government notwithstanding.

    While the Chief Edwin Clark-led Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) believes the federal government is doing its homework on the issues at stake to ensure enduring results, the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) and other stakeholders say the solution does not lie in   violent engagement.

    The Coordinator of PANDEF’s secretariat and member of its Central Working Committee (CWC), Dr Fred Mulade, said there would be no need for any violence as the body was properly engaging government, adding that there were fruits from the engagements, more of which would become tangible soon.

    “We had a general assembly in Uyo on March 30 and we had a robust discussion and as I am talking to you now, the federal government has set up the Inter-Agency Committee which is looking into our 16-point agenda and their 3-point agenda and see how they can develop a work plan for the development of the region.

    “Quite a good number of these boys have called me and I have had cause to explain to them that what we are doing is to see that there’s benefit for everybody and you know when things like these happen, you need to really sit down and plan properly so that you don’t repeat the mistake they made in the past.

    “PANDEF is trying as much as possible to see that the federal government is engaged, although there’s not been any full blown dialogue yet, at the smaller levels we are ensuring that the right thing is being done and that’s what we’ve been telling them that there’s no point in returning to the creek or resorting to any disturbance at this stage, we have moved beyond that.

    “What we keep telling them is to be patient because it really takes time for things to work out and by the grace of God things have started working out; we’ve started working with the federal government to develop a work plan for the region,” Mulade said.

    Also, President of the IYC, Eric Omare, urged the threatening armed groups to jettison their plans of returning to militancy, noting that the process of getting justice had gone beyond arms struggle, adding that the best option available to the people of the region to perpetuate their engagement with government and demand for even more than government had promised.

    “What we should do at this point is to remind government and to ask that they should fulfil their promise. It has not got to the point where people should resort to violence because government has failed in its promise to the region. I don’t think calling for or threatening violence now is necessary, we have not gotten to that level, but we’ll continue to remind government and demand that they fulfil their promises to the region and also do more,” Omare said.

    Also calling for calm and new thinking in the struggle for the development of the oil-rich region, environmental activist and the Secretary of the Egbema/Gbaramatu Community Development Foundation (EGCDF), Comrade Sheriff Mulade, charged both PANDEF and the federal government to play their roles and assure the people of the region of sincerity and desired development by starting to take vivid steps towards all demands.

    “For now, they have no reason to resume hostilities in the Niger Delta because we need peace for development. The next line of action for the leaders of the region is constructive engagement; our leaders should continue to speak, under the umbrella of PANDEF, on behalf of the people and continue to engage government, forget about selfishness and stomach infrastructure they had been engaged in and come out openly to discuss on behalf of the people of the Niger Delta, irrespective of ethnic backgrounds.

    “Government, on its own, should come out with concrete action plans, not mere policy statements, to show that they are ready and start implementing some critical plans as demanded by the people. We are not expecting this government to do magic, but we want to start seeing concrete steps to show that they are ready,” Mulade said.

  • Why Law is dear to me, by Clark

    Prominent Ijaw nationalist and Founder of Edwin Clark University (ECU) Kiagbodo Delta State Chief Edwin Clark, has opened up on why the institution’s Faculty of Law started at the take off of the university in May 2015.

    ECU is the second private university after Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti to begin Faculty of Law at take-off.

    Clark said as a lawyer of over 50 years, he has developed a passion for a career that made him. He hopes that at his death, he is given a befitting lying-in-state by the law faculty.

    “I cannot remember how much I have spent into the Law Faculty,” said the nonagenarian.

    “Naturally, most new private universities in Nigeria did not start with Faculty of Law; it usually takes some years before they are eventually granted. It is only Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti that did that.

    “So I reached out to (Aare) Afe Babalola. He was very open-minded and advised me on what to do. I also appealed to the Council of Legal Education that I wished to start with a law faculty.

    “I have been a lawyer for over 50 years, so whenever it pleases God to take me, my body should lie in state in the faculty.

    “I have a very high regard for the Faculty of Law. We have a Moot Court which is one of the best nationwide. We name the law faculty after reputable lawyer Chief FRA Williams,” he said.

    Aside the Law Faculty, ECU also runs Faculties of Science; Humanities, Management Science & Social Sciences; as well as Extended Remedial Programmes.

    Clark continued: “At over 90, I’m not looking for money by establishing ECU. I just want a situation where children all over the country will come to my village, live, learn and grow up together as united Nigerians; and to do that, character comes first.

