Presidency Is Not The Birthright Of The North..Edwin Clark

Foremost Ijaw leader and President Goodluck Jon­athan’s kinsman, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark has descended heavily on the North and its governors accus­ing them of stealing their states blind. For the North, Clark said the region has to heal itself of the mentality that Aso Rock presi­dential villa is its birthright.
He said at his age he would say the truth no matter whose ox is gored.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, (Sun Newspaper)  the octogenarian also took on Borno State governor, Kashim whom he said has a big question to answer over the April 14 abduc­tion of Chibok schoolgirls.
Attorney General of the Fed­eration and Minster of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke was not spared as the leader accused him of undermining the Jonathan presidency. In the same vein, he fired another salvo at the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal over his recent comment on Jonathan’s inability to fight corruption. Excerpts:
What is your view on the state of the nation? Are you not afraid the way Nigeria is drifting?
I’m not afraid at all. If I am I would not have told you Happy Sunday. Nigeria is a united coun­try. It is true that the Boko Haram insurgents are fighting a battle to convert Nigerians into Islamism, introduce Sharia and prevent the youths both male and female from getting western education. Book Haram has been in existence since 2002. They were first in Bauchi State and had clashes with the se­curity forces under the leadership of Yussuf, they relocated to Borno where the former governor of the state connived and worked with them. It was during the period they have a group called ECO­MOG. It was after the elections were over that they disagreed with the governor and their leader was extra-judicially killed, without trial and that annoyed them. This was the period of late President Umaru Yar’ Adua in 2009.
Quite a number of Nigerians could not believe that they would assume this proportion and par­ticularly it was revealed that what was purely religious became polit­ical. Some people said they would make Nigeria “ungovernable” for President Goodluck Jonathan and since then we got intelligence re­port that it was not only religious but also political. It has not been possible to arrest their financiers.
By May last year, the president declared state of emergency in three Northeast states, when the sect hoisted flags of different na­tions in some local government councils. The Federal Govern­ment created an Army division in the area making two divisions there. It has now been known that the people are terrorists and ter­rorists strike when you least ex­pected it. They may be with you, even eat with you and after they have gathered enough information from you then they strike.
It is not true that the federal troops are not doing well. They are trying; bombing was reduced and most of the insurgents were killed and even pushed to the out­skirts of Borno State. But when the sect strikes once, it is magni­fied and celebrated by the press and people think that the sect is gainning the upper hand and the activities of the military are un­derplayed.
The Borno State governor stated that Boko Haram has superior fire-power and bet­ter motivated than the Nigerian military. How did he know that? This kind of careless and unpat­riotic statements are responsible for the apparent success of the insurgents. For the recent ab­duction of these schoolgirls who are supposed to be writing their WASC examination, the gover­nor of Borno State has questions to answer.
I saw him the other day on the television saying, ‘my hands are clean’, what does that mean? It is the opposite and it means that people feel you are guilty. The Ministry of Education wrote a letter to him, what happened at that time was that he refused to give the assurance needed by these people and did not provide the security, which he promised by not transferring the girls to another safer place.
So, the area has been in a mess not because of the superior forces of the insurgents, it is the manipulation; it is people help­ing the insurgents that caused all these problems. So, nothing has happened that should be a danger to the future of Nigeria. No, they would be conquered, subdue and we would overcome.
You called for full emer­gency rule in the North­eastern states as opposed to the present partial emer­gency in place, what led to that? These governors say they are helping to fund the military operation to cur­tail the insurgency in their areas, and the opposition party, APC says it is a ploy by the PDP to take over the states?
That shows you that they are very contradictory. The three gov­ernments of those states are APC. If APC is anti-Federal Govern­ment, APC doesn’t want state of emergency in those three states, who are these governors, are they not members of APC? Are they working against their party’s di­rectives? What is the evidence that they are supplying opera­tional vehicles, guns etc to help the military operation? The gov­ernor of Borno said he has spent about N10 billion in the opera­tion, where is the evidence? You remember when governors give equipment to police and other se­curity agencies; they advertise the handing over of such operational equipment in a ceremony. Have you ever heard one day that the governor of Borno Sate gave 200 Toyota Hilux vans to the Army commander in Maiduguri? No.
