Mallam Adamu Ciroma and his fellow pro-zoning Northern elders must be having their last laugh now. Yet it is early in the morning. By the time this administration gets to its twilight, who knows, they may be forced to guffaw in an open market, in mockery, of Pa Edwin Clark and what he stood for before this administration came on.

Recall that by this time last year, our polity was in heat; boiling from the fire of zoning which was, unfortunately, put on by President Goodluck Jonathan and its embers fanned by Pa Edwin Clark. The president was to go against the policy of his party and contest the presidency. The Northern elders kicked. The Ijaw elder lashed out at any one who argued in favour of Mr Jonathan honouring a simple internal arrangement of his party, the PDP. Pa Clark railed at the Northern elders. He argued that zoning be thrown away for the presidency to be handed over to the South-South. Pa Clark asked that zoning be jettisoned to make way for zoning still. In seeking an all-cost Presidency for Goodluck Jonathan, Pa Edwin Clark did not consider the importance of history in delving into the venture. He underestimated the power of content in determining the output of any human vessel. He didn’t bother to ask himself, “Does my candidate, Goodluck Jonathan, have a history of performance in office?”

Well, today, the chickens have come home to roost. Last week, Pa Edwin Clark was reported to have cried out against the Jonathan regime. He was quoted as saying that the South-South people have not benefitted anything from the regime. That was a strong one from the same man who vowed that Jonathan was the angel Nigeria needed. Well, let Pa Clark be told that nobody in Nigeria, other than the president’s coterie of courtiers, has benefitted anything from this regime. What we have is a threat of how life will be made unbearable for usthrough the increment of fuel price and imposition of tolls on drivers by next year. And should we object to the increment of fuel price, we will face a worse case. We will no longer have any economy to call ours. It will collapse. Those are the things we’ve benefitted so far from the Jonathan presidency. The president either issues threats or issues even worse threats. Pa Clark should therefore not bother himself about whether his Niger Delta people have benefitted anything or not.

Yet from the sound of that cry, it does still seem to me that the Ijaw elder has yet to rise from the ethnic seat where he is presently relaxing. He talked about how Yoruba was the official language in Aso Rock during Obasanjo’s regime and how Hausa was the official Aso Villa language during Yar’Adua’s time. Implicitly, Pa Clark is suggesting that South-South language becomes the official language in Aso Rock now that Jonathan is the president. At Pa Clark’s age, such statement can only be unfortunate. Well, nobody stops the President or his wife from speaking the Niger-Delta language (whatever that is) in Aso Rock. The only thing Pa Clark hasn’t shown to have understood is the fact that the Niger-Delta is only a product of recent political demarcation. They do not have one language. In fact, the region itself is as divided as Nigeria is. Their official language is pidgin English. The reason is because the region is comprised of different ethnic nationalities. There you have the Ijaws, Urhobos, Itshekiris, Efiks, Binis, Ikwerres, Etche, the Agbor people, Umunede, Esans, and so many others. Which of them does Pa Clark want to be the official language? Ijaw?Maybe. Then what happens to the rest? The elder has some explanations to give here.

Still, in doing that which Pa Clark and others from his “part of the country” expect of him, President Jonathan has subtly allowed the Niger-Delta Language to be spoken in Aso Rock. Andrew Azazi is speaking a part of it with his continuous presence in the Villa even when he has no results to justify his stay there. Diezani Allison-Maueke is speaking the Niger-Delta language in the presidency even without knowing how many litres of fuel Nigerians consume in oneday. Austin Oniwon is speaking the Language atop the monument of corruption called NNPC which has been accused, by another government agency, of keeping two different accounts. Mike Oghiadome is keeping the flag of Niger-Delta Language in the presidency flying. The Niger-Deltans are handling juicy appointments in this administration. I wonder what else Mr Edwin Clark is agitating for. Hasn’t he been allocated any Oil block? It is still early. His Excellency might be nursing some grand plans for the elder statesman.

I don’t know what Pa Clark wants for Nigeria at this stage. If he wanted performance, even from his Niger-Delta, Mr Jonathan is not qualified to make the first eleven. Take for instance, the only programme he easily points to as his achievement while he was a governor in Bayelsa State. He took about hundred “indigent” students of Secondary Schools and got them enrolled in the big private schools in Abuja, under the state government’s scholarship. I am surprised that a state governor did that. And for that, he sought – and still seeks – credit. Now let us look at what Chibuike Amaechi, the governor of a neighbouring state, did under similar circumstance. Amaechi identified the need for qualitative primary and secondary education in Rivers State. Rather than pick 100 or 200 students to be sponsored in American International School or Corona, he thought of how to make sure that every student in that state (and they are in hundreds of thousand, if not in millions) gets a sound primary and secondary education under very conducive environments. Today, in Rivers, you see schools littered everywhere, and built to world-class standards. It is no longer news that parents pull their children out of the costly private schools and put them in public schools in Rivers State.

And why would I pick a hole in Governor Jonathan’s approach? Because every student in Bayelsa needed sound and qualitative education. His duty was to provide it and make it affordable; not to export a negligible fraction of the population to Abuja while the rest make do with sitting under trees or dust-covered classrooms. Secondly, how do you demonstrate objectivity in the process of selecting who merits the scholarship and who doesn’t? How do you ascertain that a student is truly indigent and not the child of a political loyalist or friend? These are the problems that Amaechi’s approach eliminated.

Interestingly, as simple as that approach sounds, it takes deep and good thinking to be able to come up with it. And Mr Jonathan hasn’t ever been accused of being a deep thinker. I haven’t heard of that yet.

This is one of the reasons why you may want to wonder how his choice became attractive to Pa Edwin Clark. Was Pa Clark expecting Goodluck Jonathan to give good governance which he has never been used to? Was he expecting the former uninspiring governor of Bayelsa State to suddenly become Murtala Mohammed in Aso Rock? Isn’t it said that a man cannot give that which he doesn’t have?In truth, Pa Clark is being unfair to the president.

More elders should learn from Edwin Clark’s outburst. At the golden years of old age, it will not hurt anybody to speak the truth. I am not known to support zoning or rotation or whatever name it goes by; yet I feel strongly that Pa Edwin Clark wasn’t fair in the pursuit of the Jonathan presidency. Good enough, he has identified that his product is worse than a bumbler. He has seen where his agitation has brought Nigeria.

Pa Clark would have rather prodded on President Jonathan to just conduct elections and hand over to a tested Northern performer. Thereafter he would negotiate for power transfer to the South-South. That would give them the opportunity to groom the RotimiAmaechis, Pat Utomis or ItseSagays for the presidency. Insisting that anybody be made president simply because it is “the turn of Niger Delta” is a mockery of privilege. Yet it is good that he is the same person complaining of not benefitting from this presidency which he played a major role in instituting.

A lasting lesson in life, for me, is, “always know what you are asking for”. Pa Edwin Clarke probably didn’t know what he was asking for.

Still, in doing that which Pa Clark and others from his “part of the country” expect of him, President Jonathan has subtly allowed the Niger-Delta Language to be spoken in Aso Rock. Andrew Azazi is speaking a part of it with his continuous presence in the Villa even when he has no results to justify his stay there. Diezani Allison-Maueke is speaking the Niger-Delta language in the presidency even without knowing how many litres of fuel Nigerians consume in oneday.[b] Austin Oniwon [/b]is speaking the Language atop the monument of corruption called NNPC which has been accused, by another government agency, of keeping two different accounts. Mike Oghiadome is keeping the flag of Niger-Delta Language in the presidency flying. The Niger-Deltans are handling juicy appointments in this administration. I wonder what else Mr Edwin Clark is agitating for. Hasn’t he been allocated any Oil block? It is still early. His Excellency might be nursing some grand plans for the elder statesman.

df2006:


this just show the glaring ignorance of the writer, austin oniwon is from, kogi state, north central

df2006:


this just show the glaring ignorance of the writer, austin oniwon is from, kogi state, north central

Areosapien:



LOL. No bro. You don't understand. He also listed Allison-Madueke who, if I'm correct, is from the South-East. The writer's being metaphorical here.


And thanks a million, Tsiya.

Pa Clark would have rather prodded on President Jonathan to just conduct elections and hand over to a tested Northern performer. Thereafter he would negotiate for power transfer to the South-South. That would give them the opportunity to groom the RotimiAmaechis, Pat Utomis or ItseSagays for the presidency.

Insisting that anybody be made president simply because it is “the turn of Niger Delta” is a mockery of privilege.