    “We just signed an MoU with Coventry University in UK and Chicago University in USA. Recently, we had the largest of law book donations into any private university so far; and with a condition that we should give some of those books to the Federation of Women Lawyers and some to universities which we have already done.

    “We have the best of faculty and non-teaching staff you can get anywhere. Our vice chancellor is an astute administrator who has also been the vice chancellor of Bowen University Iwo, in Osun State for 10 years.”

    Clark further urged Federal Government to further strengthen standard in private universities nationwide through financial and infrastructural assistance. He bemoaned the exodus of young Nigerian students to neighbouring African countries to further their education.

    “Private universities standard should be improved via funding so our children don’t go to Ghana and Republic of Benin to study,” he said.

  • Clark of letters

    •Professor John Pepper Clark deserves another accolade of D. Lit.

    Some people know him by a small, one stanza poem called Ibadan. Some others cannot forget his rhythmic musings on the Fulani Cattle when the herdsman neither raped nor ripped apart the innards of his host. The poem contemplated with wonder and resignation the almost human nobility and aplomb of a cow heading for the slaughter slab. Rather than herdsman, the poet used a less problematic word: drover.

    Some don’t want to look at his poetry, but focus on his histrionics. Ozidi, a play of great empathy, will abide eternally on the stage. For others, The Raft, cavilled at for its directorial challenges and loved for its probing of the pre-militant Niger Delta, should be part of any repertory.

    Not a few others thrilled to his devotion to the thespian art with his PEC Repertory Theatre he established with his wife Ebun in the 1980’s. His prose has not been the place of his great muse, yet he wrote an autobiographical work of candour with a title that seems to belong to Trump’s America than in the 1960’s when he wrote. America, Their America telegraphed to the world a black man’s biting account of the prejudice of the most powerful country on earth that evangelises the high ideals of human equality.

    Professor John Pepper Clark was honoured this month with great laurel of Doctor of Letters, or D. Litt. by the University of Lagos. The 84-year-old literary behemoth of this country has been a role model as teacher, poet, playwright and actor. He started very early and even wrote his best-known play while he was a student at the university. Song of a Goat, in which he melded Greek mythology with his native Ijaw folklore, reflected the girth of his imagination and liberality of his sources.

    Like Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka, Clark was a pioneer literary marksman, whose works have become staple for students of literature and English from secondary school to the university.

    His work is marked by fluidity and simplicity in its assertion of his Ijaw roots. His Ijaw origin becomes the template to advance a sometimes militant Africanness. Yet, as we see in the poems Fulani Cattle and The Casualties, he also looks beyond his ethnic group. Casualties was a potent attack on the ravages of the Nigerian civil war in which he undertakes to explain that “the casualties are not only those that are dead.”

    Although poets sometimes are judged by the plenitude of their output and sometimes their length, Professor Clark is known for saying a lot by not saying. His Streamside Exchange x-rays in a tone of naïve curiosity the uncertainty of life. It is the marker of the snapshot poet.

    He had his primary education in Okrika and Jeremi in the riverine areas of the Niger Delta and proceeded to Government College, Ughelli, in today’s Delta State. He graduated from that school in 1954 but his literary juice was first stirred there. “Oh, Ughelli,” he once said, “was good for those of us who knew the direction we were to face in life.”

    He moved on to the University College, Ibadan, where he launched into literary affairs highlighted with publications like Beacon and Horn. He was their first editor. He graduated in English and worked briefly as an information officer at the Ministry of Information and editorial writer for the newspaper Express.

    He went to Princeton University on a fellowship programme, but the turbulence of that one year experience provided the context for his America, Their America.

    He returned home and published Ozidi Saga, and became a professor at the University of Lagos. He has over the years attracted praise both from his generation and after. Professor Tanure Ojaide, a well-known poet and recent winner of the Nigerian Merit Award, described him as a “poet and poetic dramatist par excellence.”

    We congratulate Professor Clark on his new accolade as Doctor of Letters.

  • Clark queries prosecution of Kalu, Ladoja

    Clark queries prosecution of Kalu, Ladoja

    Ijaw National Leader Chief Edwin Clark has criticised the reopening of corruption charges against two former governors with the exclusion of others having similar cases.
    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) recently reopened corruption charges against former Abia State Governor Orji Uzor Kalu and his Oyo State counterpart, Chief Rasheed Ladoja.
    Clark wondered why only the two were on trial.
    In an open letter to the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) yesterday, the elder statesman wondered why Kalu and Ladoja alone were being re-arraigned while other former governors and ministers, who he said faced varying money laundering charges, nine years ago, walked freely.
    Praising the crusade against corruption by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, the Ijaw leader warned the leadership of anti-graft agencies to ensure there was no favouritism or nepotism in the fight against graft.
    He said no offender or suspect should be treated as “sacred cows”.
    Clark noted that the retrial of the duo might create the impression “that certain persons are untouchables, sacrosanct and above the law”.
    The Ijaw leader added that this may not go down well with the disposition of the current administration.
    He said: “Those heading the anti-graft agencies must be seen to be above board in the discharge of their duties by playing according to the rules. A situation whereby cases of corruption have been abandoned in the courts for years is unimaginable. Now that they want to reopen them, only very few of them seem to be selected for re-arraignment.
    “The EFCC, recently, rearraigned former governors Kalu of Abia State and Ladoja of Oyo State, before the courts for alleged fraud committed… It would be recalled that these former governors were charged to court at the same time with some of their colleagues who equally served as governors in their various states about nine years ago. Some of them are today distinguished senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, with some of them having been in the Senate for eight years. This negates the principle of ‘unbiasedness’ and impartiality.”
    Recalling his past open letters, which called for the probe of some ex-government officials, Clark noted that while some had been tried and prosecuted, the cases of other were abandoned again.
    He said: “Between the times I addressed these open letters and now, some of the persons I mentioned in the letters have been prosecuted and some others freed. For instance, James Onanefe Ibori has been prosecuted and is almost finishing his jail term of 13 years in the United Kingdom (UK), while Femi Fani-Kayode has formally been tried and found not guilty. Michael Botmang died in January, 2014.
    “Also, since my open letters, some other former governors have been arraigned before the courts for similar offences, their cases abandoned again. They include Gbenga Daniel, former Governor of Ogun State; Ikedi Ohakim, former Governor of Imo State; Murtala Nyako, former Governor of Adamawa State; Danjuma Goje, former Governor of Gombe State, who today is a distinguished senator and Chairman of Senate Committee on Appropriation; as well as Sule Lamido, former Governor of Jigawa State and his two sons. They have all been granted bail, with no further action.”

  • Clark blows hot against militants

    Clark blows hot against militants

    Leader of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark, has described continued attack on oil and gas installations in the region as a criminal act and their perpetrators as enemies of the region.

    Clark, who spoke yesterday at a press briefing held in his Warri home, also said the PANDEF would meet soon to take a decision on ways to deal with the situation.

    He appealed to the Federal Government not to be deterred by the ugly development, urging it to go on with its decision to consider the requests presented to it recently.

    The Ijaw national leader, who spoke to journalists in the company of some other stakeholders of the region, noted that a number of factors were responsible for the pattern manifested in the destruction of critical oil and gas assets in the region, pointing out political and pecuniary reasons.

    He, however, noted that the continued militant activities in the region, especially the destruction of oil facilities, had gone beyond matters of expression of grievances to a calculated attempt to derail the budding peace process in the region.

    Noting the likely adverse effect of the recent destructive actions of militants on both the innocent members of the communities in the region and the environment, Clark warned that PANDEF would not condone the activities of the adamant insurgent groups any longer.

    He said: “Our boys were still boasting in the social media that they were going to attack, they would do this or do that.

    “I was in my house when they sent to me that FG has sent troops to the creeks in a houseboat opposite Oporoza and that some boys had been arrested. We intervened and those boys were released.

    “So the question is, what do we want, particularly these boys? What are they looking for? They are enemies of the people. They are criminals.

    “If something is being done so that we all can benefit, the fight you are fighting did not start today. You have not even waited for the dialogue to take place, then you are not an aggrieved person. You have other ulterior motives.

    “So we will soon have a meeting of PANDEF to discuss this thing and take a position. Let me also warn that there are some politicians who are also members of the Niger Delta that are fighting themselves and it is not unlikely that some of these people are involved in these bombings to discredit each other.

    “The recent blowing up of Trans-Forcados Pipeline operated by Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) is no longer a matter arising from grievances, but an act design to sabotage the present peace process.

    “I want to emphasise that no government sits by and watch its national assets being destroyed. It is the innocent members of the communities that would bear the brunt of possible reprisal attacks by the military.

    “We appeal to FG to go on acting on the requests we made to Mr. President on the 1st of November. We will deal with this situation. We won’t sit down at home with arms folded and allow some few individuals to destroy our destiny.

