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| Chief Edwin Clark, Reuben Abati and Goodluck Ebele Jonathan |
A former Federal Commissioner for Information,
Edwin Clark, has alleged that Reuben Abati, the Special Adviser to former
President Goodluck Jonathan on Media and Publicity, sabotaged the former
president by failing to promote his image and achievements.
Against Mr. Abati’s claims
that Mr. Clark no longer considered Mr. Jonathan his ‘son’, Mr. Clark said he
still sees the former president as a political son despite gaining nothing from
his presidency.
While expressing his
resolve to quit partisan politics, Mr. Clark was recently reported as saying
Mr. Jonathan “did not have the political will to fight corruption”.
In his response to Mr.
Clark’s remark on the ex-president, the former president’s publicist wrote in
an opinion article titled, “Clark the Father, Jonathan the Son” that the
octogenarian was only making the disparaging remarks because Mr. Jonathan had
lost the 2015 election.
“Who would ever think
Chief E.K. Clark would publicly disown President Jonathan? He says Jonathan was
a weak president. At what point did he come to that realisation?
“Yet, throughout the five
years, he spoke loudly against anyone who opposed the president,” Mr. Abati
wrote.
Apart from Mr. Abati, many
other persons loyal to the ex-president, such as the Ijaw Justice Forum, IJF,
and other groups also took exception to the claims by the elder statesman.
But in an email to PREMIUM
TIMES Thursday, Mr. Clark said he could not understand why he came under attack
over his comments on Mr. Jonathan “for reasons so obvious”.
Mr. Clark said it was
curious that Mr. Abati, who he accused of failing to sell Mr. Jonathan’s
achievements to Nigerians, could accuse him of disparaging a man he (Abati) was
never loyal to.
He said he had to, at a
point, point out to Mr. Abati how negligent he is to his duties by not
defending Mr. Jonathan against some of the scurrilous attacks against him and
also by not promoting the president’s image and well-known achievements of his
administration.
“My advice that a
publicity committee made up of eminent journalists be put in place in Aso Rock
and that media proprietors and senior journalists should be invited to Aso Rock
were jettisoned by Abati because of what I suppose is his covetousness,
particularly when many journalists and media houses always complained to me
that he was not carrying them along,” Mr. Clark said.
“Dr. Reuben Abati has
risen to the defence of his last employer too late. He owes the former
President apologies for his (Reuben Abati) failure to perform while in office.
I should not be used as a scapegoat. I love Goodluck Jonathan and Goodluck
Jonathan loves me,” he said.
Mr. Clark also recalled that
before his appointment by Mr. Jonathan, Mr. Abati was one of the strongest
critics of the president in his Guardian newspaper column.
“I do not recall any
favourable remark made by Abati all those years when he was the chairman of the
Editorial Board [of the Guardian] and syndicated columnist about the former
president, His Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and the First Lady Dame
Patience Jonathan.
“If I recall correctly,
they were always the butt of ridicule by Dr. Reuben Abati. In fact, he became
so notorious and fearless a critic of former President Jonathan and his wife in
the Guardian Newspaper that I had to draw the attention of my cousin the
proprietor of the Guardian newspaper to his excesses.
“These vitriolic attacks
on former President Jonathan and his wife only stopped when he was appointed
the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity by the former president,” he said.
Mr. Clark said Mr. Abati
repeatedly lied against him in his article.
He said it was “crude and
unpolished” for Abati to claim that he would still have been a card carrying
member of the PDP if Mr. Jonathan had won re-election.
“I do not know the
background of Dr. Abati but for him to lie and devilishly imagine that I should
have remained a PDP card carrying member if President Jonathan had won the
election is satanic.”
Jonathan remains my son
He said he remained proud
of the performance of Mr. Jonathan in a number of areas such as the railway
system, economy, fight against polio and ebola, maternal health, the power
sector, etc.
“He tarred more roads than
any of his predecessors; he turned agriculture to agro-business, a multibillion
dollar business; he built the Almajiri schools in the Northern parts of this
country.
“He established new
federal universities across this nation; he allowed for free speech across this
nation, and did not mind when he was criticised or, even, abused.
“People were not
arbitrarily locked up in jail or prison, as he truly respected the rule of law.
“He signed the Freedom of
Information Bill into law, which was not done by his predecessors; he
modernized the aviation sector; he convoked a National Conference that brought
Nigerians together and proffered recommendations on how to better bind
Nigerians together as one.
“He sanitized the
electoral system of this country, unlike what we had before him, when elections
results were announced without actually voting, when ballot snatching were
rampant and common place.
“He brought transparency
into the electoral process – when people could vote and the votes actually
openly counted without violence.
