Clark meets Tinubu: Warn of consequences if Wike doesn’t stop disturbing Fubara
Joseph Irikefe
For the umpteenth time, elder statesman Edwin Clark has warned of dire consequences of the continued onslaught against Simanialayi Fubara, Governor of Rivers State, saying if the attempts to disrupt his government, eventually succeed, nobody could guarantee the safety of the nation’s economy.
Clark, acclaimed leader of the Ijaw nation, who was said to be instrumental in stopping the disruptive campaigns of militant groups in the Niger Delta during the early years of the government of former President Muhammadu Buhari, was apparently referring to the possible renewed onslaught against oil facilities, by Ijaw youths believed to be responsible for previous attacks, given that Fubara is from the same ethnic stalk.
The elder statesman, who was Nigeria’s former Federal Commissioner of Information during the military regime of Yakubu Gowon, was speaking against the backdrop of his recent meeting with President Bola Tinubu over the protracted political crisis in Rivers State.
Admonishing Tinubu not to take side with Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), he revealed how he warned the President that not heeding the advice could threaten the peace and stability in the southern oil-rich state, urging that the governor should be given a free hand to manage Rivers state’s affairs.
The PUNCH, quoted him as saying: “I have advised Mr President (Tinubu) again that he should leave Fubara alone to run his government, Wike should concentrate on his job in Abuja. Once that is done, there will be peace and stability in the state. But if they do anything contrary and there is no peace, it will affect the economy of the country.”
Regretting that Wike had made peace impossible due to his intransigence, Clark, 97 lamented that many elders in the state had failed to get the FCT Minister to give peace a chance, adding that his insistence on controlling the political structure of the state, was at the bottom of the continued crisis in the state.
His words: “How do you bring them together? One man says I have divorced. But you are my house help. There is no way. You are my son. There is no way any outsider can accept him. This is because Wike does not see anything wrong with him. He believes that he is still controlling the structures in Rivers State whereas those structures have been there from governor to governor. They don’t belong to one person. Wike was not yet born when Rivers was created.”