They are lying and in fact pro-Boko Haram. After all, one of them queried why the Federal Government should even declare state of emer­gency in their states, that what Boko Haram was do­ing was not enough to war­rant emergency rule; that the Federal Government was carrying out genocide against their people. How do you reconcile these posi­tions?
APC doesn’t want emergency rule and they themselves sent their leaders headed by Alhaji Adamu Ciroma to Mr. President in the Villa that they don’t want renewal of state of emergency and the governors followed suit with the criminal letter written by Murtala Nyako to fellow gover­nors of the North that the Federal Government was the one sponsor­ing Boko Haram and it was a ploy to kill all the Northerners by car­rying out genocide against them. They went to America to say the samething.
So, who will believe them for saying; don’t renew it because they are helping to win the war? That is not true.
That was the reason I said, in Plateau State in 2004, the Federal Government headed by President Olusegun Obasanjo suspended the democratic structures in the state; removed Governor Joshua Dariye and suspended the House of As­sembly and appointed General Chris Alli on May 18, 2004. The man was in charge as the defacto Sole administrator and was able to bring peace back and stopped all the crises and killings that were going on.
Similar thing was done in Ekiti State, where the governor and the House of Assembly were suspend­ed, so you have one line of com­mand. General Tunji Olurin was appointed and was able to bring the crises down and the governors went back.
This is why I called for full emergency rule in the three states. But, why I attacked the Attorney General and Minister of Justice is that he knew that Dariye nev­er won his case at the Supreme Court, so it was wrong for him to have assumed what never hap­pened because the Supreme Court decided that they will strike out the action because it was not prop­erly brought to the court. Gen Chris Alli was in charge when the suit was brought to the court and Dariye was on suspension. So, he was not the one who gave the authority for the action to be brought, it was Chris Alli who was in charge at that time who should have brought the action but didn’t bring it. Alli said so in his affi­davit, hence the Supreme Court decided that there was nobody in Plateau State who authorised the action to be brought against the Federal government and since no individual can bring action to the Supreme Court except the state against the Federal Government or state against state.
What I’m trying to say is that if a full and total state of emergency was declared in these three states – Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, by now the insurgents could have been wiped out. That is my case. They didn’t understand they want to stay in order to frustrate the ef­forts of the federal government, undermine the efforts of the feder­al government in order to prevent information being given to the military on how to wipe out the insurgents. We are in this trouble because full state of emergency was not declared.
The inability of Presi­dent Jonathan to declare full emergency rule in those states as you suggested, is it as a result of weakness?
The president is not weak and not a lawyer. Under the constitu­tion, there is the position of At­torney General, who is the legal officer of the nation. During the Obasanjo’s regime in 2004, Chief Olujimi was the Attorney General. He knew what he was doing was right. The state of emergency ac­cording to Justice Kutigi is a grave matter anytime anywhere.
So the state of emergency can be declared during war, during threat to your position. There is no place in the constitution and even section 305 of the constitu­tion where it is stated that, do not suspend the democratic structures. So, any government properly ad­vised by the Attorney General will take the necessary action.
That is why I accused the At­torney General that he was not patriotic. For reasons best known to him that is why he didn’t ad­vise Mr. President properly. If Mr. President were properly advised, he would have taken the necessary action. A governor can ask the President to declare state of emer­gency. There are various types of states of emergency. A state of emergency can be declared after a hurricane in a particular area of the country or if there is a heavy rainfall, which killed many people. There are various types but, a state of emergency, which strengthens the territorial integrity of your country, which is in a state of war, must not be taken with kid gloves. It is a serious matter and you go all out, appoint a military officer who will take charge. The Army will be responsible to him. Not with these governors who didn’t want the Army and are not ready for the state of emergency.
You remember Murtala Nyako, governor of Adamawa State was the first to say that Boko Haram was not enough to declare state of emergency and in fact maintained that there was no Boko Haram in his state. He was lying. For a gov­ernor of a state to lie is dangerous. The village of the Chief of De­fence Staff is very close to Mubi and Boko Haram attacked it. Boko Haram also attacked Garkida. The same Nyako who said there was no Boko Haram in his place went there to commiserate with the people. He was about to com­miserate with them when they told him that Boko Haram was coming and he ran away. These are vicious people, people who are not patri­otic and don’t want this country united. That is the position.
There was an event in Delta State and the then National Security Adviser, Gen. Patricil Owoye Azazi said Boko Haram and inse­curity in the country was tied to Jonathan’s re-election in 2015. Some section of the country shouted him down. Based on what is happen­ing, has Azazi been proven right?
