Nigerians Are Very Wise Now – Chief Edwin Clark

A frontline Ijaw leader and the convener of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, Chief Edwin Clark, has spoken on former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s coalition, cattle colonies and other national issues

What do you make of a statement by former President Olusegun Obasanjo on the state of the nation?
As far as I am concerned, majority of the issues raised in Obasanjo’s statement are things that Nigerians are worrying about, but the messenger is not the right person who should deliver the message because he (Obasanjo) has no moral justification to deliver it. In the first instance, he introduced corruption to the National Assembly. He not only initiated corruption among the lawmakers, he legalised it. He is not qualified to deliver this kind of message. For instance, he bought many shares in Transcorp Hilton, and Governor Nasir el-Rufai in his book said he and Ribadu advised Obasanjo not to buy the shares but that he refused and became a major shareholder there. Why did he sell the legislative quarters in Apo, Abuja to the lawmakers when he knew that another set will replace them? Now, federal legislators are renting houses. A Presidential Library is a project that should be executed through the goodwill of the President. He should not have forced people to donate money to build a Presidential Library as he did. So, Nigerians are very wise now. When he issued that statement, many people thanked him for his courage because we knew he would still fall out with Buhari. We knew that his support for Buhari was temporary. He (Obasanjo) understands the problem of Nigeria but he never identified himself with the solutions to the problems. So, as far as I am concernd, his idea of a group (of political men and women) coming together as a third force, is nothing but nonsensical.

He assembled people like former Governor (Olagunsoye) Oyinlola of Osun State, who does not have an outstanding record within the PDP. He became the secretary of PDP and later went away. What good record does he have? Ahmadu Ali’s wife has gone to the APC. Ahmadu Ali and Obasanjo were responsible for the destruction of the PDP when they started to deregister people especially when you don’t agree with them. They forced people out of the PDP. These are the people who destroyed the PDP. What type of group do they want to form? Ahmadu Ali was the campaign manager of former President Goodluck Jonathan, but did he campaign anywhere? He did not. Since Donald Duke left office as governor of Cross River State, what position has he occupied? What has he been doing? He has been jumping from one party to another. What are they trying to achieve? These are disgruntled elements from the PDP. Their (coalition) group is dead on arrival. It will fail.

Do you think that President Buhari, with his performance so far, deserves a second term?
I said earlier that most of the things Obasanjo said in his statement are the same things Nigerians have been expressing serious concerns about. I was shocked when I heard that some people are asking (Buhari) him to contest again. This is somebody who left Nigeria for many months to receive treatment in Britain. I was shocked that the man had barely arrived in Nigeria when those promoting him decided to launch his second-term campaign. Nigerians don’t even know if Buhari is completely healthy for the great task of governance yet. We don’t even know his ailment. I think that it is too early in the day for anybody to think of President Buhari being returned for a second term. I think he (Buhari) has to take care of his health first. Nigerians are also talking about his age whether 74 or 75. If he is 75, it means that by 2019 he would be 76 or 77. The man at the moment does not look healthy. He’s a fine man but I do not think that at the age of 80 or 77 he is still strong enough to become the President of Nigeria. Those of them who are saying they want Buhari are not sincere with him. We are not talking of being competent or not. I have always supported his anti-corruption crusade, his sincerity and honesty of propose. But these are not enough to rule a big country like Nigeria. Nigeria requires a mobile president – a president who can be moving from place to place. For the period he (Buhari) was away, Niger Delta was boiling, but the then Acting President Yemi Osinbajo was able to go to the area to meet with the people of the region including the various leaderships and youths. If President Buhari were a younger person or somebody who is very healthy, he would have visited Benue State over the killings by herdsmen to have an on-the-spot-assessment. In this case, you can’t blame or fault him because you don’t know the state of his health. There are a lot of things that Obasanjo mentioned in his special statement. I will advise that President Buhari should not listen to those people clamouring for a second term for him. He should examine his state of health and his ability to do the work. These are things he has to consider. Nigeria first before him. I know he has the interest of Nigeria at heart but he must be capable of doing it physically and psychologically and mentally.

Obasanjo also talked about the appointment of security chiefs by President Buhari. Everybody believes that what he (Buhari) did was wrong. Nigeria is one entity. It is true that the appointment of security chiefs of this country is leaning towards the North. Buhari is not the first person that would do that. (Former President Shehu) Shagari did it also.

There is a need for a change. If you look at the security architecture of the last (Jonathan) government, the service chiefs were not from the South alone but now, almost everybody is from the North. What Nigerians are worried about is that Buhari shouldn’t have followed suit. A situation where you have a meeting of national security council, and only people from one side of the country are in attendance as members, is very dangerous because people from other regions are not there to contribute. How do we guarantee the security of every Nigerian when people from one side of the country are in the highest security council of the country? I believe that like the last one (referring to NIA DG) he should have looked for another Yoruba man or an Igbo man to be appointed. If there are no capable persons, the federal government should have given it to the South-South. It shouldn’t have come from the North unless he was next in line. In this case, the man had even retired as an assistant director. Mr. President should sit down, think, revisit and readjust the appointments.