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Tag: Edwin Clark

  • Whose oil is it, anyway? – By Chidi Amuta

    Whose oil is it, anyway? – By Chidi Amuta

    By Chidi Amuta

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Chief E.K Clark are unrepentant but useful fossils. Both suffer a common affliction: they like to hear their own voices. In their constant refrains on major national issues, they never tire of tormenting us with ancient interpretations of the country we all know. Both men share a common expired conception of Nigeria. While citizens see a good country rendered unhappy for individual fulfillment by a succession of gang rulers, these men see an amalgamation of clashing regions, tribes, factions and zones. In their worldview, each region is the home of specific resources with which they come to the national arena to negotiate political supremacy with other regions and factions. For them and their acolytes, exclusive regional and sectional resource ownership seems to be a common currency of political exchange.

    Their most recent encounter is on the matter of who really owns Nigeria’s strategic oil and gas resources. Obasanjo angered Clark by repeating the worn out line that the oil and gas resources located in the Niger Delta belong primarily to the federal government as the constitution states. Predictably, an enraged Clark rose in defense of his region, countering the Ota farmer with a more assertive ownership claim on these resources by his Niger Delta kith and kin. Between the constitutional state and the patrimonial heritage state, a line is drawn. Clark needs to enter this battle most energetically; otherwise his residual political relevance will evaporate.

    Not to be left out of this familiar regional scramble for ownership of national wealth and resources, spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum, Mr. Hakeem Baba -Ahmed joined issues with both men. Let us have some ‘Federal Character’! Mr. Baba- Ahmed entered the adolescent contention that all the food eaten by Nigerians is produced in and belongs to the North. In his curious logic, Nigeria needs to show gratitude to the custodians of the nation’s food basket. Furthermore, Baba-Ahmed contends that the whole of Abuja belongs to the North which has magnanimously yielded it to the Federal government as part of its benevolent endowment to the idea of Nigeria. He then laments how most of the Abuja real estate space now belongs to ‘Southerners’.

    In this politics of regional resource compartmentalization and ownership tussles, political leaders have found a convenient berthing foothold for their many combats. In the process, they have deepened our divisions and widened our misconceptions. Politicians have a right to mine fault lines in an effort to advance their interests. But to proceed therefrom to reduce the nation to a collection of extractive colonies is intellectual fraud. It is also an insult to ordinary Nigerians who seek no more than a respectable country they can call home. To this extent, Obasanjo, Clark and Ahmed are political dinosaurs from the ancestral depths of a better forgotten version of Nigeria. Their level of discourse cannot advance democratic debate. Their relapse into an ancient political discourse of regional ownership and supremacist muscle flexing cannot lead us to a free and truly democratic Nigeria. It has nothing to do with the right of Nigerians as individual citizens to produce and distribute goods and service throughout a national common market driven by supply and demand across the nation space.

    These positions demonstrate once again the lingering attachment of Nigeria’s political leaders to a partition template. The nation becomes a collection of extractive enclaves, territories and extractive colonies, fenced off from each other by walls of political protectionism and even hate. We are held together by a political elite who have made it their life business to remind us of the resources each region is bringing to the national sharing table. Political contest among the rival elite becomes first a vicious contest over control of these resources through control of federal power. Justice and fairness in the nation is now defined in terms of which faction is getting the most benefits from its hegemonic control of power and resources. Political discourse and language becomes a clashing rhetoric of “my region is more important than yours”! “See, we have oil and you don’t! We have cattle and you don’t!. We sell spare parts and pharmaceuticals and you don’t! We just found gold in my backyard; where is yours?” etc.

    The international dollar price of whatever lies beneath your soil or grows in your backyard becomes a measure of your region’s political importance in the national order of precedence. Unconsciously, our politics has become a perennial contest over which region or zone hosts or brings the most strategic resources to the national equation.

    This is how oil and gas were alienated from resources for the improvement of people’s lives into objects of vicious political football. Communities in oil bearing areas have been weaponized against an unjust state and its military presence. Whole communities have been razed in these vicious encounters. Thousands of innocent lives have been lost. Livelihoods have been erased. Limited undeclared wars have been fought just as whole armed movements have risen with militias armed with frightening weapons of war. These have been recognized as permanent features of our armed landscape. The category ‘militant’ has emerged as a distinct class of citizens who have earned the right to be heard by their ability to aim and shoot agents of the state and other innocent citizens. “I shoot, therefore, I am” has emerged as the defining dictum of this new dangerous type of Nigerian citizen.

    Elsewhere, the politics of resource nationalism has produced another unfortunate version of the Nigerian citizen. In an attempt to elevate cattle into a strategic national resource with a political meaning, the armed herdsman and his variants of bandit, insurgent and terrorist has shaken Nigeria’s sense of security to its core. Violent trouble making has graduated into an occupation and lucrative business. The gunman (known and unknown) has come into the fore as a fact of daily life, redefining reality as we have come to know it. The elevation of senseless blood letting and violence into creeds of social existence is one of the clearest markers of the ascendancy of the type of resource politics that Mr. Muhammadu Buhari has authored. The daily news as a casualty headcount is the journalistic legacy of this season of anomie. In the process, the already hard to shock Nigerians have become inured to blood letting and a daily industrial scale loss of human lives. The rest of the world gets shocked each time they feel that too many Nigerians have died in one day. An entire school population can be carted off by transactional zealots and sectarian slave dealers in one night only for government secueity to arrive half a day later in ‘hot pursuit’.

    Obasanjo’s position is a rehash of the standard old constitutionalist argument. It simply states that by the various constitutional provisions, all mineral resources that lie under the surface of the earth belong to the federal government. The individual only has rights to property on the surface of the earth. If the state finds oil under your farmland or hut, too bad. You have to move your miserable belongings as well as the gravesites of your ancestors and the shrines that make your life meaningful. Compensation will be paid you!

    The federal government collects all the oil, gas and royalties in addition to those on other minerals under the earth. In turn, it redistributes all such national revenue to the various tiers of government in line with the applicable revenue allocation formula. Implicit in this arrangement are certain standard assumptions that go along with the classic theories of national sovereignty and the social contract between the citizen and the Leviathan. The barrage of obligations and responsibilities are familiar. Government has the responsibility to protect lives, to protect people from the environmental impacts of mineral prospecting and extraction, to provide means of livelihood for those who may be adversely affected by mineral extraction and prospection etc.

    Underlying these basic assumptions is an abstract supposition that government is bound to be just to all citizens in the provision of essential amenities; that it will protect all citizens from the possible environmental and occupational hazards of mineral exploitation and extraction. Add all the other fancy rhetorical guarantees that define the obligations of the nation state to its citizens.

    Over time, these assumptions have turned out utopian and deceptive. People in oil and gas communities have gotten poorer, pushed to the precarious edges of the existential precipice. They live in a supposedly rich country but mostly as spectators of the train of modernization and development in centres far away from the brackish backwaters of nasty resource exploitation. The political power brokers have in the past been embarrassed by the failure of this constitutional absolutism. They have tended to amend the rules. The revenue allocation formula has been tinkered with several times. Oil and gas producing states have been allowed an additional 13% revenue share. Intervention agencies like OMPADEC and NDDC have been quickly established. We have even established a separate Ministry of the Niger Delta to focus attention on the direct needs of the Niger Delta region.