Azazi was very correct. The question was whether he was the one to make that statement or not, being an official. That is why they criticised him. Azazi was right. Henry Okah, Charles Okah were part of this thing, which had been planned long ago by those who didn’t want Jonathan to rule. Okah was part of them. They have been on for a long time. Henry Okah has been tried and jailed already, while Charles is still being tried. That was the beginning of it.
You said some people didn’t want Jonathan to rule; does it have to do with the zoning or rotation agree­ment, which he is alleged to have signed an later re­neged?
It has nothing to do with zoning arrangement. Jonathan was a dep­uty governor and they are quot­ing that he signed agreement in 2004 when Atiku wanted to take over from Obasanjo. This was just mere attendance register they all signed.
Jonathan is not bound by that. What is happening is that the North though not all of them be­cause majority of them do not care provided that the president is com­petent, patriotic, and transparent. But some of them believe that that this country belongs to them that unless they are ruling, there is no Nigeria. It is only when they are ruling that there is Nigeria. They are not thinking of zoning. They just believe their time has come to rule. They have been like fishes out of water. Once you bring fish out of water it is uncomfortable.
These people are very uncom­fortable. As far as they are con­cerned if Jonathan today invites some of them to Aso Rock and brings dinner they would be la­menting, because they believe they are the people who ought to be giving Jonathan to eat. They believe that Aso Rock belongs to them; that it is their birthright. Aso Rock belongs to everybody in this country. Anybody who is competent should rule. Jonathan’s reign has shown that Nigerians are ready to vote anybody who is competent. He comes from one of the smallest villages in this country. He did not force his way through. Nigerians voted for him because they believe in him and would vote for him again in 2015 because he has done more than any President or Head of state in this country. Only you people, the media that are playing him down. It is not a matter of zoning; it is a question of a group of people who believe that they are born to rule Nigeria.
At the confab, you said some military officers are re­sponsible for crude oil theft. Why such allegation?
I said some military officers, particularly; the Navy was re­sponsible for oil theft. I said our youths are used to bucket oil theft. They steal oil in bucket because they don’t have the technological know-how. They don’t have mon­ey to buy or bring ship.
Remember the case of three Admirals and the Russian ship. They were tried and two of them were found guilty. Admiral Bob Manuel was the only one found innocent. The mere fact that three military officers were tried for oil bunkering shows something was wrong somewhere. That is one.
The second is that we discov­ered that former military officers have links with some of our boys and expatriates in stealing the oil. I made similar allegation around 1999 during Obasanjo’s adminis­tration when Danjuma was Min­ister of Defence. It was an open hall during the crisis of the Ijaws, Itsekiri and Urohbo of Warri. We were invited there. I then made the same allegation in the open.
Obasanjo asked Danjuma to investigate it and they set up a committee. The Obi of Owah in Delta State was a member. In their report they noted, even though it was not their main report, their main report was on how to settle the various people, that some of the crises between our boys and the military were over oil theft. When I made that statement I was very conscious of what happened in the past. That is why I said the supervision of the oil line should be given to the youths of a par­ticular area and if they are found to have vandalized oil pipeline they should be sanctioned. But people read politics into the whole thing. This is a matter I have taken up with Obasanjo over the years that the boys who are alleged to be vandalizing pipelines should supervise the pipeline. It is like giving your property to a man you suspected to be a thief and he will not steal it but will even try to look after it very well.
I said it is necessary to trans­fer officers of the JTF from Niger Delta to other areas and bring in new ones, you find out that the stealing of oil will be reduced.
Recently Northern gover­nors carpeted Jonathan over non-performance and some Northern groups called for his resignation over inse­curity. What is your view on that?
You know my view and that is why they are attacking me all the time. According to them, I’m defending Jonathan. Tell me one of the Northern governors that is performing. They are not perform­ing, they are stealing the money, and they should account for the allocation made to them. Under section 102 of the constitution, every month they come with their brief cases to take money. Why can’t they open school for their children? Do they have to wait for the Federal Government to open schools for their children? Why can’t they build health centres for their people, why can’t they estab­lish small industries for their peo­ple, why can’t they build roads? Some of them enjoy the poor sys­tem in their area, some of them en­joy the class system in their area, where if you don’t have food to eat they allow you to wonder.
