The Ijaw National leader, Pa Edwin Clark is a statesman, known for his forthrightness on burning national issues. In the build-up to the 2023 general elections, the elder statesman has been campaigning for the election of a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction.

Pa Clark also believes that some elements in the northern part of the country are constituting a clog in the wheel of national development by insisting that power should remain in the region after the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari.

He also insists that the best option for the country to avoid a major crisis is to allow for equity and fairness in the distribution of political power. He has also called for the total restructuring of the country.

You have been an advocate of a power shift to the South East, why are you leading the campaign for an Igbo president in 2023?
 
I will start by giving a little historical background of events that have happened in this country since after the civil war. After the war, when we said no victor, no vanquished, the then Head of state, Gen. Gowon truly wanted to implement all that was agreed. But the North refused to allow Yakubu Gowon to totally rebuild Nigeria after the civil war in the name of coup.

The coup that threw Gowon out of office was not because of any inefficiency but because of the civil war. I have said this in my book, the forward was written by my boss, Gen. Yakubu Gowon. It was due to the refusal of some people to allow the Igbo to be appointed General Manager of the Nigerian National Oil Cooperation (NNOC) which is now the Nigeria National Petroleum Cooperation (NNPC). And because an Igbo man was appointed there was a coup, I have the story.

So, I believe that if we have to come back together and the Igbos are now part of us, we should not do anything to remind them of what happened in the past. If you want the Igbo to be second class citizen in their country, it will not work because there is no moral justification for treating people as second class citizens and if that continues, the consequence is that there will be no peace. Their children are growing up, so what I am saying is this; if you say that zoning is dead and buried, there will be no Nigeria! Nobody will remain in the country as a second class citizen.
 
I want to take it from what you say is in your memoir. You said that some people were against the integration of the Igbos like the appointment at the NNOC at that time. Would you say that people with those sentiments are those that are advocating that zoning is dead and buried as we speak?

Exactly, some of them are still in this politics we are today, they were with us, I know their views; there are many good northerners. Ironically some of those who are pushing this hard line posture are still here especially the Fulani oriented ones who believe there must be jihad everywhere in Nigeria. Could you imagine the statement made by Lai Mohammed the other day that we Nigerians should thank President Muhammadu Buhari for not allowing jihad to spread in this country.

He said it was the Buhari government that drove Boko Haram away from Borno state. But in his book, the Transitional Hour, former President Goodluck Jonathan said no it was in regime during the suspension of the election for six weeks, he brought in mercenaries who joined with the Army to drive Boko Haram away for Nigeria for the election to hold.

The military has put us where we are today, from the three legged tripod, they have now created 36 states, they have given us 774 local governments. Today, if you want to employ policemen, instead of doing it on state basis, they say it must be based on local government and means that Kano will have 440, Jigawa will have 270 and the whole of the East will have less than the two states put together, what type of country is that? The Igbos are the only region to have only five states in the country.

What we are saying is give them a sense of belonging in this country since we did not allow them to go. If they were useless, then allow them to go, you can’t keep them as your slaves, you keep them as equal stakeholders, the next president therefore should go to the East. 
All we are saying is let’s live together in this country, allow the Igbos to produce the next president of Nigeria. And talking of competency, what type of competency are they talking about? That you are from the North because of your population now believes you are superior to others, that is now their argument.

In 2019, the PDP screened 12 northerners including Bukola Saraki and Atiku Abubakar who eventually won and contested the election. Why do they now want to jettison zoning? When they went to Port Harcourt for the primary they held primary which Atiku won.
Also when the APC was formed in 2014, only Northerners contested the primaries; Buhari, Tambuwal and Atiku all contested. So what has changed? What makes Atiku believes he would win election in 2023? 

A young man like Saraki in 2011, when Jonathan wanted to contest the presidential election, former military president, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, Gen. Gusau and Saraki wanted to contest and a small committee was set up to fight Jonathan during the primary.