    “A larger meeting will be called to review the situation and take a position”, he said.

  • Avengers: MEND urges Fed Govt to ignore Clark, Okowa, others

    Avengers: MEND urges Fed Govt to ignore Clark, Okowa, others

    The Chief Edwin Clark-led group of elders has drawn the ire of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) for not condemning the Niger Diger Delta Avengers (NDA), which it last Friday asked to stop blowing up oil installations.

    MEND urged the Federal Government to ignore the Clark group for failing to condemn what it called the “criminal and treasonable activities of NDA”.

    On Saturday night, NDA, while reacting to the group’s plea, said it was in support of “genuine Niger Delta stakeholders conference to engage the Federal Government” on the issues affecting the region.

    In an online statement by its spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, yesterday, MEND said it was in support of the ongoing military operations in the Niger Delta to flush out the Avengers.

    It condemened the meeting of the representatives of Niger Delta Coastal States held last Friday in Warri, Delta State, which was jointly convened by Clark and Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa.

    MEND urged the Muhammadu Buhari administration to ignore the communique issued after the  meeting, saying: “The communique fails to categorically condemn the criminal and treasonable activities of the NDA. This is principally because the notable promoter of the meeting, Chief Edwin Clark, was recently named by the Reformed Niger Delta Avengers (RNDA) as a major supporter of the NDA.

    “Chief Clark lacks the moral authority to lead a discussion on the so-called ‘re-structuring’ of the Nigerian federation at this critical point in the country’s history, given the fact that throughout the six years his ‘son’, former President Goodluck Jonathan was in power, the elder statesman kept mute and actively participated in the economic dismemberment of Nigeria. In fact, Chief Clark’s Abuja residence was an extension of the State House.

    “None of the persons who attended the stakeholders’ meeting convened by Chief Clark and Governor Okowa has the capacity to persuade the people of the Niger Delta region to support the current efforts of the Buhari Administration to bring peace and development to the region.”

    MEND said its members were prepared to tour the Niger Delta to drum up support for the Buhari administration, in an exercise code-named “Operation Moses”.

    NDA, which expressed its readiness to dialogue with the Federal Government, passed a vote of confidence in the Clark group.

    It said it would continue with the unilateral ceasefire it adopted before the region’s leaders and elders call and wait for the outcome of the talks.

    In a statement by its spokesman, Mudoch Agbinibo, NDA advised the Clark group that would be talking with the government to take the situation in the region with all seriousness, adding that if the option fails, it would return to attacking public facilities.

    It asked the government and its agents not to further provoke hostility in the region by using the military to invade communities, especially in the Ijaw axis, threatening to fight back.

    “We are going to support any collective/negotiation team emerging from the Chief (Dr.) Papa Edwin Kiagbodo Clark Niger Delta elders and genuine stakeholders conference to engage with the government, representatives from the home countries of all multinational oil corporations and neutral international mediators that will be focused on achieving the short, medium and long term frameworks and objectives to de-escalate conflicts in the Niger Delta.

    “Most of the frameworks and objectives are clearly stated in various reports, declarations and recommendations of the likes of the Sir Henry Willinks minority rights reports of pre-independence Nigeria (1957-8), the Kaiama Declaration document, the Gen. Alexander Ogomudia report, the Ledum Mittee-led Niger Delta Technical Committee report and restructuring to fiscal federalism.

    “We have resolved to reject any idea of the peace of our time; we want the peace with honour this time around! Our advice to our Niger Delta elders and genuine stakeholders is that, whenever this project called Nigeria and her government is ready for dialogue/negotiations with them, this mandate should be treated with the care that driving a truck laden with fire requires.

    “We are going to continue the observation of our unannounced cessation of hostilities in the Niger Delta against all interests of the multinational oil corporations, but we will continuously adopt our asymmetric warfare during this period, if the government continues to use security agencies/agents, formations and politicians to arrest, intimidate, invade and harass innocent citizens, suspected NDA members and invade especially Ijaw communities.

    “We promise to fight more for the Niger Delta, if this opportunity fails. Therefore, we will give our Niger Delta elders and genuine stakeholders that tacit support to the dialogue table with the government and the multinational oil corporations whenever the enabling environment prevails,” the statement said.

    The Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) has hailed the NDA’s decision to opt for dialogue and urged the government to accept the offer in good faith.

