The Leader of the South-South Peoples Assembly, Chief Edwin Clark has accused Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi of dramatizing the crisis in the state.
Besides, the former Federal Commissioner said it was wrong to have elevated the crisis to the national issue.
The elder statesman also said that Ijaw leaders will mediate in the crisis between Bayelsa and Rivers over oil field.
He spoke on Wednesday night at the opening of the one day expanded National Working Committee of the South South Peoples Assembly, held in Asokoro, Abuja.
He said,” the governor of River State is dramatizing the crisis in the state and he just wants support. And some distractors and opponents of this government are using the Rivers state issue to create crisis in the country. What is happening in the state is between two factions and nobody has been killed.
“We have sat here on two occasions to discuss Rivers problem. It is a shame that the problem of Rivers State has now become a national issue. It is true that Rivers is part of Nigeria, is Ogun State not also part of Nigeria? Recently, people were killed even within one party. What happened in Ekiti State where people were killed? How many people have been killed in Rivers State?
“The Senator who flew to London, it has been discovered that he was pretending, he was not shot at, he was not injured.”
While commending the people of RIvers for their unalloyed support for President Goodluck Jonathan, Clark pleaded that the President be left out of the alleged role being played by the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Joseph Mbu in the crisis.
Chief Clark, who also spoke on the crisis between Bayelsa and Rivers over oil issue, said it should not be another issue for campaign as the Ijaw leaders have decided to wade in.
He explained that “after consultations with Ijaw leaders, we have decided as leaders to takeover this matter to call the two sides together. And so I am appealing to the government of Baylesa and Rivers to handoff this problem of the oil between the states.”
Clark also wants the President to be left out of the issue, arguing that “this is not the first time there will be crisis over oil issue. There have been crisis between Akwa-Ibom and Cross River, Akwa-Ibom and Rivers and Abia and Rivers. In all these there was never a time the President’s name was mentioned. So why is it that today the President’s name is being mentioned as if he is the one causing the problem? We are taking over this issue from the government.”
Tag: Edwin Clark
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Amaechi dramatizing Rivers crisis – Clark
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‘Clark not laying good example’
A partian group, ‘Total Loyalty’ yesterday advised the Ijaw leader, Senator Edwin Clark, to lay a good example of statesmanship, instead of heating up the polity.
The group said in a statement by its leader, Alhaji Oluwatoyin Balogun, that a wise man should engage in acts that unite the country at the twilight of life.
Flaying the elderstatesman for his uncharitable remarks about Senator Bola Tinubu, the group also correct the impression that noise making is the hallmark of leadership in the Niger Delta.
According to ‘Total Loyalty’, Yoruba have leaders of impeccable character, adding that Asiwaju Tinubu is one of them.
Balogun said: “Old age should connote wisdom. But, reasoning and judgment can be called to test when a leader is not constructive in his criticisms. Old age demands that the aged should be more careful before making a statement.
“Also, as an elderstateman is expected to give priority to the general interest of the country against the interest of his ethnic group. When Chief Edwin Clark said that the Yoruba nation has no leader, he was being malicious. He made an offensive and provocative remark.
“We have a leader and the one we are proud of. Tinubu’s leadership acumen is evident in the development of his region. It also reflects in the activities of his followers who are governors in five states. In the Southwest, good governance is a priority.”
Balogun described Tinubu as a dependable leade worthy of emulation, adding that his legacies are evergreen in Lagos State which he served as the governor between 1999 and 2007.
He recalled that the former governor fought for democracy at a time some elders supported the military regimes.
Balogun said that Clark is on the prowl because reality has dawned on him that President Goodluck Jonathan will be voted out of power in 2015.
He added: “Chief Edwin Clark undoubtedly lacks the moral justification to mock the antecedent of this outstanding Yoruba son. Making a derogatory remark against the Yoruba further portrays the Ijaws as ingrate. Chief Edwin Clark should rather confess his fear, which is that his son, Dr. Jonathan, who has not lived up to expectation, will not be re-elected as the Preident in 2015.”
Balogun challenged the Ijaw leader to list the achievements of the President that will make Nigerians to vote for him at the presidential poll.
He queried: “ What has the country benefited from his advice to his kinsman in the Aso Villa? In his sincere judgment, is the country fair better under the headship of Dr. Jonathan?”
Balogun described Clark as an ungrateful politician who has suddenly forgotten the past.
He reminded the Ijaw leader that a Yoruba man engineered the emergence of a Nigerian from the minority tribe as the President.
