ADEBANJO AND CLARK: WHEN LEADERS DIE
No matter how long man holds out, death eventually wins, returning to the earth that which it gave and sustained. But there are men who never die but only disappear physically to return again. Two of such men disappeared from Nigeria within days of each other.
First was Pa Ayo Adebanjo, the leader of Afenifere and deputy national leader of the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) who died on February 14, 2025. His death was followed by that of Chief Edwin Clark who was the leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) and national leader of the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) who died on February 17, 2025.
Within days of each other, both men embarked on a migration of a different kind. They joined their ancestors, exiting into the pantheon of great Nigerians who have exited the world before others, who in their lifetime wanted nothing but a better Nigeria.
In a country where it is easy to conflate love for one’s tribe with trenchant tribalism, Pa Adebanjo had the rare presence of mind to be unashamed of his Yoruba heritage while leaving Nigeria’s position as first uncontested.
He especially showed he could hold up his convictions in the build-up to the 2023 general elections when he threw his weight behind a candidate from another part of the country even though the leading candidate who is now Nigeria’s president is from his tribe.
That was Pa Adebanjo at his best—forthright, focused and fearless. How his counsel and courage will be dearly missed.
Chief Edwin Clark was only 33 when Nigeria gained independence from Britain in 1960. But before then, he had been only 29 when the country struck gold in Oloibiri, Bayelsa State in 1956. He was to go on to bear front-row witness to the first squirts of Nigeria’s prosperity. This was before the storm clouds took over, and oil exploration turned his beloved Niger Delta region into a veritable modern-day wasteland.
For Clark, Nigeria was refusing to commit to the responsibility that oil exploration came with and the environmental justice the unimaginable suffering of people in the region merited. If Clark’s fears were exaggerated by tribal affiliations, the jarring struggle of the Ogoni cleanup project since it was have projected him as a prophet.
His insistence that the Niger Delta region, the golden goose that laid the golden eggs, deserved better from Nigeria economically, but especially politically, found some culmination between 2007 and 2015 when Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan improbably became Nigeria’s vice president and then president. The unlikely ascent of a little-known academic from a minority tribe as deputy governor of Bayelsa State to President was an unprecedented reward for the Niger Delta and Pa Clark was there by his side throughout, providing guidance.
Just like Pa Adebanjo, both men were caught in the crossfire of a country where tribal and regional sentiments often cloud national values and virtues, with patriotism giving way to provincialism and parochialism.
That both men were able to stay consistent across decades, clinging to their values even if by their fingernails pays glittering tribute to who they were at heart — towering national treasures.
More than national treasures, they were national monuments who refused to stay silent but were always at hand to provide timeless counsel. They will be greatly missed.
Unfortunately, Nigeria has stubbornly refused to get better. There is in place in and around the country’s corridors of power the kind of young men who ruined the biblical King Jeroboam with their jeroboam of poisonous counsel. The result of their tireless work is there for all to see in the broken and battered system Nigeria operates.
Pa Adebanjo and Pa Clark leave at a time their wise heads are most needed to salvage what is left of Nigeria. But their timeless examples of what it means to be a Nigerian will continue to provide firm guidance until the day when Nigeria finally stirs from its slumber.
Surely, they rest in peace. As a country long beleaguered on all sides, may Nigeria find rest someday.
Ike Willie-Nwobu,
