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Tag: Clark

  • Ekwueme, Clark, Gbonigi, other southern leaders reject proposed Grazing Bill

    Ekwueme, Clark, Gbonigi, other southern leaders reject proposed Grazing Bill

    Nouthern Nigeria leaders, under the aegis of Southern Nigeria People’s Assembly (SNPA), have condemned the rumoured existence of a bill in the National Assembly seeking the establishment of grazing reserves across Nigeria.

    They described the move as anachronistic and antiquated, adding that private commercial ventures should not be elevated into national or government business.

    The statement, which was read by the Coordinating Secretary of SNPA, Dr. Ifedi Okwenna, in Asaba, the Delta State capital, deplored the rampaging attack, raping and killing of innocent Nigerians, especially the recent killings in Enugu, Benue and other states by the notorious Fulani herdsmen.

    Among the people at the three-day meeting were former Vice President Alex Ekwueme (represented by former Anambra State governor, Chukuwuemeka Ezeife; Ijaw National Leader Chief Edwin Clark, represented by Senator Roland Owie and Senator Femi Okorounmu, who  stood in for Bishop Bolanle Gbonigi.

    Ekwueme represented the South East while Clark and Gbonigi represented the South-South and the South West respectively.

    They said that the grazing bill portends danger to the nation as it will institute a source of permanent conflict in the land, especially the federal structure of the country and the 1999 Constitution, which vested the power to hold land in the 36 states of the country and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory.

    The leaders said: “The President should deal decisively with the issue of Fulani herdsmen in the manner government is dealing with the insurgency problem, that if unchecked, has the capacity to snowball to another Boko Haram.

    “Consequently, he should set up a Judicial Panel of Inquiry to investigate all Fulani herdsmen attacks between May 2015 till date and all those found to be directly or remotely involved in those attacks should be arrested and brought to book.”

    The leaders observed that the inability of President Buhari to begin the implementation of the resolutions of the 2014 National Conference was objectionable, as the resolutions, if implemented, may help in resolving many political, socio-economic and security challenges of the country.

    While calling on Nigerians to support Buhari in his anti-corruption drive, war on insurgency and his effort at reviving ailing industries, the Southern leaders urged the president to respect the rule of law, the protection of citizens’ fundamental human rights and the pronouncements of the courts.

    They advised that the war on corruption should neither be vindictive nor selective as selective justice amounts to injustice, and the immediate release of all Nigerians which various courts have given bail and have subsequently met their bail conditions.

    Also, they advised the Northern Elders Forum to desist from infusing in the present administration the “we and they” mentality, which they say usually creates division and confusion in the polity.

    “The Northern Elders Forum should realise that President Muhammadu Buhari is the President of Nigeria and not the President of Northern Nigeria.

    “The government is therefore for the entire Nigeria, and programmes and projects should be for the overall development and growth of the country and not a section of it.”

    They urged government to look into the gaps that existed in the foreign exchange market and bridge it and to also find solutions to the lingering fuel supply gaps and the epileptic electricity supply in the country.

    Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, who was represented by his Special Adviser of Labour, Mr. Mike Okeme, charged the assembly to use the platform to promote the unity of the country as development could only thrive in a peaceful and secured atmosphere.

    He said: “You are here to deliberate and proffer solutions to some of the national issues.

    “As you discuss, you should ensure that you represent the county in a positive light.

    “You should also use this platform to keep Nigeria united.”

  • Nigeria, Clark and his children

    Pa Kiagbodo Edwin Clark, an elder statesman and former Commissioner for Information in the Gowon’s post-civil war administration is an illustrious Nigerian. On account of his immeasurable contributions to the development of the country especially his Ijaw nation, as a teacher, bureaucrat and politician, he is in fact regarded a ‘Nigerian treasure’ by admirers of his brand of politics which thrives in the exploitation of the secret fears of his Ijaw people.

    As a man who often prefers to swim against the tide of popular opinion, he encouraged and supported Gowon’s controversial unilateral declaration that 1976, the scheduled year for hand-over of government to civilians had suddenly become unrealistic. For betraying the commitment he made to the people, Gowon, a hero of war and peace and author of ‘no victor no vanquished’ was humiliated out of office.

    Pa Clark has not changed much in the last 50 years. Ex-President Jonathan was his latest victim. Encouraged by Pa Clark to bite the fingers that fed him, he reneged on solemn promise and commitment he made to his party and Obasanjo his godfather to do only one term. Jonathan, who secured a landslide victory over Buhari in 2011, was humiliated out of office losing in four of the nation’s six geopolitical zones in last year election.