Balogun added: “The Ijaw chief is a beneficiary of that power shift. His region is a beneficiary. They now have a sense of belonging. When his kinsman was unconstitutionally denied the right to leadership, Yoruba leaders rose in defense of Dr. Jonathan. Yoruba spoke above the whispers, staged a protest, supported the doctrine of necessity and voted for him in 2011. But, problem started when the President failed to perform.”
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Jonathan’s re-election and Edwin Clark’s Calvinism
IN the disjointed Calvinism of Edwin Clark, the octogenarian Ijaw leader who was a one-time Minister of Information, anyone who became a president or head of state was enthroned by God. It is not certain whether he will modify this view if or when such a president is humiliated or dethroned. But in his quaint logic, Chief Clark considers anyone who opposes such an anointed leader as God’s enemy. He reiterated this view when leaders of the South-South community in Abuja paid him a visit at his FCT residence a few days ago. He had expressed this view many times in the past and had been roundly pilloried for it, but he has remained unyielding.
An unhealthy mixture of fatalism and destiny can be gleaned from Chief Clark’s sophomoric theology. He has, however, remained undeterred assuming he is capable of appreciating the drawbacks in his doctrine for the benefits he derives from propagating his outlandish religious philosophy far outweigh the embarrassment he gets from being associated with college piffle. For the moment, please ignore the fatalism in his improperly digested theology. After all, most of his countrymen subscribe to one superstition or the other, and pas through life flogged by their many private and public demons. So, fatalism is nothing new; it is a public staple in these parts. Instead, try to focus on his philosophy of destiny, for here you will make rich pickings.
Chief Clark says God enthroned President Jonathan. We could have sworn he was ridiculing us, especially considering how valiantly many of us fought the late President Uamru Yar’Adua’s sinister and faceless cabal to get the undeserving Jonathan into the exalted office. But in order not to give offence to our religious compatriots, we must agree with the old man that God put President Jonathan in office, of course, using our feeble selves. Following that logic, we must embrace the idea that God put Adolf Hitler in power in order to get him to murder six million Jews and hasten the end of the Jewish diaspora. We must also agree that God put Idi Amin in power to teach Ugandans a lesson, Mobutu Sese Seko to afflict Zaireans, Jean Bedel Bokasa to torment Central African Republic (CAR), which torment is yet to end after his death, and Sani Abacha perhaps to unite us against our ethnic follies, etc.
Had Chief Clark in his dotage focused more on fine-tuning the Calvinism of his youth than on abandoning himself to the endless joys, and perhaps codification, of connubial matters, he would have understood that the contemporary Pentecostalism he noisily embraces is anchored on the Lutheran concept of moral sense. God has vouchsafed choice to us. He of course permits those things He wants to permit. But since the debacle of Eden, when Adam blamed God for providing him a female perjurer, the Almighty has been chary of imposing wives on men, as he has been reluctant to impose rulers on the sons of men. Forgive the lyricism. In reality, human beings have sometimes presumptuously equated their voices in elections with the voice of God (Vox populi, vox Dei), but it is doubtful if God is carried away by our insufferable naughtiness. After all, we elected Chief Olusegun Obasanjo twice even after knowing his potential for egomania and misguided workaholism, not to say our hunch regarding his incompetence.
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Clark berates Obasanjo over open letter to Jonathan
Ijaw leader Chief Edwin Clark yesterday berated former President Olusegun Obasanjo for writing an open letter to President Goodluck Jonathan.
Obasanjo, in a December 3, 2013 letter to Jonathan, raised several issues, including allegation that 1,000 Nigerians were under political watch.
Snipers, the former President also alleged, might have been undergoing training to pounce on Jonathan’s political enemies.
Obasanjo raised several national and personal issues in the open letter.
Dr Jonathan had replied to the various issues the former President raised in the missive.
But Clark, in a letter dated January 3 and obtained last night in Abuja by our correspondent, denied Obasanjo’s allegations.
He described Obasanjo’s allegations as “mere diabolical concoction and a figment of his imagination”.
The Ijaw chief also denied the allegation that Jonathan was surrounded by his kinsmen, saying they were among the plans to discredit Jonathan ahead of the 2015 general elections.
Clerk said of Nigeria’s 64 ambassadors, only three were Ijaw, while no Ijaw man was a vice chancellor of any of the 36 federal universities.
He said only Oronto Douglas is the Ijaw among the 18 advisers the Senate approved for Jonathan.
According to him, Ijaw has three federal permanent secretaries out of 70, while there are two Ijaw ministers out of 42.
Clark said corruption was worse under Obasanjo than it was under the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha.