    In a statement by its spokesman, Eric Omare, the IYC urged the government to ensure that the dialogue deals with the core issues keeping the region “perpetually in a state of conflict”.

    “The Ijaw Youth Council has always advocated dialogue as the means to the resolution of the Niger Delta crisis. As a result we welcome the conditional declaration of ceasefire by the Niger Delta Avengers if it is actually from them. We call on the government, especially President Buhari, to take advantage of this ceasefire to aggressively dialogue with the people of the region to address the issues affecting the region.

    “For the umpteenth time, we call for a bipartisan and sincere dialogue to resolve the root causes of the recurrent Niger Delta crisis. The dialogue should be issue-based and not to solve immediate problems and massage the ego of personalities. President Buhari must avoid listening to political hawks around him at the expense of the country’s unity and development,” the statement said.

  • Clark joins anti-corruption corps

    Hurray, Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, unfazed presidential godfather under Goodluck Jonathan, just joined the Buhari Anti-Corruption Corps!  But his starting ranks are yet unknown!

    Speaking at the announcement of the academic year for the new Law programme of the Edwin Clark University, Kiagbodo, Delta State (ECUK), Pa Clerk serenaded President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-sleaze war, saying it was the panacea for Nigeria’s greatness.

    “This country will have to be cleaned up, and I’m happy we have a president, despite every other thing, who has now stood up to fight corruption. We should support him,” he counselled. “I know this country will progress, if corruption is reduced to the minimum.”

    Really, those were words of wisdom, well and truly spoken by an elder.  Nothing to add. Nothing to subtract.

    There is a query, though — and that query is simple.  Where was this fount of wisdom, when Godson, Goodluck Jonathan, was president; and Pa Clark never tired of bragging — sorry, crowing — that Jonathan was his “son”?

    Where was that spring of wisdom when President Jonathan was making a vacuous distinction between stealing and corruption?

    Where was it when about everyone, except the un-abashed presidential godfather and the innermost Jonathan presidential circle, was saying the former president’s body language cuddled corruption like some newly found, long lost lover?

    Where, indeed, is Pa Clark’s voice when the so-called Niger Delta Avengers were busy corrupting the otherwise legitimate struggles of their people, by resorting to brainless vandalism of key economic assets — wilful arson that not only compromise the integrity of their cause but further pollute their environment, destroy marine life and extinguish many a legitimate livelihood in the poisoned creeks?

    But perhaps Pa Clark was playing the politics of anti-corruption-speak, powered by the politics of rememberance — or forgetfulness!

    “If corruption reduces to the minimum and this country is restructured, we’ll have a better Nigeria.”. Well framed!

    “I’m not looking for a Nigeria where some people are first-class and others are second-class.  If you make some people second-class, they will fight their way through and there’ll be no peace in this country.”

    That is no subtle threat.  Whether by Freudian slip or outright declaration, Pa Clark appears voicing his support for the creek vandals, somewhat imbuing their criminality with some nobility in a classic case of double-speak.

    But what if the so-called freedom fighting, ala Avengers, is some wilful and criminal subterfuge to frustrate the due comeuppance for the mind-boggling sleaze under godson Jonathan?  If that were so, would the latest to be enlisted on the Buhari Anti-Corruption Corps be said to be a true member, or was just playing at some verbal flurry, full of empty gas?

    Besides, when for the Niger Delta, did restructuring become such a consuming article of faith: before or after Jonathan lost power?

    Pa Clark must know: it is either he is for, or against the anti-corruption war.  Straddling, by speaking from both sides of the mouth, wouldn’t do. You don’t serenade those fighting sleaze and, in the same breath, romanticise the criminality they are facing down.

    Besides, who knows? If Pa Clark had been forthright with Jonathan on the corruption issue, playing the role of a loving dad, perhaps Jonathan would still be president?

    Well, all that is history now. What is not history is that Pa Clark should be courageous enough to walk his talk.  He has not demonstrated that with this pussy-footing, in his so-called self-enlistment as an anti-corruption ambassador. Pity!

  • Buhari’s anti-graft war is panacea for Nigeria’s greatness, says Clark

    Buhari’s anti-graft war is panacea for Nigeria’s greatness, says Clark

    •Ijaw leader calls for probe of alleged budget padding
    •Varsity names Law Faculty after F.R.A. Williams

    Ijaw leader Chief Edwin Clark has said President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade will give Nigeria a better future, if allowed to succeed.