    When Obasanjo who single-handedly made him governor, vice president and president wrote an 18-page letter accusing his godson of maladministration, corruption and incompetence, Clark left the message and attacked the messenger describing the letter as ‘contemptuous and treasonable’ and insisting Nigeria does not belong to Obasanjo. For asking Jonathan who weirdly claimed ‘stealing is not corruption’ to rein in his thieving subordinates, Clark, the self- appointed ‘President’s father’, asked Obasanjo who he claimed had only N20,000 in his account after coming out of Gashua prison, to explain the source of his wealth after eight years as President. He did not forget to remind Obasanjo of the Halliburton bribe scandal and the Siemens corruption cases’ that happened under him.

    Last week, precisely on January 22, Edwin Clark once again chose to swim against the tide of public opinion. In the midst of sordid disclosures of how $2.1b ‘Dasukigate’ slush money meant to equip our out-gunned soldiers fighting insurgency was shared by PDP stalwarts, Clark wrote a 10-page letter to let President Buhari know why he must not humiliate his Niger Delta children notably Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo and embattled ex-NIMASA boss, Patrick Akpobolokemi, accused of mismanaging N3.4b of public money. He wrote glowingly about Tompolo who he described as ‘a civilized Nigerian who can never be part of the renewed bombing of the pipelines in the region’. He disclosed that Tompolo was the most level-headed of all the Niger Delta militants who but for his inadequacy in formal education would have been appointed into government. He admitted lobbying government to secure for him the lucrative multi-billion oil pipeline monitoring contract because of his experience of the creeks.

    Then In the same letter, Clark tongue-in-cheek says ‘I totally condemn the vandalisation of oil and gas pipelines and will give you 100 per cent support for whatever action you take to bring the culprits to book’. The question Nigerians should ask Pa Clark is why he did not accord Jonathan his son such support to stop a daily theft of crude oil which  Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala , the former Finance Minister put at 400,000 barrels a day.  And while Clark was blowing hot and cold, Tompolo who EFCC’s  lawyer, Festus Keyamo claimed turned down EFCC invitation and court summons, chose to write a letter directly to President Buhari claiming he had no knowledge  of NIMASA’s stolen N34b.

    Unfortunately for father and son, when  EFCC commenced trial of a Patrick Akpobolokemi, the former NIMASA boss and five others before Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court Lagos last Friday, Nigerians who thought they had seen the worst of PDP men in the sharing of Dasukigate’ blood money were dumbfounded with the testimonies of Chukwuemeka Benjamin, a fashion designer who told the court how his company,  Extreme Vertex Nigeria Limited received N546,000,000 from NIMASA for a service that was never executed.

    We are all victims of Pa Clark and his Niger Delta children – the errant politicians and the misguided youths, who cannot appreciate life is about ‘quid pro quo’, ‘give and take’ or service traded for something of value. The militants collect N65,000 for doing absolutely nothing. They are probably unaware that many youths in some parts of the country work in the farms or hawk pure water sachets to see themselves through secondary school, while many undergraduates of University of Lagos do laundry work at weekends to support themselves. Of course they are probably not aware many university graduates earn less than N50,000 in most places including newspapers houses in Lagos. Yet one of the apprehended armed gangs specialising in raiding of banks in Lagos last week confessed N65, 000 paid to militants was not enough to support his lifestyle without oil bunkering and armed robbery.

    If Clark’s ill-educated militant children do not know they need to earn their N65, 000 pay, his senior errant children, the governors who collect the 13% derivation without accountability do not fare better. Why should some governors that collect in one month what some states collect in one year not guarantee the security of facilities located within their states? They along with Pa Clark who claimed Tompolo is deficient in formal education should be held responsible for the fate of Tompolo and his other deprived Niger Delta youths. It took Awo less than 10 years to implement free primary education and establish world-class University of Ife in spite of the impediments put on his way by Clark and his Ijaw elite he claimed chose to align with the north 50 years ago. It is not an accident that Niger Delta’s marginalised armed youths who engage in crime share the same fate with their marginalised northern counterparts who spend 10 months in the bush every year looking after cattle owned by the elite.

    But how do we liberate ourselves from Clark’s children – the armed militants who not only destroy facilities they are paid to safeguard in the creeks, but also attack innocent people in Lagos and his governors who say stealing public fund is not corruption? As we have always said, we cannot reinvent the wheel. All we require is a leader who can properly articulate our crisis of nationhood. Federalism is the social philosophy that liberates groups and individual from the tyranny of state and selfish state actors.

    With fiscal federalism, those who say stealing is not corruption can take control of their golden egg and pay 50% tax to the federal government. Those who cannot lay golden egg will revert back to land. After all Nigeria was once world greatest exporter of groundnut and palm oil and seventh in cocoa. The billions we currently waste on amnesty and for providing security by militants and soldiers to keep the restive Niger Delta youths under control can be deployed as agriculture subsidy. That is what happens in Malaysia and Thailand from where we import rice that had been kept in the silos for upward of 10 years.

