”Nowhere in the annals of history has the older generation betrayed the one below it, so mindlessly with an unprecedented act of coercion, brigandage, cheating and intimidation like the Nigerian ruling class that installed Lugardism in1960.The greatest absurdity was the parochial and self-seeking reasons adduced for their reckless banditry over the ordinary people of Nigeria” – Quoted in Nowinta’s book, 2009: WHERE WE ARE page (79)
Pebbles with Igbotako Nowinta
First of all I want to send my condolence to the family of late Dipreye Alamieseigha, the first civilian Governor of Bayelsa state who exited this physical plane a few days ago.
Though in Africa they say you don’t speak evil against the dead, my submission here about the fallen guy called Dipreye Alamiesegha is not at all about speaking any form of evil about him.
Alamiesegha was a metaphor for misgovernance, reckless squandermaniac in government and a minus for democratic dividends.
Alamieseigha stole and stole from the commonwealth of Bayelsa and went on to disgrace himself and Nigeria in London by running away from justice when he jumped bail while facing trial for money laundering.
Unfortunately his death came at a time when the British government was pushing for his extradition to London to complete his journey for justice for the crimes he committed.
Alamieseigha reminds me of Meredith Adisa Akinloye, the Second Republic’s politician and National Chairman of the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN) who threw caution away into the gutter and went on to position himself as one of the most conscienceless and corrupt politicians in the bitter chaotic history of Nigeria.
Alamieseigha indeed brings the unfortunate matter of Edwin Clark to my focus here. A man who shamelessly decamped from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) recently after supporting Dr. Goodluck Jonathan to the tilt before and during the March 28th 2015 Presidential Election.
I will be coming back to Edwin Clark. I did something quite unusual on this page last week. I did not take time out to study the Ministerial nominees list sent to the Senate by President Muhammadu Buhari before I okayed it.
Though, I told readers of my intention to dissect the list before I suddenly chose to discuss the ordeal of Mrs. Dieziani Alison-Madueke in London.
I think I was carried away by the way President Buhari has been piloting the affairs of the nation since he took over effectively on May 29th 2015.
That was why I hurriedly okayed my piece on the Ministerial nominees without properly looking at some of the personalities that were listed by the President.
Now, what is a character like Audu Ogbeh doing on that list? Ogbeh to me is an incredible, over pampered and notoriously recycled guy on that list who has no business being a Minister under the new dispensation.
Ogbeh featured prominently in the Shehu Shagari’s inglorious rule in the Second Republic; he was PDP Chairman under General Olusegun Obasanjo. One can go on and on. Who is one Sunday Ehanire being penciled down to represent Edo State on the Ministerial nominee list?
A check revealed that Ehanire is the junior brother to Senator Daisy Ehanire Danjuma, the wife of General Theophilous Danjuma(former Minister of Defense under Obasanjo).
The script being played out with the inclusion of Ehanire is that General Danjuma has placed his foothold on the Muhammadu Buhari government.
That is to say that the retired generals are at it again with General Ibrahim Babangida operating from the Minna axis.
Space constraint will not permit me to do thorough justice to the would-be Ministers here. But one thing is clear. I am beginning to be afraid of something. That is I fear if President Buhari will be allowed to pursue his agenda of change to a logical conclusion.
Agreed that the likes of Ogbeh, Amaechi, Onu, Ngigie, Fashola, etc., contributed immensely to his electoral success, where is it written that they must serve as his Ministers?
Can’t these individuals be compensated behind the public glare to prevent the types of allegations and counter allegations being leveled against some of them today?
We had expected the likes of Femi Falana and Pat Utomi to make the Ministerial nominees list. Now things have been compromised or sacrificed on the altar of party politics.
I hope the change we have all expected will not be derailed midway, even as I wish the President all the stamina to be able to bring our country on the next stage of purposeful development.
Chief Edwin Clark by his recent move to the All Progressives Congress (APC) has only dramatized the fact that a chunk of the people who parade themselves in Nigeria as politicians are nothing but greedy bandits.
Clark in all his years as public servant has clearly shown that he lacks any iota of integrity, dignity, self-respect and conscience.
A Clark that has been filling his pockets to the brim at the expense of our national treasury since the days of the First Republic has thrown decorum to the gutter by rushing to pitch his political tent with the APC.
It is tragic that Edwin Clark has stabbed his brother (Dr. Goodluck Jonathan ) this early in the day in the back. What does he really want at his age?
What type of bottomless insatiable stomach does he have that he has to decamp after sixteen uninterrupted years of tremendous fun with the former ruling political party?
Today by his actions, Edwin Clark is a monumental disgrace to his Ijaw nation. And all those in the same boat with him should be treated as political lepers in the APC.
I hereby challenge the National Assembly to do something fast in this direction to frustrate unreasonable decamping within the polity by enacting a law stopping the likes of Edwin Clark from plying their nefarious trade of politics of the stomach
If I were Edwin Clark I would have quietly quit party politics instead of messing around at his age.
Nowinta wrote, Where We Are: A Call for Democratic Revolution in Nigeria
