Elder statesman and National Leader of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum, Chief Edwin Clark, speaks to ADEBAYO FOLORUNSHO-FRANCIS on why Nigeria needs to revisit the agitation for restructuring, the rising tension in Rivers and lingering feud between Governor Sim Fubara and the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, among other issues
You recently advocated a review of the 2014 National Conference and call for restructuring to give leverage to the South-East region in your letter to President Bola Tinubu. What informed your action?
Nigeria cannot move on if all the issues are not properly addressed. You will recall we all gathered for the 2014 national convention where all the major representatives for each region were present. The then-governor of Akwa Ibom, Senator Godswill Akpabio, who is now the Senate President, was also there and we had a meaningful deliberation.
I think the President of that time was Goodluck Jonathan. We led a delegation to him. Many of them represented the South-East while Ayo Adebanjo (Afenifere) led the West. We had a very good meeting with him, and he agreed, saying he had been thinking about it. The nature of restructuring was also discussed but not in full. That was why he set up the committee.
Senator (Femi) Okurounmu, a die-hard and passionate Nigerian, went round with the team. He went to many places and came back to report to us. So, we were not surprised when we found that the whole house was full. There were about 492 of us who were members with Justice (Idris) Kutigi from Bida in Niger State, as the chairman of the assembly with our intelligent professor, Bolaji Akinyemi, as his deputy, and one prominent lawyer as his secretary.
There were three other secretaries. One of them was Prof. Yakub Mahmood, the man who is INEC chairman today. He was one of the assistant secretaries. There was one from Kano State and another from Cross River State. We spent three weeks arguing about the procedures we had adopted to show that we were truly serious.
Among the members, we had the lame, deaf, blind, and physically challenged persons who were present, and they all made very good contributions because they had their machines and interpreters there too. So, we had the meeting for about six weeks and came up with 600 recommendations to be taken administratively. Unfortunately, Jonathan didn’t do any of these because he was being pressurised. He submitted to those who believed they owned the country.
There were reports that the North was never in support of it. Isn’t it?
No, that is not true. Let me quickly say this. The North was not divided. There was only one thing; they told us that Jerry Gana, who was the co-chairman, with Ibrahim Coomassie, former Inspector General of Police, had broken up. They suspected Gana of working with us, the minorities. When we came out, it appeared people were already leaving. But with the way things have turned out, people are now clamouring again for a restructured country.
But the confab report surfaced again during former President (Muhammadu) Buhari’s tenure. Why was it swept under the carpet again?
Yes, we also had the (former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir) El-Rufai committee that was set up by the All Progressives Congress. They said that following a renewed agitation for restructuring, the APC should look into it. The committee comprised El-Rufai, some professors, and past governors. It was a team of about 20. They came out with a report, and I also came up with the report of the national conference. So, we all heard it.
However, former President Buhari did not agree. He stamped his feet and said no, he did not believe in restructuring and that he could do away with it, even in the constitution, and that was it. But we need to look at one of the areas, which concern the Igbo. We discovered that when this country was divided into six geopolitical zones, the North-West had seven states. They are Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kano, Jigawa, and then Kebbi states, but the South-East had only five states. We have been asking, even at the conference, they won’t give us an answer. So, that is the point.
There are claims that the North develops cold feet whenever a topic revolves around restructuring. Do you share the same sentiment?
Why would they not develop cold feet? Tell me the week you don’t have a northern governor coming to visit (the President) in Abuja. If they concentrate on their states, they won’t have time to come to Abuja. It is because they are not doing their job properly.
They are not committed. Section 5.2 of the 1999 Constitution states it very clearly that the state government is autonomous, not subject to the Federal Government. Of course, there are many court judgments on this.
It is possible that some politicians and statesmen, especially in the North, don’t fully understand the word ‘restructuring’. What is your thought about this?
That’s not true. Some of them are pretenders. They know what we want, but they want to know what type of restructuring we are demanding and what the restructuring will bring to them. The military themselves want the restructuring of Nigeria otherwise why would they talk about 12 states, later 19, and now 36 states? How did they come about that? Is that not restructuring?
Let’s look at the political crisis playing out in Rivers State. Can we rightly conclude that Nyesom Wike is still struggling to be in control following the recent call for a declaration of a state of emergency?
Exactly so! Wike and (Siminalayi) Fubara were like father and son. Nobody could go and meet them. Wike trusted him so much that he made him accountant general so that he would look after the state’s money. So, that is the thing. Several times the EFCC wanted to arrest Wike but because he enjoyed immunity, they couldn’t. So, they decided to arrest the accountant general and some others. But Wike protected them and prevented the EFCC from going in. I think there is a case in court to that effect.
But now Wike no longer enjoys immunity. So, he could be arrested any day. But if he allows Fubara’s government to continue, as far as he is concerned, he doesn’t know what will follow. He wants to hold Fubara in his hands. He wants to know all those he appointed.
All the commissioners that served him (Wike) were retained because Wike wanted them there. Even his attorney general went back to his son’s cabinet while he was serving as a minister. No single change. Now, he cannot travel there except maybe to Lagos.
Why is it so difficult for elder statesmen like yourself and some past leaders to resolve the crisis and bring them together again?
How do you bring them together? One man says I have divorced. But you are my house help. There is no way. You are my son. There is no way any outsider can accept him. This is because Wike does not see anything wrong with him. He believes that he is still controlling the structures in Rivers State whereas those structures have been there from governor to governor.