    The net effect of these arrangements and interventions has been to funnel a huge quantum of resources and cash to the region. Regrettably, very little has changed in he lives and circumstances of the people. The mood of restiveness and agitation has persisted, hence the venom in the Obasanjo/Clark exchange. The politics of resource agitation has become even more weaponized and fiery.

    One offshoot of the political jostling for oil and gas resource control is the rise of the community as an active stakeholder. Both politicians and governments in power have of late come to accommodate community leaders as convenient middlemen in engagements with the people. In advancement of this angle, a coterie of community leaders consisting of chiefs, kings, dodgy intellectuals and diverse business men of no particular nomenclature has risen. The umbrella of ‘community leaders’ has been expanded to embrace all those who cannot fit comfortably as partisan political actors, militants or rights activists find shelter as community leaders. It is the collective of communities rather than the states in which they live that are asserting the strongest ownership stake of oil and gas resources. The federal state is therefore compelled by the grassroots origins of the resource control agitation to recognize and deal with community leaders as legitimate stakeholders.

    This situation poses the legal burden of establishing the legal status of communities in the property rights relationship between the federal government and individual owners of the land underneath which oil and gas exploitation takes place. We must quickly concede that the community makes cultural sense mostly in understanding the national identity of indigenous peoples. In many parts of the country, land still belongs to communities without prejudice to the provisions of the Land Use Decree and other relevant laws of the state. Therefore, the community may have a residual cultural right to press its claims on behalf of its members when ancestral land is threatened.

    But in a strict definition of citizenship in a constitutional democracy, the community hardly exists as a legal entity. In the context of the democratic bond between the citizen and the state, the community has tangential relevance. The social contract that binds every Nigerian citizen to the federal Leviathan is the essence of the Nigerian nation state. Neither ethnic group, region, zone nor community has a place in that social contract. Traditional rulers may have a cosmetic constitutional role but they must leave their communities outside the gates of power. Therefore, fairness, equity and justice in the context of the Nigerian nation state can only be defined and measured in terms of how well the state treats each citizen.

    Strictly speaking, communities have no bloc voting rights at election time. The community has no international passport, drivers license, biometric identification or voters card. Only individual citizens meet these requirements. To that extent, therefore, the oil that is under a man’s hut or farmland should belong to him as an individual with the state collecting taxes from both the land owner and the oil and gas prospecting company in proportions that may be stipulated by law and recognized by the constitution. Therefore, the persistence of injustice in the mineral producing areas especially oil and gas in the Niger Delta is the result of the failure of the state to recognize and respect individual property rights as the basis of resource appropriation.

    It is individual citizens whose farmlands are blighted and whose fishing ponds are polluted by oil spillage. It is they who suffer avoidable diseases as a consequence. It is they who end up in abject penury while the community leaders and political elite live in opulence from oil royalty compensatory funds and intervention agency contract scams. A community’s rivers may be poisoned; its farmlands may be rendered unproductive while its marine ecosystem may be wiped out. But it is at the individual level that the pain of loss and the anguish of deprivation are felt most. It is individuals who vote at elections, whose heads are counted at census and who are enumerated for compensation by oil companies. It is they whose children will not go to school or come home as heroes with wealth or positions.

    Ordinarily, then, the reluctance to recognize the individual’s property rights remains the bane of our politics of resource appropriation especially as it concerns oil and gas resources. But there is a way out. The effective partnership ought to be between first, the individuals whose property rights are infringed on by the extractive processes of oil and gas exploitation. Second would be the federal government which provides sovereign protection, guarantees and ambience for everything in the Nigerian space. The third strategic partner would be the oil companies that provides the technology and capital for the realization of the resources. In this relationship, the primary beneficiary ought to be the individual land owner. The oil and gas companies should pay royalties to the property owner while the federal government should in turn levy appropriate taxes on the individual property owners on their mineral incomes. For instance, a federal mineral tax of say 60% on individuals on whose property oil and gas are produced would be nearly fair in ensuring a reasonable degree of fairness and equity to those who bear the brunt of oil and gas exploitation. A net income of 40% of oil and gas royalties that goes directly to individual land owners should ensure some equity. The same formula should apply to other minerals. It would matter less to individual land owners in these areas what the federal, state, local governments and their numerous racket agencies do with their 60% revenue.

    Most importantly, a shift of emphasis to individual rights in designating our national wealth will rid our politics of the blackmail of regionalism. Politicians can at least get off resources that accrue to individual labour or natural endowments. This will shift the focus of our discourse to issues rather than regional entitlements. Politicians should find serious national issues to wage their fights over and get their fangs off the resources that belong to individual Nigerian citizens.

  • Niger Delta oil: Obasanjo replies Clark

    Niger Delta oil: Obasanjo replies Clark

    …change from a tribesman to a statesman of character – Obasanjo tells Clark

    …I reject your offensive words that I am inconsistent, hypocritical – Obasanjo to Clark

    … Obasanjo insists he is nobody’s lackey

    Apparently peeved by an open letter written by frontline Niger Delta leader, Chief EK Clark, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has maintained his position that in principle location of mineral resources in any part of Nigeria is valid.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Obasanjo’s reaction to Chief Clark’s letter has sparked an open confrontation between both men.

    TNG recalls that Chief Clark had in an open lambasted Obasanjo for displaying hatred towards Niger Deltans but Obasanjo in his reaction backing his position with constitutional clauses says he has no hatred for Niger Deltans but he simply stated the obvious.

    Read his full letter below:

    MY RESPONSE TO THE OPEN LETTER BY CHIEF (DR.) E. K. CLARK

    Your letter titled “My Disappointment Over Unprovoked Outburst Against The People of the Niger Delta Region” came to my attention on my return from the Horn of Africa on Christmas eve. After very careful and close study of your letter, I decided to respond to your letter also openly for general education of all and to clear some misconception and misperception on your part.

    First, my visit to you on the evening of Monday, December 13, 2021, was both a condolence and get-well-quick visit to you that had nothing to do with Bishop Sunday Onuoha meeting which I attended the following day. You should remember that I did not discuss in particular the meeting of the Committee for Goodness of Nigeria, CGN, that was coming the following day except to ask if the papers had been received by you. The brief touch on the state of the nation is the normal discussion on the situation which you rightly described as “continues to drift to very disturbing levels” that evening. Otunba Oyewole Fasawe, who was with me to your house and to all the four people I visited that night, can testify. You were one of the four people I visited. I would have. expected my social visit to be excluded from your vituperation on other matters. However, you deserved the visit and that was it.

    For me, personally, I have never shown any anger or distraught with Niger Delta Region nor with any part or Region of Nigeria. Rather, I have always picked points on leadership performance or policies and I will continue to do so. Even when a particular part of Nigeria decided not to vote for me and their leaders told me that in clear terms, I showed understanding and not anger or distraught and disabused their minds on what I believed they got wrong. And in subsequent elections, they voted for me. My records before, during and after the civil war in Niger Delta Region was without blemish and it was all goodwill to all the people of Nigeria and especially the people of the Niger Delta Region which was my theatre of operation during the Nigerian civil war.

