I HAVE
tried delaying the writing of this piece in the honest expectation that someone
probably misquoted Chief E.K. Clark, when he reportedly publicly disowned
former President Goodluck Jonathan. I had hoped that our dear father, E.K.
Clark, would issue a counter statement and say the usual things politicians
say: “they quoted me out of context!” “Jonathan is my son”. That has not
happened; rather, some other Ijaw voices, including one Joseph Evah, have come
to the defence of the old man, to join hands in rubbishing a man they once
defended to the hilt and used as a bargaining chip for the Ijaw interest in the
larger Nigerian geo-politics.
*Jonathan and Clark
If President Jonathan had returned to power on
May 29, 2015, these same persons would have remained in the corridors of power,
displaying all forms of ethnic triumphalism. It is the reason in case they do
not realize it, why the existent power blocs that consider themselves most fit
to rule, continue to believe that those whose ancestors never ran empires can
never be trusted with power, hence they can only be admitted as other people’s
agents or as merchants of their own interests which may even be defined for
them as is deemed convenient. Mercantilism may bring profit, but in power
politics, it destroys integrity and compromises otherwise sacred values.
President
Jonathan being publicly condemned by his own Ijaw brothers, particularly those who
were once staunch supporters of his government further serves the purpose of
exposing the limits of the politics of proximity. Politics in Africa
is driven by this particular factor; it is at the root of all the other evils:
prebendalism, clientelism and what Matthew Kukah has famously described as the
“myownisation of power”. It is
both positive and negative, but obviously, more of the latter than the former.
It is considered positive only when it is beneficial to all parties concerned,
and when the template changes, the ground also shifts. As in that song, the
solid rock of proximity is soon replaced by shifting sands. Old worship becomes
new opportunism. And the observant public is left confounded.
*Abati
Chief
E.K. Clark? 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 realization? Yet, throughout the five years (not six,
please) of the Jonathan Presidency, he spoke loudly against anyone who opposed
the President. He was so combative he was once quoted as suggesting that Nigeria
As
someone who was a member of the Jonathan administration, and who interacted
often with the old man, I can only say that I am shocked. This is the
equivalent of the old man deleting President Jonathan’s phone number and
ensuring that calls from his phone no longer ring at the Jonathan end. During
the Jonathan years, Chief E. K. Clark was arguably the most vocal Ijaw leader
defending the government. He called the President “my son”, and both father and
son remained in constant touch.
There
is something about having the President’s ears in a Presidential system,
elevated to the level of a fetish in the clientilist Nigerian political system.
Persons in the corridors of power who have the President’s ear- be they cook,
valet, in-laws, wife, cousin, former school mates, priests, or whatever, enjoy
special privileges. They have access to the President and they can whisper into
his ears. That’s all they have as power: the power to whisper and run a
whispering campaign that can translate into opportunities or losses for those
outside that informal power loop around every Presidency, that tends to be
really influential.
Every
President must beware of those persons who come around calling them “Daddy”,
“Uncle”, na my brother dey there”,
“my son”, “our in-law”: emotional blackmailers relying on old connections. They
are courted, patronized and given more attention and honour than they deserve
by those looking for access to the President or government. Even when the power
and authority of the whispering exploiters of the politics of proximity is
contrived, they go out of their way to exaggerate it. They acquire so much from
being seen to be in a position to make things happen.
*Buhari
Chief
E. K. Clark had the President’s ears. He had unfettered access to his son. He
was invited to most state events. And he looked out for the man he called
“my son”, in whom he was well pleased. Chief Clark’s energy level in the
service of the Jonathan administration was impressive. Fearless and outspoken,
he deployed his enormous talents in the service of the Jonathan
government. If a press statement was tame, he drew attention to it and
urged a more robust defence of “your boss”. If any invective from the APC was
overlooked, he urged prompt rebuttal. If the party was tardy in defending “his
son”, he weighed in.
