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.
NATION
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