    I could not have mentioned to you any grievances against the Niger Delta Region during my social visit because there was never anyone and there cannot be anyone. But if you take my holding a constitutional position on federalism and reiterating the position of our past Constitution – 1963 Constitution as I understand it as anger or grievance against the Niger Delta Region or Niger Delta people, that will be a very wrong position to take because until I can be legally and constitutionally persuaded otherwise, I will continue to hold my ground. And it is not a matter of emotion or threat or name-calling which do not throw light on the issue or walkout which does not strengthen any argument or debate.

    What you call outburst is my own way of calling or attracting attention. I raise my voice or stamp the desk such that those who are sleeping would have to wake up to listen to me. Even in bilateral discussion, I consciously tap the other person to ensure that I am attracting his or her attention. I have had experience that it was when the person I was talking to started snoring that I realised he was not listening to me. But if raising my voice, stamping the desk or tapping is unpleasant to anyone, I tender unreserved apology. If I interjected to either complete a statement or to correct a statement being made that I believe was not the true situation, I have no apology for that. Truth must be stated and upheld no matter how bitter it may be.

    Chief Clark, you are right to say that we have known ourselves since we were both in General Gowon’s administration in 1975. The good thing and maybe the bad one as well is that you haven’t changed much, if at all, since those days and I haven’t changed much either. You stated and displayed what you are characteristically known and noted for – Urhobo or Ijaw; and what I am characteristically known and noted for. Let me proceed with the most basic constitutional fact that you cannot have two sovereign entities within a State which is what your position of Niger Delta ownership claim of the crude oil found in that location amounts to.

    All those who purchase crude oil from Nigeria enter into contractual relationship with Nigeria not with the Niger Delta. The territory of Nigeria is indivisible inclusive of the resources found therein. No territory in Nigeria including the minerals found therein belongs to the area of location and this remains so until the federation is dissolved.

    This is the position of the Nigerian Constitution and international law. If there is a threat of violence to any part of Nigeria today including the Niger Delta it is the Nigerian military backed by any other machinery that can be procured or established at the Federal level that will respond to any such threat. In principle and practice, the position I have taken on the location of mineral resources in any part of Nigeria is the legal and constitutional position.

    May I also recall the adjunct position I proposed that equity and justice demand that those domiciled in these locations are entitled to more of the material benefits accruing from the crude oil or other minerals. At the end of the day, it may transpire that our linguistic differences on this matter are no more than semantics. And we stand on the same logic with respect to the criminal mining of gold deposits in Zamfara State today or any other State in Nigeria or any other part of Nigeria.

    Since you have selected the 1963 Constitution as your ideal guide, I will now quote the relevant Section 140 for the Nigerian public to arrive at a more informed and balanced understanding of our discourse: “The 1963 Constitution Section 140, titled “Mining Royalties and Rents”, stated thus: “(1) There shall be paid by the Federation to each Region a sum equal to fifty per cent of (a) the proceeds of any ROYALTY received by the Federation in respect of any minerals extracted in that Region; and (b) any mining RENTS derived by the Federation during that year from within that Region”.

    My dear Chief, where in this constitutional provision is it said or implied that minerals located in any part of Nigeria belongs to that location? For emphasis and to further buttress the point, the provision is even in the exclusive list – exclusively reserved to the Federal Government!

    You made the unnecessary reference to the appointment of Engr. Funsho Kupolokun as the Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, but you conveniently forgot that before Kupolokun, there was Gaius Obaseki and Kupolokun served under Dr. Edmund Daukoru, who was Minister of State for Petroleum.

    I would be the last person to celebrate the civil war (a tragedy of enormous proportions). Needless to say that the war was fought in order to maintain and secure the territorial integrity of Nigeria to which the Niger Delta is integral. I leave you to second-guess what would have become the fate of the Southern minorities and your ownership claims of the crude oil located in your backyard in the event of a contrary outcome. How do we pay homage to the memory of those who gave their lives to ensure the successful outcome of the civil war including the millions who perished on either side of the war?

    This is certainly not the best of times for Nigeria and I understand and empathise with your frustrations but we must be guarded and measured in the expressions of such frustrations lest we throw away the baby with the dirty birth water.

    In para 13 of your letter, you made reference to the issue of asset sharing between Midwest Region and Western Region in the days of General Adeyinka Adebayo and General Samuel Ogbemudia to which you are an eyewitness, observer or participant. I would not hold brief for either of the two military men or for the two dissolved Regions; but if this will feature in your consideration today, I really wonder where you are getting to. There may be more than meets the eye.

    In para 15 of your letter, you tried to compare my Ota Farm with minerals under the soil which are exclusive to the Nigerian Authority as I have earlier shown. But even here, these are issues that must be explained that you wittingly or unwittingly skipped. I have a State Certificate of Occupancy, C of O, for my farmland and if any mineral is found under the ground on my farm, Federal Government will ask the State Government to revoke my C of O for overriding public interest. I could claim for development already carried out on my farmland but the Federal Government would issue licence to any company that had been allocated the right to mine the mineral. It would not matter what I grow on my farm and what development I have carried out. Compensation I could get based on assessed development that I had carried out on the farmland.

    The Constitution that affects Niger Delta Region affects Zamfara State where gold is found and if anybody at the Federal level has remised in implementing the Constitution, then that is a different matter. The gold in llesha, Osun State, and the lead in Ebonyi State, all come under the same Law and Constitution. There is no part of Nigeria whose interest is not dear to my heart. And stating in your letter that it is only the interest of the North I continuously hold dear to my heart is that type of buka gossip that, knowing you as I do since 1975, I am not surprised that you echoed.

    I have always stood for equity and justice in our Federation and, for me, tribe has to be suppressed for the state to emerge. And until the state emerges, Nigeria will not make the desired progress as tribesmen will always sacrifice state for tribe. This has always been my position and it will remain my position until I breathe my last.

    There are many important points that you easily or conveniently left out in your letter. When Tin, Columbite in Jos Plateau and Zinc in Abakaliki and Coal in Enugu were discovered in the early 1900s, the ownership was vested in the Colonial Government. Mitigating the hazards suffered by people in any mineral-producing area is legitimate and must be differentiated from the issue of ownership. The mitigation process must go for oil and gas, lead, gold, limestone for cement, etc.

    What developed Nigerian Regions in the colonial days and early post independence days were cocoa and rubber in the West, groundnut and cotton in the North and oil palm in the East.

    Your paras 18-23 are tissues of concoctions and outright distortions and lies which may be due to loss of memory on your part or misrepresentation. Let me illustrate with few examples. On resumption of office as President of Nigeria in 1999, the first meeting I held out of Abuja was a meeting on the Niger Delta Region. Without being prompted, I decided the 13% derivation that the new Constitution granted to oil-producing areas should be paid. If you have evidence of a legal action that forced me to implement it, please produce for me to see or publish it. At the meeting of December 14, 2021 although the recommendation was to go from 13% to 17% to oil -producing areas, Dr. Igali made the case for 18% and we as CGN went up to not less than 18%. Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, bill was my initiative for contribution to be made by State Governments, oil companies and Federal Government. The States lobbied the National Assembly to exclude them. They were excluded and what was passed became the law eventually and I implemented it. You seemed to know little to nothing on LNG generally including efforts made to turn Bonny LNG from three trains to seven trains and surely you are not updated on Brass LNG and I will plead with you to be better admitted on it all.

