A Bouquet for E.K. Clark

Comfort Obi

Edwin Clark, a Chief, former Minister for Information in the Third Republic, an Ijaw leader (He likes to be called the Ijaw National Leader, or when convenient, the Niger Delta Leader), turned 80 years last week. And what a celebration it was. It spanned from Abuja to Yenegoa to his village. He is from Delta State. But you would have noticed that there was no ceremony marked for Asaba, the capital of Delta State. Instead, it was the capital of Bayelsa State, Yenagoa, which hosted one of the ceremonies. I now wonder if his state, Delta, was not very keen on picking the bill.
Clark disclosed that this was the first time he would celebrate his birthday. He said he had sworn he would never celebrate it until an Ijaw son occupies the State House. It is difficult to know when Clark took this decision. But he is a smart guy. He thought it wise to celebrate his birthday at the appropriate time. He chose to celebrate it when an impression had been created that everything in the Niger Delta revolves around him.
In saying that he had sworn never to mark it until an Ijaw man occupies the State House, he was smart to add that even though Vice President Goodluck Jonathan is not the President, at least, he is the Vice President. So, the question: Is this the first time an Ijaw, or a Niger Deltan, will occupy the State House as the number two man? Admiral Augustus Aikhomu (rtd), was Nigeria’s Vice President under Babangida. Admiral Mike Akhigbe (rtd) was also the number two man under the Abdulsami Abubakar regime. I don’t know if Clark has any beef with them. The point is: they are both accomplished Niger Delta sons.
But let me profer the main reason why I think Clark ignored celebrating his birthdays then. And why he did it now. He did it when he knew he would make maximum dividends. When he was 60, 70, 75, all landmark years, the criminal neglect of the Niger Delta was not on the front burner as it is now. There were no militants whose father Clark would claim he is. There were no kidnappers, no gangsters, who Clark would claim to be in touch, and discussing with. So, there was nobody whose sole mission is to claim to be the leader of the Ijaw, the Niger Delta and/or the father of militants. The first people to thank, therefore, for the seeming importance of Clark, to the extent that he would celebrate his birthday at the banquet hall of the State House, Abuja, are the militants. Clark was not ignorant of the fact that Aikhomu and Akhigbe had been Nigeria's Number two citizens. But he may have a point.
For Clark, the only tribe in the Niger Delta is the Ijaw. If you are not an Ijaw, you don’t qualify to be a Niger Deltan. That, many people believe, is responsible for his fight against former Governors James Ibori of Delta State, Peter Odili of Rivers State, Celestine Omehia of Rivers State, and the current governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan. You would notice that I did not add the current governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi. That is because suddenly, Clark has conveniently claimed him as a son, after calling him a cultist several times before destiny put him on the governor’s seat in the state.
This write-up is not a bouquet of flowers for Clark. It is a bouquet of what an 80-year-old, caught in the mess that the Nigerian state has reduced the Niger Delta to, is expected to be doing.
The first is: he must never be seen as making maximum profit from the mess. At his age, he must stand firm and condemn evil. He must never double-speak, or play to the gallery. He must never create the impression that anything done by an Ijaw is okay, while anything done by a non-Ijaw is wrong.
Recently, while bemoaning the fate of the Niger Delta on a television programme, he was asked if he was not satisfied that Jonathan is the Vice President. He said it was good, but insisted he would have preferred a Niger Deltan as the President. So, he was asked why he was against the aspiration of Odili, who many people strongly believed would have picked the presidential ticket on the first ballot if he had been allowed to run. His answer: 'Yes, but we didn’t want a situation where we would share him with the Igbo.' Yet, considerable parts of Rivers State and other parts of the Niger Delta are not Ijaw. Oil does not flow from Ijawland alone. The highest crude oil producing LGA in Nigeria is not an Ijaw LGA. It is Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni LGA. A leader, as Clark claims to be, must never be a divisive one. If he insists on fighting for the Ijaw alone, then it is time for the other ethnic groups in the region to give him a red card.
Having crowned himself the Ijaw and/or Niger Delta leader, now is the time for Clark to work for genuine peace in the region. At 80, does it not worry Clark that everybody is running away from the Niger Delta? The economy of the region is collapsing under Clark’s ‘leadership.’ The genuine agitation against the criminal neglect of the region has been commercialised and criminalised. Foreigners are almost all out of the region. Business people, even indigenes, are leaving in droves. From kidnapping hapless foreigners and making development impossible in the region, the people of the zone, including children, are now being kidnapped for ransomes.
This other day when his ‘son,’ the Minister of Special Duties, Godwin Orubebe, was ordering oil company workers to go back to the Niger Delta or quit, I wondered what the guy was talking about. Does he want them to go back to die and/or be kidnapped?
Often, Clark promises an end to criminal activities. At the burial of the Vice President’s father, Pa Lawrence Jonathan, he said that all criminal activities in the region would come to a stop as from that day. But it is worsening, thus putting a lie to his famed influence. At 80, what has he done for the region?
Now, as a father to these militants, as one who is in touch with them, it is easy for Clark to have the criminals amongst his children arrested. All he needs to do is to tell his sons to flush them out. Only then can all the Niger Detlans genuinely wish Clark a happy birthday. Now, I think what happened was: “Let me just join others and congratulate him.” It is not from the heart.