He is always frank, brutally frank when he decides to speak, and he speaks often these days about national politics and its malcontents. About a decade ago, I was in his house in Asokoro, off T.Y. Danjuma street, interrogating a sore point in the relationship between his Ijaw ethnic group and the Nigerian state. I told him after our meeting, that he was indeed more than an Ijaw leader; that he was a quintessential Nigerian patriot and elder statesman. Leadership of our Southern Nigeria and Middle Belt Forum over a decade now has confirmed my assessment of the irrepressible petrel of Nigerian politics. Together, the Forum had, inter alia, fashioned a pan-Nigerian document which we took to the 2014 Conference. It was a monumental labour of love.
A couple of days ago, following his diatribe (disquisition) against the unprogressive and unproductive maltreatment of the Igbo in Nigeria by successive Nigerian governments following the Biafran war, I reminded him of one of the reasons God has kept him alive=to complete the work he was created to perform and that he has continued to be on track. That task, I surmised, may include speaking for the disinherited, the oppressed and the voiceless as well as giving vent to their latent frustrations. And that he has been intentional all the way.
Edwin Clark is frankly brutal. He could not have chosen a more befitting title for his autobiography, publicly presented on the 17th of August, 2023 in Abuja. He has, without a doubt, remained one of the most enduring, and, I dare add, endearing names in Nigeria’s volatile, chequered political and public space, a tireless advocate for justice and the fundamental rights of all Nigerians.
His present call for the release of the highly maligned Nnamdi Kanu, by a state that should protect its own, coupled with his advocacy for justice for the Igbo is the voice of a conscience rooted in the constitutive principles of human rights and good governance. Government cannot continue to be disdainful of valent opinions from our elders, opinions that reflect best and universal practices in these matters; it cannot continue in its waywardness without hurting itself. Kama, or hubris does not easily forget. Being Igbo or Biafran may not be celebratory these days because of man’s inhumanity to man. Yet being Igbo Nigerian is an experience of cruelty, where no Igbo man is perceived by the political, religious and economic authorities as a good Nigerian. Hence the wars of attrition all over, in all fronts.
Clark in his frank brutality did not spare the quisling Igbo, who seems to have forgotten the noble precepts of his predecessors, especially those who preceded him in public office. The novel political anthem of “everyone to himself and God for us all “is not tenable in a clime where hedonism has become rampant. We must continue to be our brothers’ keepers. I hear his clarion call for ‘The Igbos to rise and legitimately Fight for themselves because No other Nigerian is Superior To Them”. Many of us are doing exactly that, and we need more Nigerians like E.K. to cause the powers that be, the Leviathan, to lose the state strangleholds, overt and covert, that are rendering Igbo efforts a nullity.
The Igbo in public office today is more or less on a token assignment, to fill the gap necessitated by a quota principle. That is why it looks like an oddity that a Nigerian of Igbo extraction is Minister of works or of the Federal Capital territory. Many become the victims of the power paradox, often dancing to the tune of the influencer that put them to power, denying their people the material and psychological gains of his appointment. By so doing they betray the trust of representative democracy. This scenario is just an example. I will not work in a government that describes my constituents as a” mere dot” in the Nigerian geo- political space. It’s an exaggerated executive insult in the name of Nigeria.
The truth is that the Igbo is not comfortable in a country where he has neither assured shelter, nor home, where some have sarcastically and sardonically implied that they would have cows as citizens of Nigeria, I guess with human rights too. All these are political fantasies, based on illogical reasons. People are losing hope in governance and government. We should be tired of political correctness.
Nigeria is also dying in instalments and we are yet to find another country. Primitive accumulation of ill-gotten wealth will not build a stable or progressive Nigeria for all. Good governance will. Restructuring the polity, which is the first part of Chief Clark’s Letter to President Ahmed Tinubu is the silver bullet that may yet save Nigeria from disintegration. The sooner we restructure, following the 2014 recommendations or an improved version of it, the better for all.
We salute Chief E.K. Clark, CON, for his dogged and committed support and for speaking truth to power.
Prof Ihechukwu Madubuike,
Author: The Igbo Challenge In Nigeria,
Former Minister of the Federal Republic.