They don’t belong to one person. Wike was not yet born when Rivers was created. I participated in the creation of the state under (Chief Harold) Dappa-Biriye when the war took place, and the Midwest was invaded by the Biafrans. Rivers State was invaded too. Some young men were teachers in a Government College, Warri at that time. Two of them, Enyinnaya and Adaka Boro, were trained in England as graduates.
Are we talking about the same Isaac Adaka Boro?
Yes, they both studied science subjects. So, you can imagine how important they were. They came to me one day at my yard at No. 63, Robert Road. They sat down and were not feeling so happy. So, I asked what went wrong. They said they had come to see me to offer prayers because they had resigned their jobs. They were going to defend their state.
These boys went and I prayed for them. But Adaka Boro at the same time said he wanted to join the Army to liberate Rivers, and he was relieved as a Major. They now went to Port Harcourt to fight, about 140 of them at this age were Ijaw boys. These guys lost their lives except one (retired Captain Sam) Owunaro who was Boro’s man.
But they didn’t kill him. He died many years later after staying at home for a long time in a wheelchair. So, tell me, who is Wike that when he goes away still wants to keep his structure? The question was asked, is he keeping them for President Tinubu or keeping them for himself? However, the truth will be told when the day comes.
What about the APC caretaker committee chair’s call for a state of emergency?
Concerning the call for a declaration of a state emergency, I can tell you that (Tony)nOkocha doesn’t know what he is doing. Who is he to call for that? He was only fortunate to be put there because the existing Rivers APC executives were dissolved in the first place. He knows me very well.
Was he not the chief of staff to (Rotimi) Amaechi when he was governor? They were in the APC together. Wike later took seven of them to see (Dr Abdullahi) Ganduje in Abuja. They formed a (caretaker) committee, and today, he is the chairman of Rivers State APC. So, it was obvious from the start that Okocha didn’t want to be with Amaechi again.
These are the people scattering Rivers State. As I said before, there is an existing APC executive in Rivers State, why are they not using it? Why would Wike recruit Okocha? It was because he was looking for somebody who could fight Amaechi for him. So, Wike cannot eat his cake and have it. He is the one using Fubara.
Can you imagine that Fubara has been a leader in the governors’ forum, but Wike told him not to go? He has not been attending. So, Wike recently went to the Okrika area where George Sekibo comes from and said to the young man that nobody can remove you from the house.
He then confessed that what they were doing was to cause the government to make more mistakes to disorganise them and they would fall. Is that a call for peace? After all, they are working together. That was why I addressed a public letter to the Inspector General of Police, not to allow his boys to be following people who are breaching the constitution. But what did they do?
Are you in support of the recent claim that Martin Amawhule and the 25 Rivers lawmakers are still members of the PDP?
How? The truth is that when Wike and his people knew they were failing, they now made another arrangement for Amawhule and his members of the House (lawmakers) to go to court to say these members did not leave the PDP and that they were still members of the party. The judge told them he had no jurisdiction.
So, whatever decision the judge took thereafter was inanity. So, they are fighting at all costs. At the time these people extended the rights of the local government chairmen, they were no longer members of the House. You cannot put someone who does not exist.
But Wike and Amaechi used to be your political godsons. At what point did you fall out with them?
It is a long story. I remember in 2007 when Amaechi became governor of Rivers State after Omehia was disqualified. I was in my house in Kiagbodo when I saw two policemen and five men dressed in suits. They were already in my village and said they were waiting for the governor to receive him. Nobody told me that the governor was coming. So, I asked them to be given seats.
Thereafter, the governor arrived in a helicopter in my school compound. He was accompanied by the late Graham Douglas, Prof Fubara, and Doris Fisher, who died some weeks ago here.
So, the governor said he had come to me to apologise for the insult their brother (Omehia) gave me. Number two; he came to tell me that he learnt they sent a paper to late President (Umaru) Yar’Adua that he was a cultist, and that he had come to tell me that he was not a cultist and that he was a baptised and confirmed Catholic.
Lastly, he wanted me to be his godfather. So, I used to go to the Government House (in Port Harcourt). But when he had problems with (the then Vice President Goodluck) Jonathan and his wife, it affected my relationship with him. The reasons are clear.
What about the FCT minister?
Well, as the Chief of Staff to Amaechi, Wike became very difficult. So, we decided to get rid of him. But we talked to Jonathan, to make him a minister without telling him that he was not a good kid. That’s how it is. So, Wike came to the centre as a Minister of State for Education while Amal Pepple became the Minister of Housing. So, that was what happened at that time.
Then, when Madam (Patience) Jonathan had problems with Amaechi, Wike took sides with her. That was why the madam developed a great respect for him (Wike). The husband too joined and came to me that I should support. I said no. They can’t turn me into an errand boy. Let them all compete together.
Then, Yar’Adua sent for me one day and said that I should talk to Amaechi very well because he heard that he wanted to destroy Ateke Tom’s house. I was on the verge of doing that when Ateke Tom left for Lagos. He was in Ajah village for a long time. So, there have been problems upon problems in the state. That’s why I call it the Rivers politics. It is a politics of madness and both Wike and Amaechi were at the forefront of it.
Although I have advised Mr President (Tinubu) again that he should leave Fubara alone to run his government, Wike should concentrate on his job in Abuja. Once that is done, there will be peace and stability in the state. But if they do anything contrary and there is no peace, it will affect the economy of the country.