“Today he stands as the
first African president to concede an election to an opponent, even before the
final counts,” Mr. Clark said.
Mr. Clarks said despite
all the achievements, like most leaders, Mr. Jonathan must also have had his
weakness, and that stating them should not mean disparaging or disowning him.
“In keeping with my
character, I cannot say in private what I cannot say in the public. I do not
therefore, reject or disown Jonathan as my beloved political son,” he said.
Why I supported Jonathan
Mr. Clark also took time
to give account of why he supported the former president.
He said his support for
Mr. Jonathan predated his assumption of office as president and that he was one
of the few leaders who ensured a smooth transition of power when the late
governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieseigha, was impeached.
“Of course, I openly
supported President Jonathan not only as my son but also as the first person to
emerge from the minorities of the Niger Delta as the President,
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“I had no choice but to
support him and I have no regrets. My support is total and unyielding,” he
said.
Mr. Clark also said if
most of President Jonathan’s close associates and political leaders exhibited
such support by exposing all his achievements, rather than the pretence and betrayal
they were engaged in, “the story today would have been different”.
“It will be recalled that
I had on several occasions openly criticised the former president in the press
and in my statements for actions or inactions which were damaging to the president’s
image while he was in office.
“When the president failed
to check the excesses of the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, which
included his undue interference with the activities of the EFCC, I did not fail
to speak my mind openly in opposition to the president.
“When the president did
not deliver on his promise to complete the construction of the East-West Road,
I did not fail to speak my mind openly. I even told him publicly that he should
not leave the South South people poorer than he met them.
“When the Governors’ Forum
appeared to arrogate to itself powers that infringed upon those of the
president in the Constitution of Nigeria with impunity, I did not fail to
criticise.
“The press conferences and
open letters I wrote, which were carried and published by the various media
houses are there to confirm this claim. However, with all these, my support for
him was and still is total and unshakeable,” he said.
All presidents since 1999
failed to fight corruption
Mr. Clark also said he did
not single out Mr. Jonathan on his comments about the inability of Nigerian
leaders to fight corruption since the return to democracy in 1999.
He said his comments about
corruption were hinged on the fact that “it has been the reason for the neglect
of the ordinary man in Nigeria by all governments.”
“I declared, not for the
first time, my support for any effort to eradicate the cankerworm from our body
polity. I traced the forces that had made the eradication of corruption
impossible in time past.
“My analysis did not begin
and end with the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
“I actually traced them
from the beginning of the Fourth Republic in 1999, with former President Chief
Olusegun Obasanjo failing to even scratch the surface beyond using some special
purpose machinery to harass real and unreal enemies.
“For the eight years of
President Obasanjo’s administration, he definitely institutionalised,
legitimised and legalised corruption in this country. The cases of Halliburton
and Siemens are typical examples.
“Today, former President
Olusegun Obasanjo is one of the richest former rulers.
“The same forces were also
at play in the time of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, GCFR, when
anti-corruption activities slowed down because of some of those who assisted
him in his presidential election in 2007.
“A situation where Chief
James Ibori, former governor of Delta State, who was facing criminal charge,
was playing a significant role in the affairs of Nigeria at Aso Rock such that
his former state commissioner for Finance, Mr. David Edebve, became late President
Yar’Adua’s Principal Secretary,” he said.
Mr. Clark said he knew
that Mr. Jonathan was willing to fight corruption, but was not successful
because of his insistence that due process should be followed.
He said Mr. Jonathan could
otherwise have initiated investigations into the scandals of Halliburton,
Siemens and other alleged corruption charges leveled against some former heads
of state and other prominent Nigerians.
“He believed that there
are institutions set up by the government such as the EFCC, the ICPC and other
anti graft agencies. But regrettably, some of those who surrounded him led by
the Attorney General (AG) and Alhaji Hassan Tukur, etc made it impossible for
these institutions to work either by stopping them from arresting offenders or
prosecuting some of the cases.
“Over 50 high profile
corruption cases are still pending in the various courts for over 8 years now.
Laughable plea bargains and out of court settlements became the order of the
day.
“It was at this juncture,
when there was general complaint about the government not aggressively fighting
corruption, I addressed an open petition to the then Chief Justice of the
Federation, Hon. Justice Dahiru Musdapher, dated 2nd November, 2011,
complaining that most of those charged to court especially those of the former
governors who have become senators were still pending.
“He promptly replied my
letter on 3rd November, 2015. Most of the petitions written against some
prominent Nigerians, addressed to the anti graft agencies did not see the light
of the day. Ironically, the perpetrators of these corrupt actions were the same
persons who attacked former President Jonathan’s inability to eradicate
corruption in Nigeria,” Mr. Clark said.
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