Reuben Abati in new article slams
E.K Clark for criticizing Jonathan
In an article titled 'Clark, the Father, Jonathan, the
Son,' former presidential spokesperson Reuben
Abati criticized former PDP chieftain Edwin Clark for
the remarks he made about Jonathan. Read below
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.
• Dr. Abati was Special Adviser, Media and Publicity
to former President Goodluck Jonathan.
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