It is not true that the president is not performing. He is the most educated person in Nigeria to ever occupy that seat apart from Gow­on after he had left office. What are they talking about? Is it in the area of power and energy? The power was not privatised because nobody was ready to do so for fear of the workers, but Jonathan went ahead to privatize it and very soon we will have constant electric­ity supply. There might be some initial difficulties. Which Head of State or President was able to remove the oil subsidy though it’s halfway done. Today, you go to petrol stations and there is fuel for you to buy. Have we been seeing this before?
Three years ago, I spent three hours from Benin to Ore but to­day; it is one and a half hours. Look at the dualisation of major roads in the North, from Kano to Maiduguri, which Obasanjo was crediting to Lamido the other day.
It is just calling a dog a bad name to kill it. What have the governors done? They should not disturb Jonathan, let’s go for 2015 where Nigerians will decide. They know Jonathan has done a lot that is why they don’t want Nigerians to decide. They want to push him out. What is he resigning for? Is that why they are deliberately sup­porting the insurgents to cause trouble in Nigeria? They had said they would make Nigeria ungov­ernable for him and they have been doing that. Some of them said there would be no Nigeria if a Northerner is not elected president of Nigeria.
Jonathan has performed credit­ably. How many presidents of Ni­geria had during Democracy Day given reports of their performance for the people to see. He has done it twice and is not lying; whatever he said is there for people to see.
Are you not afraid that the rampaging APC will send PDP packing at the centre?
Which APC? APC is an ex­pired drug, which if you take you will die. They cannot come to­gether. They are suspecting one another. I told my friend, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar that he should not go to APC that his former boss, Obasanjo, will not allow him to become president of this country because the five governors who have joined them are Obasanjo’s boys and will never allow Atiku to come forward.
Now, what are we hearing, Tom Ikimi from South South, Sylvia Timipre and Sam Jaja. Jaja was deputy in PDP, now being consid­ered to be head of APC, how do you see that? APC will not rise. I know people like Okorocha are tired already and he doesn’t know what to do and that is why he is still there with them. I am appeal­ing to the PDP in Imo and at the centre that if Okorocha wants to come back they should take him.
APC cannot stand, most of them are disgruntled and don’t know what to do. Everybody be­lieved that when the five gover­nors left that PDP would collapse, but PDP is growing stronger and for shame they cannot come back and nobody would want them be­cause they have gone to a place where they are like fishes out of water. They say they are the lead­ers there but what we have gained since these five governors left for APC is very great.
Do you still hear of 37 PDP members in the House of Repre­sentatives, who said they would declare for APC? Let them go and contest for an election they will loose their seats that is why they kept quite now. The Attorney General who is the law officer of the federation has gone to court to seek for interpretation that if your party was intact and you moved from your party to join another party, you will go, forfeit your seat and go and contest on the platform of your new party. The Supreme Court said Amaechi didn’t win election, it was PDP that won the election. That is why Amaechi was made the governor of Rivers State. Similarly, the 37 members of the House of Representatives didn’t win election; it was PDP that won the election. So, they decided to leave PDP for APC. In that case, they should resign their seats. Have you not seen that all the members of PDP in Adamawa State who went with Nyako to APC have returned back to PDP? PDP is growing from strength to strength and the court has said there is no division in PDP and INEC said the same. So, these peo­ple who are leaving, the Sarakis and others who should be facing trials for offences they committed for the money they manipulated, the truth will soon come out. I am warning any government agency in charge of investigating people who stole money that if they are not ready to work, let them vacate the office, and give way to people who will clean the society.
Talking about corruption, some foreign media and per­sonalities say Jonathan runs a corrupt government but you are saying Jonathan has performed beyond imagina­tion?
I didn’t say because he has performed there is no corruption. Is he not the one who sacked the Minster of Aviation, Stella Odu­ah? Are there no other people who are facing trial? The son of former PDP National Chairman Bamanga Tukur is facing trial. Ahmadu Ali’s son is facing trial; he too is a leader of the party.
You pressmen, you only look at one side, you don’t look at the other side. If a man has done all those, what do you say? Corrup­tion in Nigeria has been there for years. Some of the governors who are now Senators have been fac­ing trials before Jonathan became president. Were they corrupt dur­ing his time? Corruption has been in this country over the years. Apart from the time of military, which was also corrupt, since 1999 till today there has been cor­ruption. You know I have been crying against it; that is why I didn’t say people are not corrupt in Jonathan’s government. People are corrupt, but the problem we are facing is that Jonathan has cre­ated institutions to investigate this corruption, but most of them are not being investigated. They go to court and the court could not deal with them and Jonathan cannot in­terfere with the court.