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Edwin (Serubawon) Clark
It is a troubling augury for a country when her septuagenarians begin to get violently virile. Now this supposition is not taken from a Sigmund Freud thesis or any such human mind guru; it is Hardball thinking aloud and it is based on certain manifestations in the polity in recent times. There are two dimensions to this new-found superman-hood – the emotional and the political. Consider the situation in which our grand old men are acquiring a new taste for little brides only old enough to be their grand children. In this new-found senescent-pubescent armour, which is consecrated with elaborate if not lavish weddings our jobs-deprived youths must feel a sense of loss for sure.
We need not name names here but discerning Nigerians remember which ‘elder-statesmen have taken new wives this year. The political aspect is the sight of old men morphing into self-appointed, swashbuckling hawks, fixers and even muscle men. In this regard, the Goodluck Jonathan administration has enjoyed the unsolicited services of Elder Edwin Kiagbodo Clark. Since Jonathan’s ascent to office in the land, Papa Clark has gradually ensconced himself unto the pedestal of the chief guardian of the president. He has self-appointed himself the commander-in-chief of the ethnic forces for Jonathan.
As if in need of such native protection, the Presidency has also granted more than tacit acceptance to Papa Clark as a field-marshal. Have you noticed the new, regenerated blossoming of the old man? Papa Clark has become chubbier and there is a new glistening veneer about his visage. He seems tirelessly on the shuttle these days, setting up one feeble inter-ethnic forum or the other and purportedly building bridges and winning hearts for President Jonathan in the race towards 2015. So the wise old man is making himself useful.
There is no doubt that every government loves the services of unsolicited champions and defenders of its causes; fixers and filibusters, spin doctors and sorcerers. Especially so in Nigeria: President Shehu Shagari had Umaru Dikko; Ibrahim Babangida had Alex Akinyele and Halilu Akilu; Sani Abacha had Wada Nas and Hamza Mustapha. Olusegun Obasanjo had Tony Anenih. Today, we are under the rule of Papa Edwin Clark. Just as an old man enjoying what we may call viagroid virility may seem odd, same way the flexing of wrinkled muscle will naturally be discomfiting to the beholder.
But tell that to the ‘enemies’ of President Jonathan as have been identified by Papa Clark. As far as he is concerned, Jonathan does no wrong and he is the greatest ruler Nigeria was ever blessed with but for detractors and ‘enemies’ and yet in spite of the ‘best’ efforts of these ‘enemies’ of the nation, Jonathan has been outstanding– according to Clark.
So why are we raking up this stale news all of a sudden? Recently, Edwin (Serubawon) Clark or lion heart if you choose in his position as the enforcer and hardy spirit of the government in power, roared at the opponents of the regime. Go get the new PDP rascals (not his exact words please) he seemed to have ordered the party chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur. Clark’s outburst was sequel to the solidarity visit of APC chieftains to Governor Chibuike Amaechi in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. At a press conference he called at his Abuja residence, Papa Clark said: “PDP inaction to discipline or reconcile the recalcitrant and unpatriotic gang of 7 and his cohort is a threat to the security and political stability of Nigeria.” He said that they are not behaving like disciplined party members and should be made to toe the party line or get kicked out.
One last word: Papa Clark hardly stays in Kiagbodo any longer; he lives in Abuja now. Again there is a worrisome augury when elders relocate to the city and our ancestral lands and totems are left to village wags.
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Only constitution can stop Jonathan – Clark
A former federal commissioner for information, Chief Edwin Clark, has said that it is only the constitution that can stop President Goodluck Jonathan from contesting the 2015 presidential election.
He noted that the purported agreement between the president and some governors on the platform of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) does not hold water.
The Ijaw leader explained that since the constitution made provision for two terms, every other agreement on number of terms for the president is illegal.
Clark blamed the ongoing noise about the president second term bid on some few politicians who he accused of overheating the polity for their personal ambitions.
He spoke on Tuesday when he received a delegation of Second Republic federal legislatures at his Asokoro House, Abuja.
He said, “So Nigeria is great, only few people want to confuse this country because of their personal ambitions.
“Today is Mr. President’s turn, tomorrow it will be another man’s turn. That is why we have the constitution. The constitution says that before you can be qualified to be a president of this country, you must have contested through elections and after the first term of four years, you can contest again for a second term of another four years. Thereafter, you will not be eligible again, that is the law.
