My Dear Chief Olusegun Obasanjo,
LET THE TRUTH BE TOLD BEFORE IT IS
TOO LATE
This indeed is a season of open
letters, the session of which you heralded with a contemptuous one to His
Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed
Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Your eldest daughter and a former
Senator. Dr. lyabo Obasanjo, feeling uncomfortable with your antics quickly
fired a response to your now infamous letter that has gone viral and continue
to generate negative national discourse.
President Goodluck Jonathan GCFR, an
amiable gentle man to whom you routed your vicious open letter would not
tolerate Presidential aides writing nor commenting on your letter, and so
ordered a stay of action. He in his characteristic manner of respect and
decorum said he would personally reply. I am quite certain that the President
did not want to join issues with a benefactor and former President. He would
have wanted the charged atmosphere your open letter orchestrated to ride itself
out until normalcy and calm return to the polity, as witnessed in other
incitive comments by well placed Individuals in the recent past.
However, as you well intended the
echoes of your vicious letter continue to reverberate negatively. The President
had no option left but to reply you through the same medium of an open letter.
With a deep sense of responsibility the President touched all the damaging
allegations you heaped on his administration and today Nigerians are better
informed.
In the light of the forgoing, it has
become incumbent upon me at this point in our national life to refute some of
the issues highlighted in your letter especially about the Ijaws so that
Nigerians must know that you are not the saint you claim to be, but a mischief
maker, an ego maniac who always wants to play to the gallery. As rightfully put
by your daughter lyabo “Nigeria does not belong to Obasanjo”. In addition, I
want to buttress the assertion that all Nigerians are equal no matter where
they come from, that is, no one is a second class citizen of this nation. You
have no right to plunge Nigerians into crisis as your past actions and recent
open letter to the President connotes. The generality of Nigerians think your
letter is treasonable.
Why I write
Ordinarily, I never intended to join
in the affray of accusations and counter accusations between a former President
and a sitting President and a daughter in between. But, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo
in your usual characteristic hatred and use of sarcastic remarks about Ijaw,
you have again berated and insulted us the Ijaws in your letter to Mr.
President. Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has never for once acted nor behaved as an
Ijaw man since he took office as President, and we hold no grudge against him
for that.
Secondly, as a Nigerian and an Ijaw
man, I am proud to belong to both entities. Unlike you Obasanjo who is a Yoruba
man first before being a Nigerian, I Chief E.K. Clark am the accepted leader of
the Ijaws, while unfortunately you, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, are not accepted
as leader of the Yorubas despite being Head of State twice, because you lack
the virtues and honour deserving of a Yoruba leader. Your devilish and inciting
remarks about the Ijaws are unfounded.
My dear former President, I know my
letter will not come to you as a surprise because you know I would respond in
equal measure, I have written several open letters to you in the past for your
mismanagement of Nigeria affairs with Atiku Abubakar between 1999-2007, when
you were the President and he your Vice President. I have also criticized and
commented on your incessant interference with the government of Late President,
Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and I have commented on your unwarranted
interference with his administration because of the confusion you generate.
Reproduced hereunder is your myopic, rude and irresponsible remarks about Ijaws
in your desperate letter to Mr. President:
‘For you to allow yourself to be
“possessed” so to say, to the exclusion of most of the rest of Nigerians as
an Ijaw man’ is a mistake that should have never been allowed to happen.
Yes, you have to be born in one part of Nigeria to be a Nigerian if not naturalized
but the Nigerian President must be above ethnic factionalism. And those who
prop you up as of, and for ‘Ijaw nation1 are not your friends genuinely, not
friends of Nigeria nor friend of ‘Ijaw nation1 they tout about. To allow or
tacitly encourage people of ‘Ijaw nation’ to throw insults on other Nigerians
from other parts of the country and threaten fire and brimstone to protect your
interest as Ijaw man is myopic and your openly quieting them is even more
unfortunate. You know that I have expressed my views and feelings to you on
this, issue in the past but I have come to realize that many others feel the
way I have earlier expressed to you.”
I am indeed very sad and disturbed that you can make such a malicious, mischievous statement about an ethnic group which you did pejoratively knowing fully well that it has no single iota of truth nor foundation purposely to instigate and incite the rest of Nigerians against Mr. President and Ijaw come 2015.
I am indeed very sad and disturbed that you can make such a malicious, mischievous statement about an ethnic group which you did pejoratively knowing fully well that it has no single iota of truth nor foundation purposely to instigate and incite the rest of Nigerians against Mr. President and Ijaw come 2015.
Your statement: “For you to allow
yourself to be possessed so to say, to the exclusion of most of the rest of
Nigeria as an Ijaw man is a mistake that should have never been allowed to
happen” One may wish to ask why you think Jonathan is being possessed by Ijaws
in the Presidency? The answer is definitely no.
WATCH OUT FOR PART 2
My best wishes of the season to you
and your esteemed family.
EDWIN KIAGBODO CLARK
What are his intentions and what is he trying to gain for this exposure ? Feel free to make your comments.
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