If
anyone had accused the President of lacking “the political will to fight
corruption” at that time, he, E.K. Clark, would have called a press conference
to draw attention to the Jonathan administration’s institutional reforms and
preventive measures, his commitment to electoral integrity to check political
corruption, and the hundreds of convictions secured by both the ICPC and EFCC
under his son’s watch. So prominent and influential was he, that ministers,
political jobbers etc etc trooped to his house to pay homage.
In
due course, those who opposed President Jonathan did not spare Chief E. K. Clark either. He was accused of making inflammatory and
unstatesman-like statements. An old war-horse, nobody could intimidate him. He
was not President Olusegun Obasanjo’s fan in particular. He believed Obasanjo
wanted to sabotage his son, and he wanted Obasanjo put in his place. Beneath
all of that, was an unmistaken rivalry between the two old men, seeking to
control the levers of Nigerian politics.
Every
President probably needs a strong, passionate ally like Chief E. K. Clark. But
what happened? What went wrong? Don’t get me wrong. I am not necessarily saying
that the Ijaw leader should have remained loyal to and defend Goodluck Jonathan
because they are both Ijaws; patriotism definitely could be stronger than
ethnic affinities, nonetheless that E. K. Clark tale about leaving politics and
becoming a statesman is nothing but sheer crap. If Jonathan had returned
to office, he would still be a card-carrying member of the PDP and the “father
of the President” and we would still have been hearing that famous phrase, “my
son”. Chief E. K. Clark, five months after, has practically told the world that
President Buhari is better than “his own son.”
*Obasanjo
It
is the worst form of humiliation that President Jonathan has received since he
left office. It is also the finest compliment that President Buhari has
received since he assumed office. The timing is also auspicious: just when the
public is beginning to worry about the direction of the Buhari government, E.
K. Clark shows up to lend a hand of support and endorsement. Only one phrase
was missing in his statement, and it should have been added: “my son, Buhari.”
It probably won’t be too long before we hear the old man saying “I am a
statesman, Buhari is my son.” I can imagine President Obasanjo grinning
with delight. If he really wants to be kind, he could invite E.K. Clark to his
home in Ota or Abeokuta to come and do the needful by publicly tearing his PDP
membership card and join him in that exclusive club of Nigerian statesmen! The only
problem with that club these days is that you can become a member by just
saying so or by retiring from partisan politics. We are more or less being told
that there are no statesmen in any of the political parties.
It
is not funny. Julius Ceasar asked Brutus in one of the famous lines in written
literature: “Et tu Brutus?” President
Jonathan should ask Chief E. K. Clark: “Et
tu Papa?” To which the father will probably tell the son: “Ces’t la vie, mon cher garcon.”
And really, that is life. In the face of other considerations, loyalties
vanish; synergies collapse. The wisdom of the tribe is overturned; the politics
of proximity dissolves; loyalties remain in a perpetual process of
construction. Thus, individual interests and transactions drive the political
game in Nigeria
These
are teachable moments for President Jonathan. Power attracts men and women like
bees to nectar, the state of powerlessness ends as a journey to the island of
loneliness. However, the greatest defender of our work in office is not our
ethnic “fathers and “brothers” but rather our legacy. The real loss is that
President Jonathan’s heroism, his messianic sacrifice in the face of defeat, is
being swept under the carpet and his own brothers who used to say that the
Ijaws are driven by a principle of “one for all and all for another”, have
become agent-architects of his pain. The Ijaw platform having seemingly been
de-centered, Chief E.K. Clark and others are seeking assimilation in the new
power structure. It is a telling reconstruction of the politics of proximity
and mimicry.
Chief
E.K. Clark once defended the rights of ethnic minorities to aspire to the
highest offices in the land, his latest declaration about his son reaffirms the
existing stereotype at the heart of Nigeria
• Dr.
Abati was Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, to former President Goodluck
Jonathan. This article was widely circulated.
Edwin Clark is a strange character. Why was unable to realise that such an outburst would do more harm to him than to Jonathan? What a pity
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