If Jonathan Fails Nigerians, That’s His Business —Edwin Clark

Posted by admin Goodluck Jonathan (2010-present), Presidency Saturday, May 19th, 2012

First Republic Minister of Information and Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, speaks with SYLVESTER IDOWU recently on sundry issues, including 2015 presidency and the probability of President Goodluck Jonathan seeking another four-year tenure. Excerpts:

Clark

Do you support the call for a Sovereign National Conference(SNC) now?
No, I don’t. People do not know the meaning of SNC. What most of us have agreed to is, let us have a national conference where all Nigerians from the various ethnic nationalities can discuss the basis of our living together. It is only those who want to break up the country that talk about SNC.

Will a national conference not be a waste of time and resources if it is not sovereign, in view of the fact that similar conferences convoked by previous administrations did not achieve any result?
It will not be a waste of time. When we have a national conference, the mere fact that we sit together to discuss the problem of this country as it affects everybody is a step forward. Why should a man from the North talk about 13 per cent derivation? The constitution says the minimum of 13 per cent. It has not been increased. The 2005 national conference in Abuja recommended that it should be increased to 18 per cent. We wanted 25 or 50 per cent. So, the North should look inward, collect taxes from their people and develop their areas. Agriculture is their mainstay; they should develop it. We depend on them agriculturally. So, as far as I am concerned, they have no case, but if they want to resume the issue of offshore/onshore, the issue of derivation, let us go to the national conference and discuss it.

What is your reaction to the call by the North for a review of the revenue formula?
That is why we are calling for a national conference.

You were involved in the various consultations, which led to the emergence of President Goodluck Jonathan as the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2011 election. Was a commitment ever extracted from Jonathan, especially by the Northern political leaders, that he would not seek a second term?
There was no time he gave such commitment. Let us make it very clear, this country belongs to all of us. Who is qualified to become the president of the country? Anybody who has no defect has the right to be the president. It is not an exclusive right of certain people.

Nigerians, for the first time, unanimously voted for President Jonathan. This was the first time Nigerians rose above religious, ethnic and political divides and voted for a president. They expect so much from him and he knows that. So, the issue of whether he would run in 2015 or not has not arisen. The man has three more years to go for him to decide whether he wants to contest for second term or not.

And he has advised his ministers and other functionaries that nobody should talk about the politics of 2015. Some of the Northerners, who are making these statements, are just being vicious. They want to create problems for Jonathan, as some of them had threatened to make this country ungovernable for him. So, this is part of it. Jonathan has not told anybody that he is going to contest in 2015.

But he has said that he has a right to contest, are you not aware of that?
Yes, he has the right to contest. If former President Olusegun Obasanjo did eight years and governors are doing eight years and former President Shehu Shagari was going to do eight years, what prevents him from doing eight years if he wants? But if he does not want to, that is his own decision, but he has no reason to give commitment to any group of persons or any person in this country. He has the rights every other Nigerian has. None of them gave commitment to anybody. Obasanjo did not give such commitment, though in 2003, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, his deputy, wanted to take over from him. At that time, they did not care whether Obasanjo had a second term.

Nobody will do this to Jonathan.

Let us see what Jonathan can do for the people of this country in the next three years. He is obligated to do that because they voted for him and they expect so much from him. His transformation agenda should be completed, and he should not talk about second term until towards the end of his first term.

Are you convinced that he is delivering on the mandate given to him?
He is performing.

How do you mean? Are you not aware of the problem, for instance, in the power sector?
Which power sector? There are saboteurs. He has been trying. There was a certain time that power generation rose to 4,000 megawatts, but due to the fall in water level and lack of gas, the figure dropped. This thing happens everywhere in the world, but the power sector is a priority to his government. But there is a conspiracy against him. All the things that were never done by Obasanjo and other people are now on his shoulders. And he has only been in office for about one year.

Is it not, two years…
Not two years. Not at all!

What about the one year he got after the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua?
The one year he got when they harassed him and intimidated him that he had no right to become the president of this country! How many people would be free enough to do something for their country under that circumstance? This is the first time he has been elected.

By 29 May, 2012, he will be one year in office. And if he fails, that is his own business. God has put him there, you have voted for him, have an open mind, give him a chance. When you harass him, he cannot perform. He is a human being.

But Boko Haram said they are going to run him out of government in the next three months. Are you bothered?
Boko Haram is not against Jonathan. We are not afraid. How can we be bothered? Bothered about what and whom? I don’t want to comment on that. As far as I am concerned, it is irrelevant. Boko Haram members are fighting their own people, who neglected them, who have not given them anything. They had no schools, no medicare for them. The Boko Haram members know their enemies.

Jonathan is not their enemy.

Is it not the duty of the government to protect lives and property, and punish criminals?
The government is doing everything possible to contain Boko Haram. One is not happy about the number of Boko Haram leaders that have been arrested as well as the number of its members killed as they are also Nigerians. So, we will find a way to ensure that this thing stops. What do you want the president to do? Do you want him to go to Maiduguri in Borno State and stop them? He is doing everything possible to contain them and he will contain them. The leaders of Boko Haram should come out. You can’t negotiate with faceless people.

When Yar’Adua decided to negotiate with the Niger Delta militants, they came to him, they saw him and he fraternised with them. Boko Haram leaders should come out. I am very sure the president will negotiate with them.

Do you subscribe to the views in certain quarters that Boko Haram was an invention by the North to truncate the second term aspiration of President Jonathan?
A few of the Northerners may do that, but majority of them would not contemplate it. Have you read the interview given by Senator Kanti Bello? He mentioned people like Atiku, who are professional presidential candidates. He said Atiku had no principle, but had an ambition to become the president. He is jumping from one party to another. Those are the people who believe that unless they are ruling, nobody should rule. The same Atiku, in 2003, wanted to take over power from Obasanjo, who was his boss. In 2007, he left PDP to contest for the presidency on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Today, he is back in PDP and wants to push Jonathan out. He will never succeed. Kaita is one of the people canvassing for Atiku, feeling that unless Atiku becomes president, there will be no peace in the country. And if it is found that they are actually doing it, the government should be bold enough to arrest them.

Nobody is above arrest. We need peace and stability in this country, and no individual should create problem for the government.wp_posts

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Posted by admin on May 19 2012. Filed under Goodluck Jonathan (2010-present), Presidency. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry