Dear Governor Douye Diri, allow me to express my condolences over the passing of Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark. I feel so overwhelmed by this eventuality that I need to say something. I’m grateful to find a willing confidante in you. You know the story of E. K. Clark as well as I don’t.
All I know is that he was the foremost voice of the Ijaw Nation in recent times. He was in a class of his own, and the only one in that class.He was an authority to reckon with, and I wish he were alive to hold a copy of the new book entitled My Journey In Service by former President Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida.
In point of fact, I knew Chief E.K Clark only from a distance. Long before I met him, in fact, I was better acquainted with his younger brother. I knew John Pepper Clark, the poet, long before I met Edwin Clark, the politician and elder statesman. At first I couldn’t make the connection between the two because I thought J.P. Clark was a white man, until I got to know that he hails from Kiagbodo in Delta State, and the elder brother was proud to have the name of his hometown as his own middle name.
As I said, the only time I came face to face with Chief Edwin Clark was the day we boarded the same vehicle together and drove through the gates of the Ijaw National Academy. That was July 14, 2017, when the Bayelsa State Government under Henry Seriake Dickson played host to former military Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon.
I had the privilege of playing chaperone to His Royal Highness Christian Otobotekere of blessed memory, and rode through the tight security in his black jeep. Apparently, Chief E.K Clark had just arrived for the event and could not find his way to the venue on account of the jostling crowd. He climbed in through the door to the right and sat beside Otobotekere. I sat to the left. Seated upfront was the famous poet, Pa Gabriel Imomotimi Okara.
I leaned forward, greeted Clark, and watched him nod a few times as Otobotekere introduced me as Mingi-Yai of Nembe Kingdom, decked out as I was in my princely regalia. I quickly added that I was a journalist and would be grateful if he would be so kind as to let me chat with him at a more convenient time. He was all for the idea, but our meeting never took place.
I am left with the consolation that he wrote a book, a voluminous book, in which he told his remarkable story in his own words. I was captivated by the title, Brutally Frank, a true and immediate reflection of the forthright character of the man himself. As far as men of blunt opinions go, Chief E.K Clark counts among the few. He had a knack for saying the truth without flinching. That is why I wish he were still alive to read the confessions of Babangida.
I have no doubt that E.K Clark would have had a few harsh words for Babangida over the proclamation, three decades after the event, that Moshood Abiola actually won the presidential election of June 12, 1993. He would have raised eyebrows about the possibility that the Head of State was not privy to the cancellation of the results. He would have been scandalized to know that one man can hold an entire nation to ransom, and get away with it.
He would have berated Babangida in righteous terms, and chastised him for impropriety. He would have been flustered to know that the killer of Dele Giwa was still in hiding. The respectable elder statesman, in short, would have taken time to write a long letter to the former military President about being let down concerning a few details in the controversial new book. Needless to say, he would have been brutally frank in putting across his points.
Your Excellency, I feel bad that we are talking about Chief E.K Clark in retrospect when in fact we have not even finished talking about your fifth anniversary in office. The other day, I was driving through the streets of Yenagoa and it occurred to me that you left out repair work on internal roads in the course of the anniversary celebration.
Otherwise, I am quite willing to give you a pass mark so far. I have a feeling that you can do exceedingly better in the next three years of your government. Remember that, on the eve of the gubernatorial election that returned you for a second term, I argued that you deserved a second term for the simple reason that every football match has a second half, and anyone who was insisting on their own second half should hold their peace till the end of the on-going match.
You are one year into your second half, Your Excellency. You have three more years to go, and I am rooting for you on the sidelines. I can see that, like Alamieyeseigha, you are conscious of history and your place in it. Take it from me when I say it’s a good thing to be remembered for the excellent work you do. I can’t wait to mark you excellent if you actually take the three senatorial roads to their destination points.
And if indeed you are able to manifest a New Yenagoa, I will have reason to cheer. The way I see it, Your Excellency, that process begins with keeping every internal road in the state capital in good motorable condition. I look forward, in fact, to a pot-hole free policy from your government with particular regard to roads in the state capital.
I’m fully aware that you have been commended repeatedly for keeping law and order. You have canvassed peace and safety of lives and property in the last five years of your service as Governor of Bayelsa State. It is, in fact, one of your strongest points of recommendation. You have the capacity to exercise control over any contingency, any attempt to breach the peace, and I have no doubt that you will sustain this ability for the next three years. Keep it up.
The big idea is that, by the time you leave office, your legacy will be formidable.I have since extended my congratulations to you and your able Deputy on your fifth anniversary in the pages of a special document you will like to flip through. My humble prayer is that the Bayelsa State Government under your charge will be thoughtful enough to ensure that prosperity gets into every home evenly.
Let the market women prosper. Let the students prosper. Let the workers prosper. For the civil servant, it begins with paying the minimum wage to the last dime. Even the senior citizens are entitled to their portion of prosperity. Retired labourers and ex-service men could do with their rightful share of prosperity as well
Let the all-round testimony about the Douye Diri government be that prosperity was fairly spread to every nook and cranny of the state. What’s more, remember to extend the miracle of the Diri-Law government to the civil servant who has been starving for fifteen years without his salary and allowances. He is now a retired senior citizen of Bayelsa. Consider his famished family, Your Excellency. Consider the children, and be of good cheer.
