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.


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.

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 could have problems if Jonathan was not allowed to return to office.

Today, he is the one helping President Jonathan’s successor to quench the fires. He always openly said President Jonathan is “his son”. Today, he is not just turning against his own son, he is telling the world his son as President lacked the political will to fight corruption.

He has also accused his son of being too much of a gentleman. Really? Gentlemanliness would be considered honourable in refined circles. Is Pa E.K. Clark recommending something else in order to prove that he is no longer a politician but a statesman as he says?

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.

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.”

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, with time and context as key determinants.

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’s hegemonic politics.

The same hegemons and their agents whom Clark used to fight furiously will no doubt find him eminently quotable now that he has proclaimed that it is wrong to be a “gentleman”, and that his son lacks “the political will to fight corruption”.

There is more to this than we may ever know. Chief Clark can insist from now till 2019 that he has spoken as a statesman and as a matter of principle. His re-alignment is curious nonetheless.

Source: http://ynaija.com/reuben-abati-who-would-ever-think-edwin-clark-would-publicly-disown-jonathan/

What a lesson.

Abati is yet to tell us about his own impression concerning the GEJ administration he served in.

In the fullness of time, even Diezani will confess in court that a clueless boss is the best for a thieving employee.

Imagine that "America will know" episode regarding the missing $20B. Diezani and Okonjo-Iweala must have laughed themselves to delirium, wondering how unfortunate Nigeria is to be saddled with a gullible dunce. A kindergarten president indeed.

As for Clark, Jonathan was not lacking in the political will to fight corruption. He was busy at his Aso villa laboratory, inventing the long anticipated technology to fight global corruption.

Clown!

.

Well, i was not surprise because all of you have no shame!!

I will not be surprise if one day Bola tinubu and Obasanjo denies Buhari too

PDP+APC= SAME PEOPLE there interest is just their loot!!

"I'm beginning to feel that Clark is a yellowbar man, he has the traits of a sophisticated man".

GEJ should have asked what role Edwin Clark played when he was kept as a plaything of Turai. The answer would have helped him know who his friends were. Clark only surfaced when it was time to chop and he arrogated to himself the tag "father of the president".

To even imagine that this baba threatened fire and brimstone if GEJ failed at the polls. But I don't blame him....GEJ was there for the taking.

Somebody that could make FFK his spokesman after all he regaled Nigerians with about GEJ deserves to be deceived I guess.

GEJ was too naive and 'nice' for his own good. He's not a politician, even Alamieseigha described him as unambitious. He was an accident on our political scene.

I wish him the best in his retirement.

Jonathan was was denied by Edwin clarke today

Tomorrow will be the turn of Amaechi or Oshomole to
denie Buhari.

The same people.....

What the people want to see, the rise and fall of a star. what a mysterious world.

This is what happens in politics, the person who you think should be trusted the most may just be the best opposition.

Thats life, its just as when a butterfly hovers over a fresh flower but leaves when the flower dries up. What a life we live in

LEadership lesson learnt

Anyone who claims to be fighting for the emancipation of his people and through that 'struggle' has accumulated wealth for himself is the worst enemy of his people!

Succinctly put from the cerebral and astute Reuben Abati.

Great piece by reuben... Power attracts friends indeed...

What a life! God have mercy.. This is a huge lesson to all in whatever areas of life.
Not all friends in times of plenty are really friends.

Clark is the real definition of "Agbaya" had it been GEJ won that election, he would still be spewing trash,now the guy don lose dem come jump ship.

Abati, we know you are good at what you do. This is equally a piece of advice to the incumbents now. Loyalty is a variable constant in Nigerian politics.

Oh, Reuben, is that really you? How market?

Moral of the lesson

"success has many relations"

Three Heyaah to Jonathan


HEYAAH!


HEYAAH!!


HEYAAH!!!


LESSON: Don't trust anybody in your life

I wonder why abaiti is shocked and surprised, I once said on this forum how someone in my office from the Niger delta describe ijaw guys, he told me that an ijaw man will praise you to high heavens when you are in office or power but immediately you leave power or office, he quickly turns around to call you a foolish man. I thought he was saying rubbish until when ex militants started to deny Jonathan and when finally papa clark dropped his bombshell.

Am surprised that abati despite his close interactions with ijaw guys when he was in aso rock never knew this. But I must praise Abati for the way he continues to stand by his boss, that is the way it should be and I for one am still a secret admirer of Abati especially in his days in Patito's gang.

sigiyaya:
Jonathan was was denied by Edwin clarke today

Tomorrow will be the turn of Amaechi or Oshomole to
denie Buhari.

The same people.....

thats a different case, the story here is what the man at the helm of affairs choose to do, politicians and people would always sing ur praise. Pmb knows that, he still isnt carried away as he knows the level he confides with these guys even elrufai. He is a wise man that has seen coup and knw the level u trust people as a head of state. But gej was a clown, choosed the wrong people as long as u praise him. Nollywood,can,nass ripped frm his stupidity. And to think that the clowns like clark,noi,dieani,akpabio where people he trusted and gave so much power and sidelined others while fighting men like ameachi who are lions that can be for u till death. I tell u their are many that would despise gej who got alot but just want to pretend

As much as I derided 'political jobberism', I can't but say E.K.Clark, who is well 80yrs, has come to the realization that Buhari is the best thing that could happen to our dear country after the carnage presided over by the last administration. Abati, tho as a paid writer, has definitely been deluded by ethnocentrism. The only reason he propounded as to why E.K Clark should support Jonathan was because of ETHNIC AND EMOTIONAL attachment.... Same thing that has turned our resource rich country to a redundant poor one.


Abati shld wonder...why did we vote in for Jonathan in 2011 ( well I did) and we turned our back against him in 2015??. Even Ondo, being governed by PDP, voted massively for the PMB. this is what we call democracy...and a government of the people.


Abati may be right, from his myopic point of view; but E.K. Clark is not wrong from the common and national interest point of view.


Well, Abati asked a good question....I agree. But anyone with a little political reasoning would know if Edwin Clark had made it public then, GEJ would ve been good as gone even then!....wether he told him in private is what we don't know... But even Obj that warned GEJ in private was never acknowledged and was attacked with derison when he made it public.


Lastly we should ask Abati...whao, he sooo hated Jonathan administration b4 being appointed as spokesman... How he suddenly changed to be a staunch supporter is enough to question his own integrity

The North never criticise their own maybe because of their illoteracy, the illiteracy is really a blessing in Disguise.






SHame on you Edwin Clark

OZAOEKPE:
"I'm beginning to feel that Clark is a yellowbar man, he has the traits of a sophisticated man".

U ar SICK!

Godfullsam:

U ar SICK!

"for saying the truth"?

NgeneUkwenu:
Jonathan is a common criminal! Even Akpabio has also disowned him!

did he steal your Dad pension or your Mum stipend from herr whoring campaign?



Be mindful of what you say here

na to write stupid epistle abati know, when he was called to serve he failed. Maybe thats why noi said she regretted working with gej. Its either they are good and gej was the fool. Or they were both failures together

ECOTERRORS:
[s]did he steal your Dad pension or your Mum stipend from herr whoring campaign?
[/s]


Be mindful of what you say here

Is ashawo your profession?

xremmy:

There is more to this than we may ever know. Chief Clark can insist from now till 2019 that he has spoken as a statesman and as a matter of principle. His re-alignment is curious nonetheless.

Mr Abati, of all the stuff you had just written, this few lines of of yours above, was the only reasonable thing that make sense and worth remembering. It confirms your briefcase carrier status in government and knew nothing that happens behind the scene just like every one else..

theV0ice:


GEJ should have asked what role Edwin Clark played when he was kept as a plaything of Turai. The answer would have helped him know who his friends were. Clark only surfaced when it was time to chop and he arrogated to himself the tag "father of the president".

To even imagine that this baba threatened fire and brimstone if GEJ failed at the polls. But I don't blame him....GEJ was there for the taking.

Somebody that could make FFK his spokesman after all he regaled Nigerians with about GEJ deserves to be deceived I guess.

GEJ was too naive and 'nice' for his own good. He's not a politician, even Alamieseigha described him as unambitious. He was an accident on our political scene.

I wish him the best in his retirement.

yeah re remains an ACCIDENT nigerians regretted. He never too anything serious. Stupidity and cluelesnes is nt same as nice. People benefited frm the fact he had no idea on what they seeked frm him. Sheyi shay dressing is enough to make his di!ck erect. How much more dieazini jezebel voice and BREST

Hmmmmm this is touching