“The law does not state that you remain in office for one term, you can enter into agreement with some individuals that after your one term, someone else will come in, that will be illegal. Such an agreement will be null and void, unconstitutional; nobody can change the constitution of Nigeria that is the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Even though people are saying that it is imperfect, it is perfect until it is changed or amended. I think under section 137, Mr. President is entitle to two terms of eight years and as a former member you recognize that in your time Alhaji Shehu Shagari, the president during the Second Republic of Nigeria was elected president of this country in 1979 and he remained in office until 1983 when we sat down again at the convention and re- elected him.
“You were all there and that was the time all of you left but that was the time some of us were elected as senators but for the military intervention. Some of them here said it is time for military to rule so they over threw our government in December 1983.
“We woke up and they said we are no longer in office otherwise Alhaji Shagari should have remained in office until the end of his second term. Then, Obasanjo was elected the president of this country in 1999. In 2003, he re- contested in accordance with the provision of the Nigerian Constitution for another four years even though his deputy was trying to over throw him, he couldn’t succeed because of the constitution.
“Nigeria said come back again for another four years. It was when he wanted to go beyond what the constitution provided that Nigerians said enough is enough.”
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Clark apologises to Nigerians, Lamido
Ijaw leader and former Information Minister, Chief Edwin Clark has apologized to Nigerians for his recent comments and altercations with prominent politicians across the country.
A retrospective Clark spoke with newsmen in Warri, Delta State on Friday in the wake of his recent entanglement with Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido.
The Ijaw leader took on Lamido and four other governors for their recent visit to embattled Rivers State Governor, Rt Honourable Rotimi Amaechi and other prominent Nigerians.
He insisted that nobody could stop President Goodluck Jonathan from seeking election in 2015.
His outburst elicited a stern response from Lamido.
The Jigawa State Governor urged the elder statesman to mind his utterances in order not to jeopardize the nascent democracy.
Chief Clark, speaking at the finals of the first Chief E.K Clark National Wrestling Championship held in Warri on Friday , said, “I apologize to all Nigerians if my utterance or my action threatened the peace and unity of this country.
“All politicians, leaders should emphasize only those things that keep this country together, we cannot split, Nigeria is a large country,”
He emphasised that “love is one of the greatest thing that binds us together and Nigerians should learn to love one another and work assiduously for the unity of the country”.
He disclosed that he had to rescind his decision to reply to a statement against his person by the Jigawa State Governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido when he discovered that a wrestler from Jigawa State was squared against a wrestler from Delta State.
According to Chief Clerk most of the statements issued by politicians were as a result of political interests not that they were against the unity of the country.
The former Minister of Information called for a national conference to be convened noting, “we need to discuss the basis of our unity in this country.”
While also apologizing to Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan for any possible wrong he had done him, Chief Clark assured him of his support and that of his followers.
Governor Uduaghan in his speech called on the people of the South –South Region and indeed Nigerians to ensure that they put the unity of the country first in whatever they do. He called for support for the success of President Goodluck Jonathan and his transformational agenda.
He said, “the unity of Nigeria is paramount, the unity of South-South is paramount, the unity of Delta State is paramount, Nigerians should continue to support the President to succeed.”
“Our people in the South-South should support the President, whatever challenges we have, we can discuss it back home, it is not for us to pull the President down,” Dr Uduaghan said.
He added, “we should avoid statements that are inciting, many of us prayed for democracy, we should also work for the sustenance of our democracy.”
Governor Uduaghan who was happy with the success recorded at the National Wrestling Championship reiterated, “when there is no unity, there is no development.”
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Count me out of Uyo summit – Clark
The leader of the Ijaw people in the South-south, Chief Edwin Clark, has denied any involvement in the proposed political summit slated for next month.
Clark alongside Alhaji Maitama Sule, Prof. Wole Soyinka and Chief Emeka Anyaoku, according to reports in some national dailies were to lead the Uyo Political Summit.
A statement signed by the elder statesman and former federal commissioner, dissociated himself from the impression created by the publication that he was one the leaders of the purported summit.
He stressed that he has nothing to do with the arrangement.
The statement reads in part:
“I wish to use this medium to inform the general public that I have no idea, whatsoever, about the proposed Political Summit said to be organised by Citizen Advocacy Group and Project Nigeria in Uyo, Akwa- Ibom State, on July 2-3, 2013.
“I want to state, categorically, that I cannot be party to any discussion with any group in whose imagination there is “growing instability in the country.
“For example, the unreasonable and unconstitutional call by Prof. Ben Nwabueze, on behalf of The Patriots published in The Guardian of June 13, 2013, demanding that, “the President must immediately affirm to the nation that he will not be again a candidate for the office of president and that he will end his service to the nation as president, with the help of God, in May 2015.