The meeting was established under the chairmanship of Adamu Ciroma and Atiku won and Raymond Dokpesi who was campaign manager of Babangida went to work for Atiku.
And again in 2015, they said Jonathan must go and even PDP men contributed money towards Buhari’s election, I know them, I have their list and I will publish it when the time comes. Some people want to have a country where only they will rule like it was in Black South Africans before the coming of Nelson Mandela, No way! So if rotation is jettisoned, there will be no Nigeria.
 
There is a statement issued yesterday by the Southern and Middlebelt Leaders Forum where they made it very clear that the country belongs to all of us. In reporting that story, the newspapers reported; “Bury Zoning and bury Nigeria, South and Middlebelt leaders warn” is that a threat that if the two leading political parties decide to choose Northern candidates, what are the options available to the South?
 
 Let me say this, in October last year, I almost died. For seven days, I didn’t know where I was, I stayed in intensive care for seven days. I woke up one morning around 4am, and discovered I was very ill, I sent for my doctor that was all I knew until when I woke up I the hospital and was told I was there for seven days.

When I woke up, I asked myself; if this Almighty God should spare my life, it means that he still has a job for me and I have vowed to complete that job before I will go, because when you are 70 years ad above, you already have your boarding pass.
Let me also say that apart from the assignment which God has given me, I am also the leader of the Southern and Middlebelt Forum as I was during the 2014 Conference here in Abuja. Nobody will take us for a ride, we are not giving threats to anybody but we also have our own plan.

Nigeria belongs to all of us, what will an Igbo man tell his son that they can’t become president in their country? After the war, they still are left with five states and five ministers, with the lowest revenue coming to the region, no way! If you are blaming Kanu but in a country we belong to, we have different laws for different people, some people without committing any offence or no matter the offence you feel they might have committed, you say they are terrorists, then the real terrorists in the North East who have been killing our people over the years, you capture them and you dress them up and say they are repentant.

Who are they deceiving? I am saying that I do not think that there are several people in the country who are older than me in age, so I am appealing to our fellow Northerners that they should please allow us to have a peaceful Nigeria where all of us will be equal, where every citizen will be able to aspire any position otherwise they will be asking questions. And they won’t allow that to lie low, even after me there will be problems in Nigeria, there are not more educated than people in the South. They should use their large population to oppress the South, to that we will say no.

We are not threatening anybody but we have our own plans also, the country belongs to all of us. For over 30 years, the North ruled the country militarily and today you don’t know what is called restructuring, yet your children who were Head of State carried out restructuring of this country, created more states, created more local governments, changed our revenue system, changed our Constitution and now turn around to talk as if Nigeria only began from 1999.

Tafawa Balewa was president of Nigeria because then we were practicing parliamentary system of government, he was a Prime Minister like Johnson, the Prime Minister of Australia, so it is not proper for people to mislead this country. There are educated people in this country; there are people who will not allow themselves to be tossed around.
 
But the North has said it is not against power shifting to the South, so what seems to be causing this debate appears to be this sense of entitlement and demand, they prefer to be convinced, to be engaged in a dialogue.

Let me say this; any southern governor, any southern former governor, any southern politician who accepts to run as a vice to a northerner in the 2023 presidential election is very unpatriotic and not a true southerner and God will take care of him.

Listen, we have tried to negotiate with these people, this Ango Abdulahi, we have held series of meetings with him in Sheraton hotel, we will agree together in 2018, 2019, but being a Fulani, immediately you talk about restructuring, he will back out.

Now I hear he supports it. Could you imagine a situation whereby in the 2014 Conference was not adopted by Buhari, then the APC appointed the El-Rufai committee to give a report on restructuring.

After travelling the whole country, he wrote a report on restructuring, President Buhari was president, their former National Chairman, Odigie Oyegun confirmed it, where is that report? Nigerians are now ready for El-Rufai’s report. Let Mr. President summon a Town Hall Meeting, we will all be there, let’s discuss the El-Rufai’s report on restructuring.