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.