“It is not surprising that Prof. Nwabueze in his write-up preferred to extol the military dictatorship of Mustapha Kamal Attaturk in Turkey, rather than a democratic example elsewhere, considering the Professor’s unrepentant services, as Secretary of Education, under the military regime of General Sani Abacha.
“It must not be seen that people who are camouflaging their political ideas and ambition with intellectualism are encouraged.
“How can I sit with such unpatriotic saboteurs of the democratic process; I, who strongly believe and a well known advocate of the indisputable fact that the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, has performed, and is still performing, admirably and creditably well in restoring and consolidating political, economic and social stability in the country.
“I strongly believe that the so called summit is being put together and will be attended by the advocates and supporters of those who see nothing, and will see nothing good in the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, in spite of glaring evidence of the numerous achievements so far recorded.
“I, therefore, dissociate myself from the impression created by the publication that I am one of the leaders of the purported political summit. I have nothing to do with it and I am sure that those of like mind as myself, who believe in the good work being done by President Jonathan, will not attend it.”
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PDP: Sack Tukur for incompetence – Wamakko
… Says, ‘We’re not fighting the party, but injustice’
Governor Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto state Wednesday night urged President Goodluck Jonathan to order the removal of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur as National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party for incompetence.
The governor also came down hard on the former federal commissioner of information, Chief Edwin Clark, Ahmed Gulak, and the ex-Niger Delta militant leader, Asari Dokubo.
He said Nigerian leaders and the citizens must come together to safe the nation’s democracy.
Wamakko explained that he and other like- minded governors as well other democrats are not fighting the party but the recurring injustices in order to have “a united Nigeria.”
The governor spoke in Sokoto while addressing his supporters shortly on arrival from a two- week trip to the Netherlands where he attended an economic summit with his counterparts from other states.
He said, ‘’ As leaders, there is no retreat no surrender on our pursuit towards stabilising the confidence of the citizenry for a prosperous nation. ’
” Our pride should be to defend the course of justice and fair play for the desired unity, strength and progress.”
The governor, who spoke publicly for the first time since his suspension by the party’s National Working Committee, said their collective believe was to ensure the rule of law and unity of Nigeria as a nation.
‘’ We are law abiding democrats who respect the rule of law and rights of others in the course of ensuring that the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians are me, “ he told the gathering.
On Tukur, Wamakko said the PDP national chairman cannot bring fame to the party.
“He (Tukur) is a political boot licker who cannot bring fame to the party. We don’t have confidence in him anymore. A chairman cannot be running the party as his private entity without due consideration for the party’s status,” he said.
While reaffirming that he remains in the PDP, Wamakko maintained that Tukur who have lost the confidence of his people in Adamawa should not be allowed to stagnate the party whose mission and visions were in the best interest of a vibrant and more objective politicking.
He described Clark as a colossal liability than asset to the government, saying ‘’ I was unhappy with a development where Gowon and former president Shehu Shagari were given lesser prominence to Clark. This action should not be allowed to happen again in this country because it is wrong and painful.”
He also called for the arrest and prosecution of Asari Dokubo.
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‘Jonathan free to seek re-election in 2015’
...Ekwueme, Clark , Gbonigi gives president go ahead on poll
…Supports emergency rule
The Southern Nigerian Peoples Assembly (SNPA) has said no person can determine who becomes the country’s president in 2015.
The group argued that the choice resides in the Nigerian people and not subject to whims and caprices of any one person or group of persons.
Besides, the group noted that President Goodluck Jonathan has the right to seek re-election in 2015 if he so desired.
The group also called on the president to convene a national conference as a way of halting the political tension that has enveloped the country.
The group’s position was contained in a communiqué issued at the end of its 3rd General Conference held in Lagos and signed by Rev. Bolanle Gbonigi (South West), Former Vice President Alex Ekwueme, (South-East) and Chief Edwin Clark (South-South).
The meeting was attended by over 150 delegates, with Dr. Cairo Ojougboh and Senator Lee Maeba leading a host of former legislators to the conference.
The group also applauded the president for the bold step towards ending the insecurity in the country and therefore passed a vote of confidence on him.
“The choice of who becomes the president of Nigeria in 2015 resides with the Nigerian people and not subject to the authority, whims and caprices of any one person or persons,” the group stated.
“The observed unease in the polity culminating from the several threats and drums of war is a clear expression of continual shrinking space for national dialogue. As we move gradually towards the precipice, our rescue lies only in the convocation of a national conference which shall provide an unfettered platform for Nigerians to negotiate and agree on terms of living together on the basis of mutual respect and trust. This is the only way to justify and make meaningful our centenary celebrations,” it added.