    Let me now separate Global Peace Foundation meeting of December 13, 2021 at the instance of Bishop Onuoha and where I participated from the second meeting of CGN which followed on December 14, 2021. We believe that the Conclusion and the Report of the meeting of December 14, 2021 hold the best position for realistic and pragmatic action for taking the country forward as possible actionable amendment to the Constitution before 2023 elections. Every Nigerian has rights under the Constitution. And no one should exercise his right against the right of another Nigerian. Our Report was only recommendations to those who can take action for implementation.

    If at a meeting, singly or collectively with others, you will take action to negate the outcome of another meeting of national interest and importance based on extraneous outcome on issues emanating from another meeting not directly connected with the original first meeting, then how much can anybody take you seriously as a democrat, that smirks of a dictatorship to me? Some of the languages you have deployed to describe me in your letter are offensive, uncouth and I totally and completely rejected them. I am not inconsistent, hypocritical, unstatesman and nor am I anybody’s lackey. You use your own yardstick to judge others. I fear God and I respect those who respect themselves and I hope it is about time you change from a tribesman to a statesman of character. That is what Nigeria and indeed the Region you profess to love demand of you at this stage. I believe one lesson that we all must appreciate that we have all learned in the last sixty-one years of our independence is that we all need to be civil to ourselves and occasionally put ourselves in the position of others. Bad language does not show prudence, wisdom and maturity. I hope you will think and adjust. Negotiation achieves better results than dictation. I believe that we should be reformists rather than being pedantic with leave-it or take-it attitude. Together, I also believe Nigeria can be fixed and mended for the benefit of today and tomorrow on the basis of give and take. If we all demand what we consider as our rights without yielding and with unbending stature, we will be wrong and record failure at the end of the day. Reform is a continuous exercise but relatively slow in achieving results. Revolution for sea-change may rarely happen and then we may continue to languish in frustration and regret with dire judgement of posterity.

    I wish you well and may the Year 2022 be a great year for you personally and for our country, Nigeria.

    Yours in service of Nigeria

    OLUSEGUN OBASANJO

    December 28, 2021

  • 2023: Edwin Clark receives Anyim Pius Anyim, says South-East must produce next president

    2023: Edwin Clark receives Anyim Pius Anyim, says South-East must produce next president

    Elder statesman and leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark, has insisted that the South-East geopolitical zone must produce the next president of Nigeria.

    He said this when a presidential aspirant, Sen. Anyim Pius Anyim, visited him on Friday.

    Clark encouraged Anyim to work hard with other leaders across the country to build consensus for equity and unity in Nigeria, according to a statement after the visitation.

    Chief Clark reaffirmed his passionate “belief that the presidency of Nigeria in 2023 must go to the Southern part of Nigeria and indeed to South-East zone”.

    “I encourage you and others to continue the task of persuading and reassuring other Nigerians to share that vision”, Clark added.

    Anyim told the elder statesman and First Republic Minister of Information that he was running for the Presidency of Nigeria because he understood the challenges facing Nigeria and had what it takes to fix them.

    The former Senate President who is contesting the presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party took the opportunity to consult with Clark on the state of the nation and his plan for the future.

    “I thank God that Chief Edwin Clark will soon be 95 years old and yet he is blessed with phenomenal memory, lucid and curious mind, a benevolent heart, and boundless goodwill for all men. I thank God for your health and will forever cherish your counsel.

    “I will dedicate myself with full enthusiasm and conviction to advance the vision of equity in Nigeria, the unity of our nation, the peace and prosperity of all citizens,” he said.

  • Edwin Clark tackles Buhari: Construction of naval base in Kano, waste of public funds

    Edwin Clark tackles Buhari: Construction of naval base in Kano, waste of public funds

    …says the idea is totally ill-conceived

    …advises him to build the base where it will be economically efficient

    By Emman Ovuakporie

    Frontline elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark in an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari has cautioned him not to build the proposed Naval Base in Kano as it is in the heart of the Sahel.

    TheNewsGuru.com, (TNG) reports the elder statesman advising Buhari to rather build such a base where it will be economically efficient.

    In the letter, Clark said: ” I will like to counsel you, that decisions which one takes while serving the country, or in any other position, should be based on higher issues of national and human interests, and rational consideration.

    “That a new Naval Base is being built in the middle of the Sahel, which is dry land, and which the entire world knows is presently under threat of fast-spreading desertification, is totally ill-conceived and with all due respect, not in the interest of the nation; such a project will be a huge waste of public funds which are freely available to one person who has taken the pride of using it to develop one part of the country at the near neglect of other parts.

    “Unfortunately, in your usual tendencies, you have already directed the deployment of a senior Naval officer to Kano State, who will now become a member of the Kano State Executive Council.

    “Like I stated, the State Governor in an exuberant mood, has freely donated 100 hectares of land for the Naval base, but not hundred hectares of water, what a child’s play!

    “Yours Excellency, please in the interest of Nigeria, build the Naval Base where it will be economically efficient and viable, and provide security for the nation’s territorial waters. Nigeria is dying economically and politically.

    “Yet here we are, deploying scarce resources to embark on projects on nepotic reasons, rather than on viability. As President of the entire country, you will save huge resources doing the right thing and improving the economy, if objectivity and national interest are your watch words. Who knows, it may even reduce our rate of borrowings.

    Read full letter below:

    AN OPEN LETTER TO HIS EXCELLENCY, MUHAMMADU BUHARI, GCFR, PRESIDENT, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA

    Your Excellency Mr. President,
    ESTABLISHMENT OF A NAVAL BASE IN KANO IN THE HEART OF THE SAHEL?
    I hope this letter, which is going to add to the series of letters I have written to you, both as open and close letters, but which you have not bothered to respond, attend to or treat, should not come to you as a surprise.
    Your Excellency, even though you do not attach any importance to my letters, they will keep coming so that posterity will bear me witness. I repeat, I respectfully wish to assure you that these Letters will continue until you change your hostile and unfortunate attitude towards the people and environment of the Niger Delta, who and which have been subjugated, constantly milked dry and exploited by your government as if it is a colony handed over to you by the British Government in 1960, until it pleases God to call me home. Even after that, I am confident that patriotic and true Niger Deltans will continue the fight until the unwarranted exploitation, impoverishment and injustice on the Niger Delta is stopped, and the people freed. Today, there is no part of the world, no matter how small or impoverished, that has not been freed from the shackles of enslavement, or gained its freedom from colonialism.
    BUILDING OF A NAVAL BASE IN KANO
    Mr. President, I would have ignored your pronouncement of building a Naval base in Kano State, as a gimmick, because it is an impossible task by any government, but this is a different matter as it is one of the most unjust and oppressive actions of your government on us, the people of the Niger Delta, whom you have colonized and dehumanized for the past six years, thus agitating our minds. I challenge anybody to a public debate anywhere in Nigeria on the deliberate neglect, injustice, oppression, marginalization and the dehumanization of the Niger Delta people who for the past fifty-five years have been sustaining this country economically yet there is no iota of appreciation and or reward from “our overlord” the Federal Government. Rather, some Legislatures in the National Assembly (NASS), had as far back as 2009, carelessly and callously, made statements muting the unfortunate idea that the people of the Niger Delta should be forcefully removed and resettled in another part of the country to enable the International Oil Companies (IOCs) have unfettered and unhindered access to carry out their oil explorations. I will, however, not dwell on that issue because today’s subject matter is different, it is the issue of A NAVAL BASE IN KANO, IN THE HEART OF THE SAHEL.
    Your Excellency Mr President, I am writing this Open Letter to you specifically to raise a fundamental issue of national concern. This pertains your proposal to set up a major Naval base in Kano State as recently announced by your Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Zubairu Gambo, an indigene of Kano State, which as God would have it, is at the very heart of the Sahel region.
    Since this your plan came to public knowledge, especially following the donation of 100 hectares of land at Dawakin Tofa Community for the purpose, by the Governor of Kano State, His Excellency, Dr Umar Ganduje, many in the Nigerian public, have been taken aback especially as it is an utmost example of putting square peg in a round hole.
    I will like to counsel you, that decisions which one takes while serving the country, or in any other position, should be based on higher issues of national and human interests, and rational consideration. That a new Naval Base is being built in the middle of the Sahel, which is dry land, and which the entire world knows is presently under threat of fast spreading desertification, is totally ill-conceived and with all due respect, not in the interest of the nation; such a project will be a huge waste of public funds which are freely available to one person who has taken the pride of using it to develop one part of the country at the near neglect of other parts. Unfortunately, in your usual tendencies, you have already directed the deployment of a senior Naval officer to Kano State, who will now become a member of the Kano State Executive Council. Like I stated, the State Governor in an exuberant mood, has freely donated 100 hectares of land for the Naval base, but not hundred hectares of water, what a child’s play!
    Your Excellency, please in the interest of Nigeria, build the Naval Base where it will be economically efficient and viable, and provide security for the nation’s territorial waters. Nigeria is dying economically and politically. Yet here we are, deploying scarce resources to embark on projects on nepotic reasons, rather than on viability. As President of the entire country, you will save huge resources doing the right thing and improving the economy, if objectivity and national interest are your watch words. Who knows, it may even reduce our rate of borrowings.
    Some irresponsible and ethnic jingoist have mentioned the existence of two rivers in Kano State in a futile attempt to respond to the various condemnation of such a project. Can such persons mention the river crafts, that have ever used those rivers and from where? I know Hadeija River which used to be in Kano State, but now in Jigawa State. As Commissioner and Cabinet member in the defunct Midwest State Government, I have visited Hadeija Dam on a number of occasions with the Governor of my State, Col. S. O. Ogbemudia, as he then was, of blessed memory. And I wish to recall that it was the then Military Governor of Kano State, Police Commissioner Audu Bako, as he then was, who out of necessity to provide water for crop farming, constructed the Hadeija Dam for irrigation. Has that Dam now turned to a River and become deep enough for the sailing of naval boats?
    It is indeed nonsensical, unprofessional and parochial for anyone to compare the situation in Nigeria to that of the United States of America (USA). But even in the U.S.A., the major Naval Bases are clearly situated at the riverine and oceanic towns of the country. Perhaps it will interest Nigerians to know that if it is the same Mississippi River in the U.S.A that they are referring to, let me briefly describe it. Mississippi is a State located in the southern part of the U.S. A, with the Mississippi River to its west, the State of Alabama to its east, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south; from this description, it is shown that Mississippi is a State surrounded by water.
    Your Excellency, please permit me at this juncture to ask you a few questions about your country. If there is more need for Naval Bases to be built or established in the country outside Lagos, what has happened to the coastal States of Nigeria, particularly in the Niger Delta area where much of the country’s shore line exist, and needs to be protected? I believe you know that at present there is no serious Naval Base in such critical riverine areas such as Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo and Ondo States. In Delta State for instance, major coastal towns such as Koko, Sapele, Burutu and Forcados terminals, have need for naval base. But it is sad that there are no functional ones located in those places. There used to be a Naval Base in Sapele, but for reasons best known to the Federal Government, it was downgraded to a training school, and in fact, now abandoned.
    The so-called Warri Naval Base is nothing to write home about. As at today, the Base is not functioning as it ought to be. Large navy war ships which used to patrol the waters, providing protection, can no longer do so, due to the fact that the rivers are silted and the Federal Government has refused to dredge it. The structure where the base is housed, was not properly designed and constructed with the intent of building a Naval Base. It is an old colonial building which was acquired and quickly renovated to serve as a Naval Base during the civil war in 1967. Today, the structure is a shadow of itself as a result of wear and tear. The island acquired opposite the Base for expansion, which used to be the habitation of Ijaw families of Ogbe-Ijoh, but who were chased away, their property and homes destroyed, is suffering the same fate of abandonment. This was about 25 years ago. There are exchanges of letters between the Delta State Government and myself, as an indigene and as the Lawyer of Ogbe-Ijoh.
    Also, large expanse of land was acquired at Effurun Town, near Warri still in Delta State, by the Nigerian Navy to enable it put up some of its formations. But what do we have there today, some ramshackle buildings which are erected for some staff, while it is stated that the other parts of the land is being sold by the military people. Your Excellency, several times the people have protested to you over the seizure of their land by the Army and the Navy, and that the lands acquired are not being used for the purpose they were acquired and or seized. Nothing has been done.
    Let me remind Your Excellency, that all over the world, there is what is called needs assessment which determines what projects to be constructed and where to site them. Also, Economics have what is called nearness to raw material. In similar way, Almighty God has created Nigeria and made it possible for the development of certain areas or facilities to be in certain areas. Naval services are meant for the riverine and ocean lines of the country, while Air Force and part of the Army are meant for the landed areas, where they are all situated today, particularly in Kano, Kaduna and Makurdi. Even in the recruitment of personnel, the Navy personnel were more from the riverine areas. I can vividly recall that when the Nigerian Navy was established in 1956, some persons, especially of Niger Delta extraction, were transferred to the Navy. Someone like Joseph Edet Akinwale Wey, was amongst such persons and he infact rose to Vice Admiral. The next person I can recall, was Admiral Nelson Soroh. Later on, I served in the same cabinet with them during the Government of Gen. Yakubu Gowon.
    Bayelsa State is entirely surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the River Niger, yet there are no Naval Bases there to protect the shores of Nigeria and the oil companies. For instance, the Bonga Oil Field which is the largest oil field in Nigeria, is in Bayelsa State. Two riverine communities, Agae and Amatu communities, are on the bank of the Atlantic Ocean, close to the Bonga Oil Field, where oil companies are located yet there is no Naval Base to protect them. The people are left to their fate. The same condition befalls Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Edo and Ondo States.
    The question here is, how possible will it be to navigate a navy war ship through the waters of Lagos to the desert Naval Base in Kano which you want to build? Or is there waterway to take one from Lagos to Kano? Or you want to create artificial ocean? Or is it because you control the government, other Nigerians can be treated shabbily, as second-class citizens, without involving them in the development of the country in their area. There also exist in the Niger Delta, six ports belonging to the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA), located at Forcados, Burutu, Warri, Koko, Sapele, Calabar, Port Harcourt, Onne and a proposed Ibom Deep Sea Ports. Of all these ports, except Port Harcourt and Onne, all the others are not functioning due to shallowness of the water ways, which the Federal Government has refused to dredge, hence the congestion of the Apapa Port in Lagos State.
    The Export Processing Zone (EPZ)/Gas Project at Ogidigben, at the Escravos River and the proposed Deep-Sea Port in Okerenkoko have been abandoned since 2016. These are projects that can employ over 1,000 youths, yet the resources from this very area is now used to construct projects such as the AKK (Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano) Gas Pipeline running from Akwa-Ibom State, in the Niger Delta South-South geo-political zone, without even mentioning Akwa Ibom State where the gas will be sourced from, in naming the project.
    I became incensed and infuriated when I saw the irresponsible comments made by various military, naval and interested Nigerians and religious and ethnic jingoists, at page 18 of the Punch newspaper on Monday, 13th September, giving reasons for the establishment of the project which they say is a Nigerian naval logistic college. They stated thus ” Depending on their responsibilities, Naval bases could be for operations, training, logistics or administration. The base in Kano is intended to be home of the newly created Nigerian Navy Logistics College. The Nigerian Navy took a strategic decision to decongest its presence in the Lagos area by expanding to other location other than Lagos, Calabar, Warri and Port-Harcourt. This decision led to the establishment of the Nigerian Navy Finance and Logistics College in Owerrinta, Abia State, Nigerian Navy School of Armament Technology in Kachia, Kaduna as well as the School of Health Sciences in Offa, Kwara State. Also, in line with this decision, the Command Naval Drafting has been relocated to Lokoja, Kogi State while the School of Music is now located in Ota, Ogun State. Efforts are currently ongoing to relocate the School of Communication and Information Technology, NNCET and PT School from Lagos to Ife Osun State.” These are all part of the game plan. The Navy should give Nigerians reasons why these facilities that are been decongested from Lagos are not been relocated to other naval bases like Warri, Sapele, and Calabar where there are stunted and undeveloped naval bases as described above by me.
    In the Niger Delta area, that is from Delta State to Rivers State and to Cross River State, there are at least five sea ports, but like I said, because the Federal Government has refused to dredge the sea ports, vessels cannot berth, making the Apapa area of Lagos State and by extension, the whole of Lagos State, to be so congested, yet Mr President is thinking that he has the resources to dredge Lagos Naval base to Kano, perhaps they want to use the Lagos to Ibadan railway line to create an artificial ocean. Please stop insulting and oppressing Nigerians.
    A securely held seaport used as a centre of operations by the Navy, while the branch of the armed services of a state which conducts military operations, except in Nigeria where might, religion and ethnicity take priority over national interest. Thus, it is only in this our beloved country Nigeria, that such an ignoble and indefensible action can take place; a country where people get away with murder. In an attempt of the Federal Government to replicate and duplicate facilities that are naturally not suitable in an area, billions of naira have been wasted while attempting to establish such facilities in areas where God did not provide the resources. Kano State is endowed with its own natural resources. Rightfully, therefore, what would should have been done was to establish facilities and projects that will effectively use such natural resources there, rather than this arrogant wild goose chase.
    The siting of Naval Base world over, is mainly for provision of security along the waterways of a country in order to provide security for the nation’s internal waters and its territorial integrity; this is done where there is water and not in the heart of a dry land. It is even difficult to decipher and more curious why you intend to crowd the north which is already saturated with heavy military infrastructure, especially in places like Kaduna and Kano States. There must be limit to nepotism and parochialism.
    When 30% of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)’s profit was allocated to frontier basin exploration in the recently passed and assented Petroleum Industry Act, some of us had anticipated such “smart” moves, and are, therefore, not surprised.
    But what I would have thought is that you would have given priority to such projects by asking the NNPC, the International Oil Companies (IOCs) and their Nigerian counterparts to move their operational headquarters to the Niger Delta. An order which is yet to be carried out despite promises upon promises. The implementation of this relocation order made by Mr. President through Mr. Vice President, when he acted as President, has remained adamant like a still born. However, what is quickly organised is the building of a Naval Base in a part of the country where there is no water. Who knows, maybe sea vessels that can cruise on sand have been built.
    Baro Port in Niger State remains desolate two years after its commissioning and after spending about 6 billion Naira on it.
    The Inland Waterways used to be in Lagos, later Forcados, then it was relocated to Warri with shipyard and staff quarters built to take in all inland water vessels. I used these facilities in Warri back in 1961 before I left for the United Kingdom to study law. Today, the whole marine yard has been abandoned.
    I wish you well in your work and urge you to have a re-think on this totally ill-conceived project which makes this country, which belongs to all of us, appear as the most ridiculous country in the world; building a Naval base in the Sahel.
    Remember, accountability comes after service.
    Recently, at your Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, you also approved the building of 60 billion Naira worth roads in Kano State; while your Minister of Niger- Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, is struggling to raise 20 billion Naira, to complete the East-West Road, even going to the extent of using funds of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), to execute the project. Part of the East-West Road, between Benin and Warri, has totally collapsed, and is impassable. Commuters wade through bushes, and rural communities to travel. A journey that should ordinarily last for 45 minutes, now last for about 3 hours. The former wonder Governor of Lagos State and presently the Minister of Works, Babatunde Raji Fashola is busy with the construction of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, as if that is the only road that is a legacy project.