    With oil selling at about $31 per barrel, now is the time to call off the bluff of Clark’s subtle blackmail of ‘Niger Delta lays the golden egg’ and that of other Niger Delta irritants such as Niger Delta Patriotic Alliance (NPDA) who says Buhari must allow criminals to operate freely in Lagos. Clark’s friends in the north who he claimed own all the oil wells can relocate to Niger Delta or South-south when we restructure if they so desired. Restructuring is the only answer to corruption, violent crimes, fake drug peddling and other social ills in a multi-ethnic society where groups operate at different level of cultural development.

  • Bayelsa polls: Clark blames Dickson, Sylva for violence

    Bayelsa polls: Clark blames Dickson, Sylva for violence

    Ijaw leader Chief Edwin Clark has criticised the two main contestants in the last Bayelsa State governorship election – Governor Seriake Dickson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former Governor Timipre Sylva of the All Progressives Congress (APC) – for the violence that occurred during the December 5, 2015 and January 9 elections.

    Clark said Dickson and Sylva were to blame for the bloodshed that accompanied the polls.

    He insisted that both men did not show any sign of being top democrats in their actions.

    The 89-year-old former Federal commissioner and an ally of former President Goodluck Jonathan, said he would speak his mind and damn the consequence.

    He said: “These two people, from their behaviour, are not democrats. If you are not a democrat, you cannot practise democracy. They want to show power, they want to hold offices. That is all.”

    The elder statesman, who recently announced his retirement from partisan politics, said: “I plead with Governor Dickson and Chief Sylva to please, for the sake of the lives lost, for the sake of the tears shed, for the sake of the property destroyed, for the sake of the little children and expectant mothers, for the sake of the unborn generation, for the sake of the Izon nation and for the sake of the Almighty God, to not only sheathe their swords but also think soberly, embrace and truly be seen to have embraced peace. Let us say no to next drop of tears that will flow from the eyes of the Izon nation.”

    Clark urged the two men to avoid being used by what he called external forces to arouse divisive and destructive politics among the Izon nation.

    The Ijaw leader, who did not begrudge Sylva for contesting the outcome of the election, which Dickson won, advised the APC flag bearer to follow the political legacy of former President Jonathan by conceding defeat to his opponent.

    Bayelsa State Commissioner for Education Dein Benadoumene and a member of the House of Assembly, Mike Ogbere, yesterday denied the allegations that the PDP hijacked electoral materials during the concluded rerun in Ekeremor Local Government Area.

    The duo said the statement credited to the Minister of State for Agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, that the PDP allegedly connived with one military officer, identified simply as Major Umar, to divert election materials, was false and baseless.

    But Ogbere, who is representing Ekeremor III and Benadoumene, said the allegation was a figment of Lokpobiri’s imagination to discredit the outcome of the poll.

    The PDP leaders, who spoke in Yenagoa, the state capital, said the party neither knew any Major Umar nor a military officer.

    They added that they could not have engaged the services of such a person.

  • Clark: from extravagant somersault to extraordinary recantation

    Clark: from extravagant somersault to extraordinary recantation

    Nigeria’s depressing and often humiliating politics is occasionally enlivened by letter wars of an exceedingly high quality, if not in style, then at least in vitriol. The recent war between Edwin Clark, an octogenarian Ijaw leader and former Information minister, and Reuben Abati, ex-president Goodluck Konathan’s spokesman, is no exception. The letter wars are indulged in by a few select braves, men who are loth to let the enemy have the last word. Nigerians were used to ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, the common denominator in many of these wars, squaring up with both Wole Soyinka, Nobel laureate, and Audu Ogbeh, former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chairman. Now the audience will have to accommodate Chief Clark and Dr Abati among the sanguinary host of wounding, open letters. Professor Soyinka is used to letter wars, and does not shirk lexical battles. So, too, are Chief Obasanjo and Chief Clark. Chief Ogbeh has proved himself a man with strong chin and firm knees. Did Dr Abati take counsel before plunging into this maelstrom?

    In early October, Chief Clark drew the first blood when he accused Dr Jonathan of lacking the political will to fight corruption. That weakness, he charged, allowed those around the former president to feather their nests and ultimately doom his presidency. Of all the things he had to say about the former president, none was as wounding as depicting Dr Jonathan as weak, a charge the public will remember the former president battled unsuccessfully throughout his presidency to dispel. At one time, he had exploded in frustration that the public was attempting to mould him into a Pharaoh or a Nebuchadnezzar. Dr Jonathan may, for tactical reasons, be reticent since he left office, he, however, does not lack defenders. One of them, Dr Abati, rose stoutly in the ex-president’s defence less than two weeks after Chief Clark released his toxic statement.

