From the second the information of the demise of nonagenarian Senator Edwin Kiagbodo-Clark of Kiagbodo broke on Monday, seventeenth February, 2025, it appeared that the advocacy on behalf of Nigeria’s beleaguered South-South corridor of the Niger Delta area immediately went on maintain.
What we hear principally is the cry of regrets and helplessness from the youthful era of the South-South who had yielded the area to elders like Clark of their hitherto violent encounters with the Nigerian state over the neglect of the welfare of their peoples and the oil spillage that devastated their communities.
Clark performed a key function in President Umaru Yar’Adua’s Niger Delta Amnesty initiative that doused the violence of youths of the South-South area and persuaded them to embrace peace and drastically scale back the violence in opposition to oil sector individualnel, pipelines and different installations.
The yielding of the advocacy area by the erstwhile restive youths contributed to Clark practically turning into the lone voice of the South-South. And his demise almost quantities to a shutdown of advocacy round that topic. We marvel who will assume that responsibility henceforth.
We recall that simply earlier than his demise, he offered help for the decision by Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State for the rise of the derivation fund of petroleum-producing states from 13 to 30 per cent. He, nonetheless, preferred that the funds be paid directly to the host communities as a substitute of state governments whose governors he described as a grasping lot.
He argued that the derivation fund “stands by itself” and is “not (half) of any consolidated income of any tier of government, nor a part of any State Joint Native Authorities Account… (and) ought to, subsequently, be deal withed by itself (as a standalone).”
He requested his governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, to account for the N250 billion that he allegedly acquired as derivation fund as Governor of Delta State. He thought the tasks executed by the governor didn’t match the quantity acquired. He carried this advocacy additional by campaigning in opposition to the 2023 presidential and vice presidential tickets of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Dr. Okowa.
From the time he joined the West African Pupil Union, fashioned by Ladipo Solanke and Herbert Bankole-Vivid as a social, cultural and political membership of West African college students in London in 1925, Clark fought alongside different Nigerian nationalists for the independence that Nigeria obtained in 1960.
Earlier than continuing to England to check regulation, Clark was skilled as a trainer at Lecturers Coaching School Abraka, now Delta State College. Even at that time in his life, he organized press conferences on nationwide points and led fellow college students to reject perceived highhandedness of the varsity authorities.
He joined the Nationwide Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons, led by Nigeria’s First Republic President, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. His involvement with South- South points dates again to 1953 when he ran as an unbiased candidate and was elected as a councillor for Bomadi.
In 1966, Clark grew to become a member of the advisory committee to Mid-Western Area’s first military Governor, David Ejoor. Incidentally, this committee rejected the concept of a Nigerian confederation that was floated after the constitutional disaster that greeted the 1966 coups.
From serving as Commissioner for Schooling and Feeer for Finance within the Mid-West beneath Brigadier Samuel Ogbemudia, who succeeded Governor Ejoor, he took over as Federal Commissioner of Data from Anthony Enahoro. He later served as a Senator for the final three months of Nigeria’s Second Republic.
Together with others, he co-founded the Southern and Center Belt Leaders Discussion board (SMBLF). He was the Nationwide Chief, and Ayo Adebanjo, of Afenifere, who predeceased him by three days, was his deputy. Additionally, he co-founded and led the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF).
The SMBLF persuaded the Adebanjo faction of Afenifere, the Ohaneze Ndigbo and PANDEF to endorse the candidature of Peter Obi of Labour Occasion throughout the 2023 presidential election that was received by President Bola Tinubu.
We, nonetheless, notice that whereas SMBLF was lively in North Central and Southern Nigeria, PANDEF’s advocacy gave the impression to be restricted to the South-South corridor of the Niger Delta and excluded oil-producing Southwest and Southeast Nigeria corridors.
Along with his spectacular rewire of public service, Clark established the Edwin Clark University in his hometown, Kiagbodo, Delta State, to contribute the critical manpower that Nigeria wants for its nationwide growth.
Different outstanding members of Clark’s household had been playwright and poet, John Pepper Clark, Ambassador Akporode Clark and Brigadier Godfrey Clark, whose spouse, Prof Miriam Ikejiani-Clark, was Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
As this nice patriot goes house, we hope that one other robust “iroko” tree will rise to offer shade for the souls of the South- South area which have turn into totally harassed by the leviathan of the Nigerian state.