    The Ijaw leader spoke yesterday in Warri, Delta State, at the announcement of the academic year of the newly approved Law Faculty of Edwin Clark University, Kiagbodo (ECUK).

    He decried the level of corruption in the National Assembly, calling for the investigation of alleged budget padding by federal lawmakers.

    Clark, who gave a brief insight into the vision behind the ECUK, said he thought of leaving a legacy to further cement the unity of Nigeria as well as reflect his background as a teacher.

    Speaking in the company of the university’s management team, led by its Vice Chancellor, Prof Timothy Olagbemiro, the Ijaw leader advised Nigerians to support President Buhari’s anti-corruption fight because it remained the only way to the nation’s greatness.

    He said: “This country will have to be cleaned and I’m happy we have a President, despite every other thing, who has now stood up to fight corruption. We should support him. I know this country will progress, if corruption is reduced to the minimum.

    “If corruption reduces to the minimum and this country is restructured, we’ll have a better Nigeria. I’m not looking for a Nigeria where some people are first class and others are second class. If you make some people second class, they will fight their way through and there’ll be no peace in this country.

    “I am appealing to you – the media – that when you are emphasising those things that bind us together, bring out the ills of the society.

    “These people, who are cheating us, these unpatriotic legislators, must be brought to book. There should be investigation of what has been on for long time: why they have been padding the budgets, including unapproved projects, which were not discussed on the floor of the House but put there by the chairman and those in the position to do so.

    “Nigeria belongs to all of us and we must do our least bit to bring progress to this country. We must fight to preserve it. Nobody is superior to the other in this country. No one group can do it alone. Those people will be enemies of Nigeria.”

    Also, the newly approved Faculty of Law for ECUK has been named after late legal icon, Chief Frederick Rotimi Williams.

    The Dean of the new faculty, Prof Allswell Muzan, announced this yesterday in Warri.

    He said the criteria of approving authorities, such as the National University Commission (NUC) and the Council of Legal Education (CLE), had been met.

    Muzan said: “The regulatory approval is for initial 50 students’ take-off population, which is expected to grow.

    “The chancellor and founder (Clark) named it Chief F.R.A. Williams Faculty of Law because of his love for him and the role (the late) Williams played in nation-building and the law profession, practice and education.”

    Clark said he was grateful to the regulators, the school management and legal luminary, Chief Afe Babalola, who he recognised for providing financial support and encouragement to pursue early approval.

    He said: “We were lucky. Some waited for four years to get approval. The Council of Legal Education and NUC inspected and said we merit it. Afe Babalola not only donated N2 million, he told me that he got a Law Faculty in one year. ‘You can do it,’ he said. And we did.

    “After 50 years as a lawyer, I needed a Faculty of Law where my body will be laid at my exit and the people will be there to see. When the NUC heard me say this, it said I could have it.”

     

  • Clark, at 89, calls for ‘true federalism’

    Clark, at 89, calls for ‘true federalism’

    Ijaw leader Chief Edwin Clark has urged Nigeria to return to regional system of government to overcome its economic challenges.

    The elder statesman spoke yesterday in Abuja on his 89th birthday.

    He said the current political structure had not helped the development of the country.

    Clark noted that a situation where the states always begged the Federal Government for bailout was disheartening.

    He said: “I am pleading with the present government …that there is no true federalism, whereby states become beggars, where the Federal Government has to bail them out. Many of us believe in regional government; that the six regions should form the basis of the federation and not the states that cannot pay their salaries nor the local government areas that do not exist. They are branches of the governors of the states. Whatever they tell them, that is what they do. So, there is very much to do.

    “What I am saying is that this country belongs to all of us. We all should do something to make this country better. The problems of this country are religion, ethnicity, over-ambition, corruption, greed. We all must put our heads together. No one should claim the credit, no one should contain anybody else. We have a duty to develop this country. It is our own.”

    Clark noted that the federation Nigeria inherited was based on equality.

    He said: “It was a federation where every region moved at its own pace, where physical federalism was recognised.

    “But the military killed it. We have a mere unitary form of government. We no longer practise federalism. That is why the regions are in trouble; that is why the local government areas are in trouble.

    “The unity of this country cannot be broken by anybody, but we have to examine the structure of this country. We cannot remain like this; we need to have proper federalism, a federal system of government where everybody is equal.”

    On the nation’s major challenges, Clark said: “It is when some people regard themselves first class and others second class that the second class would want to fight to bring themselves to first class. This is because it is the same God Who made all of us.”