    Dr Abati virtually poured scorn on all that Chief Clark had to say, almost calling him a hypocrite, and wildly punning one of the Ijaw leader’s luxuriant, haunting statements, to wit, that when Dr Jonathan was president, he was Chief Clark’s son. Entitled ‘Clark the father; Jonathan the son,’ Dr Abati proceeded to take Chief Clark’s statement apart, piece by piece. Cut to the quick, and never one to let bad enough alone, Chief Clark issued a lengthy rebuttal of what he described as Dr Abati’s tendentious statements. The former spokesman, roared Chief Clark, was disloyal and incompetent, and was one of those who contributed to the former president’s defeat. Worse, said Chief Clark, Reuben Abati never really believed in Dr Jonathan, considering the vitriolic phrases he used as a columnist with the Guardian to denounce the former president.

    Hear Chief Clark in all his unpleasant directness: “Dr. Reuben Abati has risen to the defence of his last employer too late. He owes the former President apologies for his (Reuben Abati) failure to perform while in office. I should not be used as a scapegoat. I love Goodluck Jonathan and Goodluck Jonathan loves me… I do not recall any favourable remark made by Abati all those years when he was the chairman of the Editorial Board [of the Guardian] and syndicated columnist about the former president, His Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and the First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan. If I recall correctly, they were always the butt of ridicule by Dr. Reuben Abati. In fact, he became so notorious and fearless a critic of former President Jonathan and his wife in the Guardian Newspaper that I had to draw the attention of my cousin the proprietor of the Guardian newspaper to his excesses. These vitriolic attacks on former President Jonathan and his wife only stopped when he was appointed the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity by the former president.”

    The innuendoes are unmistakable. Perhaps, Dr Abati will find it fitting to respond to the impugner. And just so that everyone will know how contemptuously journalists are regarded in Nigeria, Chief Clark threw in this hard bone for media professionals to chew. Said he gratuitously: “My advice that a publicity committee made up of eminent journalists be put in place in Aso Rock and that media proprietors and senior journalists should be invited to Aso Rock were jettisoned by Abati because of what I suppose is his covetousness, particularly when many journalists and media houses always complained to me that he was not carrying them along.” It may never be known who the offended journalists and media houses are. But far be it from this column to describe Chief Clark as a liar. Was it clear enough that the Ijaw leader was asking Dr Abati to enthrone a regime of financial inducement and settlement? But was it not also clear that many occupants of the office of the president’s spokesperson had complained bitterly of the insatiability of top journalists and media houses who view Aso Villa as a gravy train? Perhaps Dr Abati will also address this matter in his rejoinder. It would be a shame if Chief Clark should have the last word, especially in view of his damaging assertions and poetic inelegance.

    Chief Clark did not end his furious and indignant reply until he had penned a panegyric on the man he first described in early October as weak. Said he of Dr Jonathan: “He tarred more roads than any of his predecessors; he turned agriculture to agro-business, a multibillion dollar business; he built the Almajiri schools in the Northern parts of this country. He established new federal universities across this nation; he allowed for free speech across this nation, and did not mind when he was criticised or, even, abused. People were not arbitrarily locked up in jail or prison, as he truly respected the rule of law… He brought transparency into the electoral process – when people could vote and the votes actually openly counted without violence. Today he stands as the first African president to concede an election to an opponent, even before the final counts,” and on and on, ad infinitum. It is not certain, however, that this fulsome, contrived and deliberate expiation atoned for the damaging description of early October. Chief Clark should have let bad enough alone.

     

  • Clark, the father, Jonathan, the son – Ex-President’s Media Adviser Reuben Abati

    Clark, the father, Jonathan, the son – Ex-President’s Media Adviser Reuben Abati

    I have tried delaying the writing of this piece in the honest expectation that someone probably misquoted Chief E.K. Clark, when he reportedly publicly disowned former President Goodluck Jonathan. I had hoped that our dear father, E.K. Clark, would issue a counter statement and say the usual things politicians say: “They quoted me out of context!” “Jonathan is my son”. That has not happened; rather, some other Ijaw voices, including one Joseph Evah, have come to the defence of the old man, to join hands in rubbishing a man they once defended to the hilt and used as a bargaining chip for the Ijaw interest in the larger Nigerian geo-politics.

    If President Jonathan had returned to power on May 29, 2015, these same persons would have remained in the corridors of power, displaying all forms of ethnic triumphalism. It is the reason in case they do not realize it, why the existent power blocs that consider themselves most fit to rule, continue to believe that those whose ancestors never ran empires can never be trusted with power, hence they can only be admitted as other people’s agents or as merchants of their own interests which may even be defined for them as is deemed convenient. Mercantilism may bring profit, but in power politics, it destroys integrity and compromises otherwise sacred values.