Even in the National Assem­bly, is there no corruption there? Let me say this today, I don’t care; I am old. When the police were looking for Dimeji Bankole, the former Speaker to arrest him over corruption, didn’t the pre­sent Speaker, Tambuwal and his deputy go to sleep in the hallowed chambers of NASS to avoid being arrested too? Are you not aware? Was it Jonathan who caused it? For Tambuwal today to say that the body language of the presi­dent shows that he can’t fight corruption, here is a man who ran away and hid himself in the NASS chamber not to be arrested for corruption and later became the Speaker of the House of Rep­resentatives. What do you make of it? Some of us are old. If they come out, we will tell them who they are. We are not afraid of any­body again; we are at the depar­ture lounge waiting for the board­ing pass. So, we will say the truth to free the society. Those of us, who are very old, perhaps contrib­uted to the things that are wrong with us today and God has kept us alive to correct these things before we die and we are going to correct them.
Is that why some people accuse you of making in­flammatory statements that can put the country in crisis?
Let me tell you this, some of them believe that when they saw Mr. President being a gentle man in high position that they can ride on him. Well, am I jealous of them, what have I to gain by causing problem in this country? I speak the truth.
When Obasanjo wrote a letter to Mr. President, I replied. He ac­cused the Ijaw people of protect­ing Jonathan and shielding him from other people and taking eve­rything. These are the people who did the opposite in this country. Is that how to divide Nigeria? So, if you speak the truth about an issue it becomes an offence? So, those people who lie are the people who want Nigeria to remain straight.
No, I do not deliberately make statement to cause confusion in Nigeria. I make statement where necessary. If you say Nigeria will not elect Jonathan and if they did, there would be no Nigeria, I would reply you. If you say things that will make this country to boil, I will reply you. Is it by saying that some Northern governors are pro-Boko Haram that would di­vide this country?
Tell me one statement that I have made that would divide this country; Is it that I said people who were being looked for by the police to be arrested are today pa­rading themselves as clean people, is that to cause confusion? That people who should be facing trial are in the senate today and yet you are accusing Jonathan of being corrupt and not being able to fight corruption? Is it because I said that some people are corrupt that when they became president in this country they had nothing and today they are the wealthiest peo­ple in this country, is that an in­flammatory statement? When you cause trouble in the country by parading yourself that you are the cleanest in this country, that only you can take care of corruption in this country and if somebody says, ‘you are corrupt’ is it a statement to cause trouble? Tell me.
I believe in the unity of Nigeria and any person who makes state­ment that will divide Nigeria I at­tack that person. If you regard my own as a statement made to divide Nigeria, goodluck to you.
On June 6, Niger Deltans in Borno State paid a soli­darity visit to the governor, told him that they have dis­owned you and urged him to ignore you because you were ignorant of the security situ­ation in the state and more so, they were happy there. What do say to your people disowning you?
I don’t comment on such statements because I don’t know the person they are referring to. Secondly, I don’t believe in any statement made by the governor of Borno State. I don’t have con­fidence in him. So, if he said that my people came and asked why I should ask for total state of emer­gency in order to drive away the insurgents that I do not know what I’m saying, goodluck to them. It doesn’t mean that my own kins­men living in Borno should not believe in the governor or should not associate with him. I don’t know them, but as long as they are happy over there and have not been attacked by Boko Haram, congratulations to them. I’ m hap­py and can’t exchange words with them because I don’t know them.
Obasanjo played a promi­nent role in bringing Jona­than on the seat; don’t you think that the frosty relation­ship between them might jeopardize Jonathan’s re-election, because Obasanjo still commands great loyal­ists in PDP?
I don’t want to comment so much on that. I also know as a matter of fact that recently PDP men in Southwest were asked to declare for APC. Some of them agreed while some refused. So, I do not know whether Obasanjo still has a formidable structure in Southwest. Between him and the president, they are father and son; they know themselves and when they would settle I wont know. I don’t want to answer that part of the question.
You are close to both of them?
Jonathan is my son but I can claim him more than Obasanjo would.