    The emergence of a brand-new Army University in Biu, Borno State:

    It would be remembered that few years ago, the former Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Yusuf Buratai, made a pronouncement, that he was going to build an Army University in his home town, Biu, in Borno State. We thought it was a joke. But here we are. How did he get the funds? Where is the budgetary approval and provision for such project? Was it ever budgeted for by the NASS or was it part of the money allocated to the army to purchase arms to fight insurgency, that was been used to build the University? Mr. President, the question I am asking is who is fooling who in this country of ours? Because the announcement came at a time when the country needed money to fight Boko Haram. Today, there is an Army University functioning in Biu.
    Mr. President, are we really in one country called Federal Republic of Nigeria where every individual ought to be equal, should know and participate in what is going on in the Country? Some of us have been branded unpatriotic Nigerians, wanting to break-up Nigeria because we are asking that the country be restructured. People in Government pretend to ask what type of restructuring do people want for Nigeria? They refuse to return to the 1963 Republican Constitution drawn up by Nigerians without foreign Interference, or let us have a new or amended Constitution, acceptable to Nigerians.
    Mr. President, once again, I sincerely and humbly wish to plead and remind you that you are the President of Nigeria, and behave as such, because many may not be able to pass through this tortuous, harrowing, and traumatic road you are leading us through.
    Enough is Enough.
    I am aware that this Open Letter is coming about a month after the pronouncement of establishing a Naval Base in Kano was made. This is because I was away in the United Kingdom. It is better late than never; posterity will not say I did not speak when things were going wrong.
    Thank you.
    Signed:
    Chief (Dr) E. K. Clark, OFR, CON

  • Elder statesman, Edwin Clark again denies ownership of Construction Company; names true owners, particulars of directors

    Elder statesman, Edwin Clark again denies ownership of Construction Company; names true owners, particulars of directors

    Elder statesman and prominent leader of the South South region, Chief Edwin Clark has threatened legal actions against rumour mongers who have for the umpteenth time declared him owner of a construction company; Genuine Construction Engineering Ltd.