    President Jonathan being publicly condemned by his own Ijaw brothers, particularly those who were once staunch supporters of his government, further serves the purpose of exposing the limits of the politics of proximity. Politics in Africa is driven by this particular factor; it is at the root of all the other evils: prebendalism, clientelism and what Matthew Kukah has famously described as the “myownisation of power”. It is both positive and negative, but obviously, more of the latter than the former. It is considered positive only when it is beneficial to all parties concerned, and when the template changes, the ground also shifts. As in that song, the solid rock of proximity is soon replaced by shifting sands. Old worship becomes new opportunism. And the observant public is left confounded.

    Chief E.K. Clark? Who would ever think, Chief E.K. Clark would publicly disown President Jonathan?  He says Jonathan was a weak President. At what point did he come to that realisation? Yet, throughout the five years (not six, please) of the Jonathan Presidency, he spoke loudly against anyone who opposed the President. He was so combative he was once quoted as suggesting that Nigeria could have problems if Jonathan was not allowed to return to office. Today, he is the one helping President Jonathan’s successor to quench the fires. He always openly said President Jonathan is “his son”. Today, he is not just turning against his own son, he is telling the world his son as President lacked the political will to fight corruption. He has also accused his son of being too much of a gentleman. Really? Gentlemanliness would be considered honourable in refined circles.  Is Pa E.K. Clark recommending something else in order to prove that he is no longer a politician but a statesman as he says?

    As someone who was a member of the Jonathan administration, and who interacted often with the old man, I can only say that I am shocked.  This is the equivalent of the old man deleting President Jonathan’s phone number and ensuring that calls from his phone no longer ring at the Jonathan end. During the Jonathan years, Chief E. K. Clark was arguably the most vocal Ijaw leader defending the government. He called the President “my son”, and both father and son remained in constant touch.

    There is something about having the President’s ears in a presidential system, elevated to the level of a fetish in the clientilist Nigerian political system. Persons in the corridors of power who have the President’s ear- be they cook, valet, inlaws, wife, cousin, former school mates, priests, or whatever, enjoy special privileges. They have access to the President and they can whisper into his ears. That’s all they have as power: the power to whisper and run a whispering campaign that can translate into opportunities or losses for those outside that informal power loop around every Presidency, that tends to be really influential.

    Every President must beware of those persons who come around calling them “Daddy”, “Uncle”, na my brother dey there”, “my son”, “our in-law”: emotional blackmailers relying on old connections. They are courted, patronised and given more attention and honour than they deserve by those looking for access to the President or government. Even when the power and authority of the whispering exploiters of the politics of proximity is contrived, they go out of their way to exaggerate it. They acquire so much from being seen to be in a position to make things happen.

    Chief E. K. Clark had the President’s ears. He had unfettered access to his son. He was invited to most state events. And he looked out for the man he called “my son”, in whom he was well pleased. Chief Clark’s energy level in the service of the Jonathan administration was impressive. Fearless and outspoken, he deployed his enormous talents in the service of the Jonathan government.  If a press statement was tame, he drew attention to it and urged a more robust defence of “your boss”. If any invective from the APC was overlooked, he urged prompt rebuttal. If the party was tardy in defending “his son”, he weighed in.

    If anyone had accused the President of lacking “the political will to fight corruption” at that time, he, E.K. Clark, would have called a press conference to draw attention to the Jonathan administration’s institutional reforms and preventive measures, his commitment to electoral integrity to check political corruption, and the hundreds of convictions secured by both the ICPC and EFCC under his son’s watch. So prominent and influential was he, that ministers, political jobbers etc etc trooped to his house to pay homage.

    In due course, those who opposed President Jonathan did not spare Chief E. K. Clark either. He was accused of making inflammatory and unstatesman-like statements. An old war-horse, nobody could intimidate him. He was not President Olusegun Obasanjo’s fan in particular. He believed Obasanjo wanted to sabotage his son, and he wanted Obasanjo put in his place. Beneath all of that, was an unmistaken rivalry between the two old men, seeking to control the levers of Nigerian politics.

    Every President probably needs a strong, passionate ally like Chief E. K. Clark. But what happened? What went wrong? Don’t get me wrong. I am not necessarily saying that the Ijaw leader should have remained loyal to and defend Goodluck Jonathan because they are both Ijaws, patriotism definitely could be stronger than ethnic affinities, nonetheless that E. K. Clark tale about leaving politics and becoming a statesman is nothing but sheer crap. If Jonathan had returned to office, he would still be a card-carrying member of the PDP and the “father of the President” and we would still have been hearing that famous phrase, “my son”. Chief E. K. Clark, five months after, has practically told the world that President Buhari is better than “his own son”.

