Despite Opposing Same Faith Pairing, Clark Says He May Vote APC

•Explains why Jonathan stopped attending PDP’s meetings 

•Urges Buhari to constitute substantive NDDC board

Emameh Gabriel

Elder statesman and national leader of Southern and Middle Belt Forum, Chief Edwin Clark, yesterday said if he was to vote between the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he would vote for the former for zoning its presidential ticket to the south, which he said confirmed the fact that leadership of the party listened to agitations from the region.

Clark, who said age would not allow him participate in political matters again, however stressed that he withdrew his support for the ruling party for featuring a Muslim-Muslim ticket.

The former First Republic federal information commissioner, also gave insight into why former presidential Goodluck Jonathan, decided to shun the PDP, including how he was duped by Northern PDP leaders, whom he said squandered his money and that of the party to sponsor Buhari’s election in 2015.

 Clark stated this when he received Delta Central APC leaders (Delta Central APC Leaders of Thoughts -DECAT), who came on solidarity visit to his Abuja residence.

 Addressing the group, he said Jonathan had hardly finished his first term when his party members from the north started a gang-up against him and used the resources meant for his election in 2015 to sponsor Buhari to power.

“Because I am an old man of 95, I no longer belong to political party, whereas if I were to vote, and you put only two parties, APC and PDP, I will vote for APC for zoning the presidency to the south and listening to our appeal,” he said.

On how Jonathan was betrayed and manipulated by northern PDP leaders, Clark said, “Jonathan was the president for some time. The Northerners said it was their turn. In 2015, the northern PDP leaders ganged up with APC to remove Jonathan from office. They did not campaign. Jonathan was on his own.

“So, when people say why Jonathan is not in PDP now, is not attending PDP meetings, I can simply say that he is learning his lessons that the people he trusted, did not trust him. They squandered his money, the party’s money and they left.

“So when people say, why is Jonathan not in PDP, he knows how they betrayed him; northern PDP governors contributed money towards Buhari’s success. How members of his government betrayed him.

“The national chairman of the PDP at the time, Dr. Muazu, did not go to his home to campaign. He was only following Jonathan about. He knew what he was doing. Every one of them wanted Buhari to win, so Buhari won.”

Clark further stressed that the agitations for a southern president was still very much alive and that people like Atiku and others championing for power to remain in the north are the true enemies of Nigeria sowing seeds of discord.

“We are saying that up till today, we still believe in a Southern President. So, that is why some of us have said the APC that we never wanted to talk about is the one that have listened to us by zoning presidency to the south? He (Buhari) has ruled for 8 years. Now the same northern leaders are now saying, competence, no zoning, integrity, no zoning.

“We thought it was a play but they maneuvered in PDP for Mr Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who has been wanting to be Nigeria’s president over the years, championing the cause of division. So, PDP, a party we loved, a party of southern Nigeria, disappointed us.

“In 2019, eleven million people voted for Atiku Abubakar’s PDP. Five million from the north, five million from the south. He now believes he can achieve anything. So, the seventeen governors met in Asaba at the Government House. One government provided the secretariat and they issued a communique that the southern Nigeria must have the president in 2023,” he said.

He further narrated how governors and leaders of Southern Nigeria issued several communiques and agreed that power must be zoned to the South but Atiku, including the Governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, who hosted the first meeting and other leaders of the party in the north, jettisoned the calls.

“Atiku has been kicking against Jonathan’s presidency since 2010. He said it was their turn. But today, the same Atiku and his people are now saying, integrity. We issued a statement that no southern governor, Senator, House of Representatives member or minister should accept being a running mate of a northern presidential candidate.

“Who is Atiku, who thinks that he is very important? That people like us when we speak, he will not listen? A good leader must be the one that listens to calls. So, if you become president, what will you do? We all own this country. We didn’t come to settle with northerners,” he said.

While telling the Delta APC group that came to consult him on the way forward for the 2023 general elections that he was happy for their visit, he said his only grouse was Tinubu’s choice of running mate.

He said, “I am therefore very happy that you come to brief me and to give the organisation (Southern and Middle Belt Leaders) your support. They will hear. I will table your message in the next meeting. But the only thing your party (APC) has done that has made me to withdraw my support, is its Muslim-Muslim ticket. I won’t talk about it.”

Clark also called on President Buhari to with immediate effect reconstitute a substantive board for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NNDC) in accordance with the Act establishing the Commission.

Clark also threatened that any attempt by those he described as greedy persons to influence the president to appoint another interim administrator for the Commission would be met with stiff resistance, just as he asked the president to publish the report of forensics investigation carried out by his administration to unmask faces behind rots in the commission.

Clark said: “May I use this medium to kindly appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to please, as a matter of importance and urgency, constitute a substantive Board for the NDDC in accordance with the Niger-Delta Development Commission (Establishment etc) Act, 2000, No. 6, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria.

“When the Forensic Audit Report was submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari on September 2nd, 2021, he promised to set up a substantive Board. About 10 months after, no Board is constituted. This is affecting the duties of the Commission, and the people of the Niger Delta region, because there is a limit to the things an interim administration can do.”

He appealed to the President to listen to the yearning of the people of the Niger Delta region to constitute a substantive Board, warning that, “Any other agitation, especially from some greedy and self-centred persons, for Mr. President to appoint another Interim Administrator will be resisted.”

He said this was because, “there are rumours of some persons making moves for the appointment of another interim administrator for the NDDC. If this is true, it will mean that it will be the fourth time an Interim Administrator will be appointed, in total neglect of the Act setting up the Commission.”

Clark who described the president’s continued neglect of calls from the region as, “an aberration,” warned that the “people of the Niger Delta have been patient and understanding enough.”

He however advised that as the “president ends his tenure, we plead and wish that the cordial relationship which has been established out of very deliberate and concerted efforts, should not be truncated.

Clark further expressed disappointment that the people of the, “Niger Delta have benefited little or nothing from a body that is set up to develop the region, because of outside influence, whereby award of contracts and making of payments are directed by notes from the villa and from federal government agencies.

“I speak here with authority because I was one of the few persons who assisted former President Olusegun Obasanjo to produce the Bill to set up the Commission. I still have a letter I wrote to the former President in 2002, when he failed to implement the Act passed by the National Assembly (NASS), when he refused to consent to it.

“The law setting up the Commission has today, been bastardised and thrown into the dust bin. Politicians have used the monies illegally collected from the NDDC, including the Chairmen of the NASS Committees on the Niger Delta, yet the same people have turned round to blame leaders of the Niger Delta for embezzling the resources of the Commission, he said.