    The elder statesman in a statement he personally signed and obtained by TheNewsGuru,com, TNG denied ownership and association with the company.

    According to him the said company was awarded a contract for shoreline protection project, which was captured in the Budget of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), in 2010, amounting to the sum of N7,973,336,024.75, and situated at Ogbolomabiri Community in the Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. He also denied receiving 90% of the contract sum.

    Read full statement below:

    PUBLIC NOTICE – WHO IS AFRAID OF 94-YEAR-OLD E. K. CLARK!

    By Chief (Dr.) E. K. Clark, OFR, CON

    I have just read the mischievous, false and ludicrous allegation made against me, Sen. Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, in the various media, particularly the social media, which was brought to my attention, that I own, or I am associated with a certain company named Genuine Construction Engineering Ltd, which was awarded a contract for shoreline protection project, which was captured in the Budget of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), in 2010, amounting to the sum of N7,973,336,024.75, and situated at Ogbolomabiri Community in the Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, and that 90% of the contract sum was released to me.

    These malicious, wicked and fabricated allegations are not true. We have been down this road before. These same jobbers who are hired to lie against me, a 94-year-old man, had earlier, about a year ago, spread these false rumours to tarnish my reputation, but their lies fell flat on their faces. At that time, I promptly refuted their allegations against me on the 7th and 8th of August, 2020, through my Lawyer, Barrister Olukayode (Dr.) Ajulo. His rebuttal was advertised in the Vanguard Newspaper of 9th August, 2020.

    I am presently in the United Kingdom, from where my attention was drawn to this fabricated, cruel and malicious publication of what I will now like to describe as a yearly ritual for those who are afraid of me, and of course their cohorts, commentators and warped, jobless and ignorant politicians, who have promptly made several comments in favour of an untrue story, believing that they can browbeat me, or stop me from making public statements on national issues, particularly on the mandatory need to restructure Nigeria, either in my position as elder statesman; Chairman, Southern/Middlebelt Leaders’ Forum and as Leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF). Well shame to these traducers, because they have failed woefully and will continue to fail. Whom God has blessed; no man can curse. No human being created by God either in Nigeria or anywhere else in the world, can or will succeed in blackmailing me to submission. It is not a boast, it is a humble appreciation of God’s mercies and blessings which have been bestowed upon me.

    I deliberately did not instruct my Lawyer to name the owners and Directors of the said Genuine Construction Engineering Ltd, when the allegations were first made last year, because the information is there in public domain as provided by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), and at the NDDC Office which knows to whom it awarded the contract. I expected these cruel and intellectually lazy commentators and politicians, to have done their research before putting their mouth, or should I say their fingers, make comments and type on a matter they know nothing about. Also, the owners and Directors of the said company, have decided, for reasons best known to them, to remain silent. I have, therefore, decided, after intensive investigation, to disclose the ownership of the said Genuine Construction Engineering Ltd, and the particulars of its directors.

    The principal Shareholder/Directors of Genuine Construction Engineering Ltd which was incorporated in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, with Registration Number 665917, registered on 6th September, 2006, with its registered office address as Plot 11, Bodo Street, GRA Phase II, Port Harcourt, has Pelfaco Ltd, Gesi Asamaowei and Brenda Asamaowei as owners, Directors and key management personnel. Pelfaco Ltd was also incorporated in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, with Registration Number 119511. It was registered on 26th October, 1988, with its office address as 7, Afam Street, Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Its Shareholders, Directors and key management personnel are Mr. Ebigesiye Pele A., Pele E. Afa and Gesi Asamaowei.

    I want to once again, categorically state that as follows:

    1. I do not have any foreshore protection contract at Ogbolomabiri in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
    2. I do not have any connections or association, whatsoever, with the said company, Genuine Construction Engineering Ltd.
    3. I wish to reassure my family, friends, associates and fellow compatriots, who believe and trust me, that I am completely innocent of all these accusations linking me with the said company, Genuine Construction Engineering Ltd.

    I issue this notice as a final warning and advice to the purveyors of these fake news, to desist from maligning and tarnishing my name.This warning also goes to those who make unfounded comments in support of lies thrown against innocent persons without bothering to find out the truth. It will be recalled that such warning was contained in the public notice issued last year by my Lawyer when this same malicious, mischievous and unfounded allegation was made against me, as reflected by the said publication reproduced hereunder:

    Signed:
    Chief (Dr.) E. K. Clark, OFR, CON

  • Hajia Hadiza: Edwin Clark condoles Late President Shehu Shagari’s family

    Hajia Hadiza: Edwin Clark condoles Late President Shehu Shagari’s family

    Elder Statesman, and Leader of the Pan Niger-Delta Forum, PANDEF, Chief E. K. Clark, has reacted sadly to the announcement of the death, last night, of Hajia Hadiza, wife of of the late Nigerian Leader, President Shehu Aliyu Shagari.

    Chief Clark, in the United Kingdom, expresses the death as a great shock, describing it as, “very sad!”

    He recalls the late First Lady, as a quiet and humble wife, but exuberant and energetic in her support for her husband, at every stage of his steady ascendancy to the summit of the National political ladder.

    The Father of the Ijaw Nation, South-South and Southern and Middle Belt coalition, recalls his close association with Alhaji Shehu Shagari, dating back to their membership of the Cabinet of General Yakubu Gowon, and, later, as a frontline Member of the National Party of Nigeria, NPN, Countrywide Presidential Campaign Team of the 1979 Election.

    He, therefore, considers her demise as a personal loss to him, also, as a close friend of the Shagari family, whose son, recently active in politics, has been his son also, wishing the family, and, indeed, the entire Country, the strength to bear the loss.

  • Why South-East is most disadvantaged geopolitical zone in Nigeria – Edwin Clark

    Why South-East is most disadvantaged geopolitical zone in Nigeria – Edwin Clark

    Elder statesman and National Leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark, has described the South-East as the most disadvantaged geopolitical zone in the country.

    Clark further observed that inequality in the country was fueling the ongoing agitations and dissatisfactions in various zones.

    Clark spoke while addressing stakeholders at the South-South Zonal Conference with the theme, ‘Restructuring: Imperatives for Sustainable development, unity and security’ in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on Friday.

    The conference was organized by the Agape Birthrights, founded by the Ankio Brigs, in partnership with Savanna Centre.