    It is the worst form of humiliation that President Jonathan has received since he left office.  It is also the finest compliment that President Buhari has received since he assumed office. The timing is also auspicious: just when the public is beginning to worry about the direction of the Buhari government, E. K. Clark shows up to lend a hand of support and endorsement. Only one phrase was missing in his statement, and it should have been added: “my son, Buhari.” It probably won’t be too long before we hear the old man saying “I am a statesman, Buhari is my son.”  I can imagine President Obasanjo grinning with delight. If he really wants to be kind, he could invite E.K. Clark to his home in Ota or Abeokuta to come and do the needful by publicly tearing his PDP membership card and join him in that exclusive club of Nigerian statesmen! The only problem with that club these days is that you can become a member by just saying so or by retiring from partisan politics. We are more or less being told that there are no statesmen in any of the political parties.

    It is not funny. Julius Ceasar asked Brutus in one of the famous lines in written literature: “Et tu Brutus?” President Jonathan should ask Chief E. K. Clark: “Et tu Papa?” To which the father will probably tell the son: “Ces’t la vie, mon cher garcon.” And really, that is life. In the face of other considerations, loyalties vanish; synergies collapse. The wisdom of the tribe is overturned; the politics of proximity dissolves; loyalties remain in a perpetual process of construction. Thus, individual interests and transactions drive the political game in Nigeria, with time and context as key determinants.

    These are teachable moments for President Jonathan. Power attracts men and women like bees to nectar, the state of powerlessness ends as a journey to the island of loneliness. However, the greatest defender of our work in office is not our ethnic “fathers and “brothers” but rather our legacy. The real loss is that President Jonathan’s heroism, his messianic sacrifice in the face of defeat, is being swept under the carpet and his own brothers who used to say that the Ijaws are driven by a principle of “one for all and all for another”, have become agent-architects of his pain. The Ijaw platform having seemingly been de-centered, Chief E.K. Clark and others are seeking assimilation in the new power structure. It is a telling reconstruction of the politics of proximity and mimicry.

    Chief E.K. Clark once defended the rights of ethnic minorities to aspire to the highest offices in the land, his latest declaration about his son reaffirms the existing stereotype at the heart of Nigeria’s hegemonic politics. The same hegemons and their agents whom Clark used to fight furiously will no doubt find him eminently quotable now that he has proclaimed that it is wrong to be a “gentleman”, and that his son lacks “the political will to fight corruption”. There is more to this than we may ever know. Chief Clark can insist from now till 2019,  that he has spoken as a statesman and as a matter of principle. His re-alignment,  is curious nonetheless.

     

  • Jonathan lacked willpower to fight corruption, says Clark

    Jonathan lacked willpower to fight corruption, says Clark

    The Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, has said ex-President Goodluck Jonathan lacked the will power to fight corruption.

    The elder statesman, who spoke when he hosted the Think Nigeria First Initiative Group, who visited him at his Asokoro home in Abuja, said President Jonathan meant well for the country but lacked the will power to tackle corrupt politicians.

    He said: “Jonathan is a gentleman. He is too gentle. Drivers under his administration are now living in palatial buildings. In advanced countries, when you are living above your means, people query you. This is not so in Nigeria. Former governors and lawmakers are asking for immunity.

    “Jonathan meant well for this country, but the will power to fight corruption was not there.

    “In an ideal society, when a man who earns N20,000 as salary and all of a sudden, he acquires something that is worth N100,000, he should be questioned. But in Nigeria, immunity has covered those that should be questioned.

    “This is not the kind of country we want. Being a gentleman is not enough to govern this country.”

    Clark announced his retirement from politics. He said he had quit the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and would not join the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    He said despite announcing his retirement from politics, he would not stop criticising injustice.

    Clark, a well-known supporter of former President Jonathan, hailed President  Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption war.

    He said: “I’m a true Nigerian. I have Muslims in my house, although I’m a Christian. Boko Haram is a problem  for all of us and we must fight it.”

    The elder statesman, who reiterated his support for Buhari’s quest to fight corruption, urged people to support him.

    According to Clark, “it is not everything done by the opponent that is wrong. I will therefore support the policies that are good for the country because Nigeria belongs to all of us.

    “We should support Buhari, particularly in his determination to eradicate corruption. For eight years, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo legalised corruption. Yet, he’s talking about corruption. If your brother was arrested, did he give you money? If your sister was arrested for corruption, did she give you money?

    “Nobody should distract President Buhari from fighting corruption. People should stop talking about sectional or selective justice.”

    He advised those yet to recover from the loss of the general election to forget their defeat and support the present administration to move the nation forward.

  • Why Buhari must ignore, Nwabueze, Clark, Okunronmu

    I think President Buhari should worry more about how to keep his own side of the social contract with Nigerian voters. Elders who claim to speak for Ohaneze and old Afenifere, associations of less than ten veteran politicians, saw no evil and heard no evil. Now that the chickens have come home to roost, elders who behaved as if they didn’t have stakes in Nigeria are using their control and influence of the media to jam our earlobes with howling newspaper headlines such as  ‘outrage grows across Nigeria’, ‘more outrage over Buhari appointments’, ‘Buhari’s lopsided appointments’ split the north’, ‘Buhari’s war against the south’etc

    And why is the country being heated up? The APC spokesman Lai Mohammed and Governor Adam Oshiomhole made some disturbing disclosures. They claimed  N3.8 trillion of the N8.1 trillion  earned from crude oil between 2012 and 2015 was not accounted for  by NNPC; they spoke of $2.1b unauthorised withdrawal from the excess crude account; missing N109.7b royalty from oil firms;N6b allegedly looted by ministers, 160b barrels of crude worth $13.9b lost between 2009 and 2012.; $15m from botched arms deal with South Africa and N183b yet to be accounted for in NNDC, $700m taken from the Sovereign Wealth Account for the second Onitsha Bridge without any bridge and the money-gobbling Onitsha-Owerri-Enugu dual carriage that is leading nowhere. Added to all these are ‘a mind-shattering $2.2billion-arms scandal and an alleged $6.9 million fraud by chief of security (CS)) to ex-president Jonathan committed under the guise of buying three mobile stages for Jonathan’s campaign

    But these are all mere allegations which according to Olisa Mentuh, PDP spokesman are ‘irresponsible, reckless and provocative ‘bandied imaginary figures’. But while one would have expected our respected Nwabueze to wait for the judicial process to start, he chose to issue a statement titled ‘Corrupt Practices: “Igbo leaders position on probe of past governments’, where he argued against limiting the probe to the administration of Jonathan which according to him ‘would be ‘selective, unjust and unfair’. He speculated that such a probe will be used to humiliate political opponents of government. The question to ask is why Prof. Nwabueze has chosen to fight for those who have neither been accused nor charged. As for Chief Edwin Clark, ex-president Obasanjo who he alleged is corrupt must first be probed.  But for many, that Chief Clark is only just discovering that Obasanjo is corrupt after he had single handedly promoted Jonathan from deputy governor to governor, vice-president, and President with grateful Jonathan describing Obasanjo as the third most important influence on his life after God and his parents is a measure of the quality of his advice to Jonathan who ended up describing Obasanjo as a ‘motor park tout’.

    And those who have taken up arms over appointment forget we run a presidential system where the buck ends on the presidents table. As soon as  Buhari  named  Dr  Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu as the Group MD of NNPC, an institution that controls over 75% of the nations earning, Dr. Ezeife, who had openly expressed lack of faith in Buhari, said the position was not enough for the Igbo. But with the filling of some 30 positions, ranging from his chief of staff, national security adviser and SGF, a post he gave to a pastor from one of the minority ethnic groups in the north, perhaps as an answer to Dr Eziefe and others who said they mobilised against Buhari for fear of Islamisation of the country, these permanent Igbo office seekers have decided to heat up the polity. They now say the SGF position recently vacated by Anyim Pius Anyim ought to have been ceded to Igbo by a president they said they don’t trust. Didn’t he say he “belongs to all and he belongs to no one”? –  they reasoned. And suddenly Kachikwu ceased being an Igbo man but a Delta Igbo. And those who have suddenly forgotten South-South and South-East cornered 30 out of the forty most important parastatals in the country only yesterday, ostensibly on behalf of the Igbo poor are now set to wage war against Buhari for appointing those he trusted. The thousands of offices yet to be filled, they openly argue, is not as important as being a member of the kitchen cabinet of a president they said they would mobilise against if another opportunity comes up tomorrow.

    Self serving Igbo leaders who fraudulently swear in the name of their people to secure positions have their counterparts in the Yoruba country. The self-styled Southern Nigeria Peoples Assembly (SNPA) hosted by Mimiko  in Akure last week where President Buhari was criticised for what was described as “his lopsided appointments and selective war against corruption”, was the same group which in January this year endorsed Jonathan for reelection in Enugu. Unfortunately at the Akure gathering, Mimiko and his relevance-seeking group spoke not for the Yoruba but for themselves. Yoruba are often more concerned about a leadership that will guarantee fairness and justice for all. As Bode Thomas argued during the constitutional debate leading to independence, Yoruba quest for regionalism was to prevent the country from being subjected to the rule of a one-eyed-king. During the 1959 elections, Awo offered to serve as Zik’s deputy. He voluntarily resigned as Finance Secretary and de facto Prime Minister under Gowon after the civil war.  If Yoruba supported MKO Abiola in 1993, it was because he was the best material in that election, a fact confirmed by his landslide victory all over the country including military barracks and in Kano where Tofa was floored in his constituency. Yoruba rejected Ernest Shonekan the impostor and was literally chased out of power through the judicial process. It was for the same reason Yoruba rejected Obasanjo who lost his Abeokuta ward election in 1999 when the military and those who constituted themselves into the hegemonic power bloc in Nigeria graciously decided to allow a Yoruba man become president. In the not too distant past, the Yoruba supported Tambuwal to become the Speaker of the seventh assembly against a Yoruba candidate. It is therefore a disservice to the Yoruba nation for Mimiko to give a wrong impression that the Yoruba are fighting Buhari’s government they helped to put in place over appointments.

