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By Friday Ewiwilem
I have just finished reading a letter purportedly written by Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark who at over 100 years, although claiming 94, should be resting and not dabbling into matters of the moment since he has had his day spanning over five decades from around 1965 to when he took on the self-appointed title of “Father of Mr. President” in 2010 to 2015. One would ordinarily have ignored the letter under reference, but for the many wild, wrong, and deliberately false claims made in it. Whoever serves as Chief Clark’s letter-writer has done grave damage to the old man as the letter has portrayed him as a rabble-rouser who will not leave the stage even when his great-grandchildren have come of age to participate in the affairs of Delta State and Nigeria. Pa Clark is old and it is possible that some undesirable elements would want to use him to score cheap political points. This is akin to the case of the voice of Jacob and the hand of Esau. Who put Chief Clark into this misadventure?
Chief Clark made so much ado about Senator, Dr. Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa’s emergence as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) vice presidential candidate and described it as a betrayal of Southern Nigeria. Chief Clark ought to know that politics is not always one plus one equals two. The dynamics are complex and they change. When it happens, calculations and conclusions change necessarily. Okowa’s emergence as a vice presidential candidate was intended to save the South and by extension Nigeria from a tyranny that was incubating which would have first destroyed the party before swallowing the country. A vicious fellow almost dismantled the PDP so that he could suit his fancy, but other PDP leaders including Southern governors felt that such a fellow should be stopped. They stopped him and opted for an alternative that they thought best suited Nigeria and Okowa was put on that ticket by the same governors many of whom are from Southern Nigeria. This is the simple truth. Okowa’s emergence as a vice presidential candidate is in the national interest. Chief Clark is demanding that Okowa should step down from being a vice presidential candidate. In whose interest and with whose mandate is he making such a demand? When Chief Clark appeared on national television as a follow-up to his letter, he was seen only with his personal staff among them housekeepers, caregivers, drivers, gardeners, and identifiable children of relations. So, under whose authority or in whose mandate is Chief Clark acting?
Chief Clark raised many other inchoate and unrelated issues in the ill-fated letter. One must say that he has always been at loggerheads with governments he couldn’t control. So his un-statesmanlike vituperations are not new to well-meaning Deltans. The letter talked about so many unrelated issues including that the fear of the Urhobos and Ijaws prevented Warri from being the capital of Delta State. That may be true as similar vituperations as contained in the letter may have indeed frightened other stakeholders to the point of Warri losing the opportunity of being a state capital. If Chief Clark wants to know those whose actions and speeches denied Warri the state capital he should look at the mirror.
Always looking for a platform to grandstand, today Chief Clark used the aegis of a forum to endorse a presidential candidate of a party other than the PDP. His motive is so clear for everyone to see. Having done that, he set out to unjustly harass Governor Okowa in order to advance the presidential candidate he has endorsed. Not that Clark’s endorsement is worth as much as Buhari’s naira.
Having clearly identified Clark’s intentions, one needs not waste time commenting on the unwarranted vituperations on many vexatious issues. Dr. Okowa will not step down. I trust he will work harder to see to the victory of His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar in the presidential election. Let me give Chief Clark a free prophecy. Atiku shall win by a landslide.
If Chief Clark has not seen the acknowledged good works of Dr. Okowa because he is holed up in Abuja, he should come to Delta on a tour. Governor Okowa has performed much more than the governors Chief Clark is drooling over. Clark should know that Delta State’s accounts are audited annually and reports are sent to the House of Assembly, as required by law.
Chief Clark misfired and betrayed his anger over the giant strides of Governor Okowa in the education sector. Clark expressed unjustified anger at the establishment of the University of Delta, Agbor, and its multi-campus system. Clark ought to know that there are many multi-campus universities in Nigeria and beyond and one does not see what point he was making. Maybe he should tell us why his Edwin Clark University is sited in Kiagbodo his village and not in Agbor which is an obviously better place to site a university. Clark set out to cause trouble between Owa and Agbor but as popularly said in pidgin, “dem jump am pass”.
Clark gave too much false information about DESOPADEC. He derisively questioned Ika’s inclusion as an oil-producing area. He may truly not know that Ika is oil-bearing, oil-producing and that oil from Ika is part of Nigeria’s crude that is sold by the Federal Government. Because Clark looks down on Ika people, he couldn’t ask questions about what he was told by those who put him up to this mischief. Clark’s co-travelers made Warri lose the state capital opportunity and he wants to make Delta State lose the opportunity of producing Nigeria’s vice president. Deltans are saying “no” as they will vote PDP all the way and Okowa will not step down because of you.
Chief, at this stage, you should learn the wisdom of silence being golden.
Friday Ewiwilem is a public affairs analyst, writing from Asaba