    Clark said: “South-East geopolitical zone has five States, while other zones, the South-South, the South-West, the North-Central, the North-East, have six States each. In fact, the North West has seven States, what injustice against a people.

    “Look at the northernisation policy going on in the country. Appointments are skewed in favour of the north, in total disregard to the feelings of other areas. Key positions in the Ministries, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Customs, Police, you name it, are all given to northerners.

    “There are 17 security arms, 14 of them are headed by northerners. Yet one expects that there shall be national unity. Of course, it will not be possible. There must be dissatisfaction and agitation.

    “For instance, look at what is happening in the South-East today. Our critical national assets are being attacked almost every day. People are killed, maimed. While one is gravely against such a method of expressing grievance, the people are pushed to the wall.

    “The South-East geopolitical zone could rightly be described as the most disadvantaged. One could not understand why the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) will be declared as a terrorist organization, while similar organizations in the North have not been so declared.”

    Clark’s in his address read by Chief Obiuwevbi Ominimini and National Chairman, Oil Producing Areas Association of Nigeria, said the absence of unity caused distrust, saying no nation could survive with such situation.

    He said: “Unity in this country today is unfortunately a scarce commodity despite the fact that unity is one of the four cardinal points contained in our country’s Motto, which is Unity and Faith, Peace and Progress.

    “Our nation has never been so disunited, as we are today. There is so much distrust. We suspect one another’s next move. No nation can survive with such a level of distrust. And the major cause of disunity in the country today, is inequality.

    “You do not expect me to live in unity with someone who is oppressing me, and treating me as though I am a second-class citizen in my own country. This is unacceptable,” the Ijaw leader stated.”

    He further said the country was disintegrating following “deliberate attempts to enslave” people from other zones of the country by those who think the country belongs to them alone.

    He decried the rising spate of insecurity in the North, especially the recent trend of kidnapping of school children.

    He maintained that the solution to various agitations in the country was restructuring, insisting it would guarantee peace and even development.

    “There is so much agitation in the country. Fortunately, there is a solution to these issues. An action that can be taken and the nation will to a large extent be at peace; and that is restructure Nigeria now,” he said.

  • JUST IN: Okowa appoints Edwin Clark’s son as aide

    JUST IN: Okowa appoints Edwin Clark’s son as aide

    The Delta State Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, on Wednesday approved the appointment of a former member of the House of Representatives, Chief Sunny Emeyese, as Special Adviser.

    Also appointed as Special Adviser is Chief Ebikeme Clark, son of elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark, Sylvanus Okorote and Dr Austin Abidi.

    The news of the appointment was contained in a statement signed by the Secretary to the State Government, Chief Patrick Ukah.

    Sunny Emeyese represented the Ethiope Federal Constituency in the green chamber of the National Assembly, while Ebikeme Clark is a former chairman of Burutu local government council.

    Governor Okowa sacked all appointees in his cabinet, including Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Chief of Staff, Commissioners and Special Advisers, in the month of May.

    He has since appointed Patrick Ukah as SSG and Festus Ovie Agas as Chief of Staff.

    All the appointees are yet to be sworn-in and appointed portfolios.

  • Herder’s threat: Nigeria doesn’t belong to you alone, Edwin Clark tackles Buhari

    Herder’s threat: Nigeria doesn’t belong to you alone, Edwin Clark tackles Buhari

    Elder statesman and leader of Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Edwin Clark, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to regard himself as the President of Nigeria.

    Addressing reporters on Monday at his residence in Abuja, he stressed the need for the President to see himself as the leader of the country and not of the Fulani tribe.

    “I am appealing to Mr President that what is going on in this country today is unconstitutional; this country does not belong to Mr President or anybody alone, it belongs to everybody with equal rights,” Clark said.

    He added, “Enough is enough in this country; when these people make such a reckless and irresponsible statement, no Federal Government agent or even the security agent, took action.”

    The elder statesman made the remarks in response to a statement credited to a group of herders who threatened to attack Delta State for banning open grazing.

    The group, according to him, is said to have issued a 72-hour ultimatum to the state to reverse its ban on open grazing in Delta.

    A combination of file photos of President Muhammadu Buhari and Mr Edwin Clark.

    Clark faulted the purported threat and decried the failure of the President and the security agencies to condemn the action of the group.

    In a bid to move the nation forward, he disclosed that he attended a meeting on Thursday last week where various political and traditional leaders among others had a series of deliberations that lasted about nine hours.

    The meeting, Clark noted, was chaired by former President Olusegun Obasanjo with at least three former Chief Justices of Nigeria (CJNs), Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, and the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar, among others, in attendance.

    “We sat for nine hours; I am 94, nine hours without moving from my seat, discussing the affairs of Nigeria and how to move it forward, but a group of people – irresponsible men – are threatening us and the President and his agents kept quiet; we can no longer continue in a country where some people regard themselves as superior to the others,” he said.

    He added, “Mr President should realise that it is southern Nigeria, particularly the Niger Delta, that provides the resources for the survival of this country, and any attempt by anybody to deride us will be resisted.”

  • 2023: Clark renews call for power shift

    2023: Clark renews call for power shift

    Chief Edwin Clark, National Leader, Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF), has supported clamour for the Southern Nigeria to produce the President in 2023.

    He said this on Sunday, in Abuja, at an expanded meeting of the forum with the theme, “State of the Nation and Preparations toward 2023 General Elections”.

    Clark, also an Ijaw Leader and Elder Statesman, said it was imperative for the south to produce the next President of Nigeria to guard against marginalisation.

    “We want the zoning to continue. It is conventional. Even though zoning is not part of our Constitution, it is conventional. Let them zone it to the south.

    “The south should be ready to have the next President. Without that, there is no Nigeria.

    “When the Constitution did not provide a succession when Yar’Adua was ill, convention was adopted.

    “Even though zoning is not part of our national Constitution or party Constitution, it has been an acceptable convention that will keep this country together, “he said.

    The elder statesman who also spoke in support of restructuring, said that it should be the order of the day.

    “We must restructure. We must not close our eyes to what is happening in this country. We don’t want to be manipulated over. We are ready to have the next President”

    Meanwhile, the socio-cultural group issued a communique at the end of its meeting jointly signed by Clark, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Leader, Afenifere, Prof. George Obiozor, President General, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide.

    Other signatories included Dr Pogu Bitrus, National President, Middle Belt Forum and Sen. Emmanuel Essien, National Chairman, Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF).

    Presenting the communique, Bitrus said that the group urged the Federal Government, to heed the genuine and reasonable nationwide call for a transparent National Dialogue.

    “And take urgent steps towards restructuring and birthing a new Constitution; to bring back equitable harmony to the country.

    “We insist that it is imperative to immediately restructure the country considering the precarious prevailing atmosphere before any further elections.

    “We unequivocally and in full resolve, call on the APC and PDP and other political parties to zone the Presidency in 2023, to the South; at the next election.

    “We insist that cattle rearing is a generally, private business enterprise, as such, the federal government should avoid committing state resources to promote any particular business, beyond providing the enabling environment, in the performance of its regulatory roles,” he said.