    The mood of the nation today allows Buhari to ignore the noises of errant elders, and if he so desires, seek from his Daura village a minister for Abuja Territory who would not cede prime Abuja land to a sitting president, his wife and a Secretary to government, Ministers of Petroleum and Finance who will not jointly preside over the theft and disbursement of N1,7triilion to fuel fraudsters, a Minister of Defence who will be loyal to Nigeria instead of fighting the president’s dirty political  wars in the colours of ‘Ekitigate’, pacification of Oshun and disruption of public work with soldiers in Lagos, a Minster of Education who will not be too engrossed mobilising militants for the president’s reelection bid while universities and polytechnics  shut down for close to a year and a Minister of Internal Affairs who will not fleece young job seekers of over N1b and end up supervising state murder of some of them through sloppy arrangement. And if it is from Daura he can find a replica of ‘Kashikwu’, said to be a round peg in a round hole for NNPC, to clean up other stinking parastatals, he has the support of Nigerians.

  • Clark offers scholarships to 100 undergraduates

    The alleged killing of the chairman of Oghara Vigilante Group, Mr. Benson Ogedegbe, by men of the 19 Battalion of the Nigeria Army, has continued to generate more controversy across the state.

    Chairman of Oghara Community Youth Association, Mr. Efe Tobor, yesterday said eyewitnesses’ accounts claimed that Ogedegbe was killed while attempting to wrestle a rifle from one of the soldiers.

    Mr. Tobor, who spoke through his counsel, Barr. Jane Ovierere, in Benin City, said late Ogedegbe was earlier arrested in 2013 by a joint task force of the 19 Battalion Army in Koko in line with illegal bunkery/pipeline vandalization in Oghara.

    Barr. Ovierere said a notorious criminal nabbed by soldiers in May 2015 named late Ogedegbe as the source of their arms and ammunition.

    Ovierere stated that the confession of the suspect placed late Ogedegbe on the wanted list of the Army after he failed to honour the invitation of the JTF.

    She countered claims by Ogedegbe’s wife that her husband was assassinated by the soldiers because she was at the scene of the crime, and could have been killed by the soldiers ‘knowing full well that she can identify and testify against them.’

    According to her, “He never returned until the suspect Mr. Austine Adede was released to the Nigeria Police for proper prosecution and the Oghara Youth election which was fast approaching.

    “On the day of his death, late Benson Ogedegbe was seen by a roundabout and was chased by the Army until he got to a no alternative road/route. He jumped off his car and started running until a soldier caught up with him and held him from behind.

    “My friend Uforma, who was watching from her room window, saw late Benson Ogedegbe dragging a riffle with the soldier who held him. All she heard next was a gunshot and Benson Ogedegbe falling to the ground.”

  • Clark canvases support for Buhari

    Clark canvases support for Buhari

    IJAW leader Chief Edwin Clark has urged the citizenry to support President Muhammadu Buhari, saying the time has come for all to develop Nigeria.

    He advised Buhari to treat all Nigerians equally, irrespective of ethnic group, party or gender.

    The elder statesman added that President Buhari “is fit and ready for the job”.

    Clark, a diehard supporter of former President Goodluck Jonathan, spoke in Abuja yesterday when a group, Probity Ambassadors Organisation of Nigeria, conferred on him a life time achievement award.

    He said he was sure that the president will bring about development.

    Calling on all Nigerians to help Buhari succeed, Clark stressed that electioneering campaigns are over and a winner has emerged in Buhari, hence everybody must support the President.

    He added that “the nation has come to stay and must be developed”.

    “My advice for Mr. President and APC is to regard Nigeria as one. The attitude of winner takes all should not be employed.

    “Definitely, to bring development to the country, he has to satisfy the yearnings of all Nigerians – those who voted for him and those who voted against him.

    “We all own Mr. President and no one section owns him. We all want a Nigeria, where everybody believes that we are one. Without the minority or the majority, no one group can succeed,” he stated.

    Clark had debunked reports in some quarters that he slumped after Jonathan lost the March 28 election.

    “Why will I die because Jonathan lost election. Nigeria belongs to all of us. No one owns Nigeria. I like the speech of Buhari that he belongs to everybody,” he added.

  • Clark, Hezekiah varsities approved

    Clark, Hezekiah varsities approved

    THE Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the establishment of two private universities.

    They are Edwin Clark University in Delta State and Hezekiah University in Umudi, Imo State.

    The Minister of Information, Senator Patricia Akwashiki, broke the news at the end of the FEC meeting.

    According to her, the establishment of the universities was aimed at meeting the high demand for admissions into tertiary institutions.