Chief Edwin Clark
A former Federal Commissioner of
Information, Chief Edwin Clark, has hailed the anti-corruption crusade
of President Muhammadu Buhari and knocked former President Goodluck
Jonathan for lacking the political will to fight graft.
Clark, who said it was wrong for anyone
to accuse President Buhari of fighting a selective war in his drive to
return sanity into the polity, also declared that he had formally left
the Peoples Democratic Party.
Clark called on Nigerians not to distract
the President from achieving his goal, just as he appealed to the
President to remain focused in his determination to rid the country of
corruption.
The Ijaw leader spoke in Abuja on
Wednesday when a group, Think Nigeria First Initiative, paid him a
courtesy call in his Abuja residence.
He said, “Jonathan didn’t have the
political will to fight corruption. He’s a gentleman. Drivers of
yesterday are living in palatial buildings now under his government.
“In advanced countries, when you are
living above your means, people query you. That’s not so in Nigeria.
Former governors, lawmakers are now asking for immunity.”
Clark, who was a staunch supporter of
former President Jonathan, however, said he had quit the PDP. But he
said he would not join the governing party, the All Progressives
Congress.
He said, “I no longer belong to the PDP. I
won’t go to the APC either, but I will continue to talk as an elder
statesman and leader of this country. I have left politics.
“If anyone comes to me to say he’s
running for any elective position in the PDP or the APC, I won’t support
you. I’m not a member of the PDP anymore.”
It was however not clear if Clark quit
the party because of the defeat suffered by Jonathan during the last
presidential election.
It will be recalled that President
Buhari, who was the candidate of the APC, defeated Jonathan, who was the
PDP candidate during the election.
Clark also accused former President Olusegun Obasanjo of institutionalising corruption in the country.
He had also said that he and other
supporters of former President Jonathan were worried because of the
outcome of the last presidential election. He, however, added that there
was nothing they could do since the former President had conceded
defeat.
He said, “Some of us were worried when
Jonathan conceded defeat. We were worried. If a man who contested
election conceded defeat, who are you to say no?
“Elections had been held, winners had
emerged and losers had agreed, what next? Buhari is now my President and
the President of Nigeria.
“We should all try and support him,
particularly in his determination to eradicate corruption in Nigeria.
For eight years Obasanjo legalised corruption.
“Yet, he’s the one talking about
corruption today. Nobody should distract Buhari from fighting
corruption. People should stop talking about sectional or selective
justice.”
Clark said those who ruled the country
before Buhari, like the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and Jonathan
didn’t have the political will to fight corruption.
He specifically accused Yar’Adua of being a friend to the jailed former Governor of Delta State, James Ibori.
Clark said, “Yar’Adua became friend with Ibori, who is very corrupt and because of this, he could not fight corruption.”
In his reaction to Clark’s dumping of the
PDP, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Chief Olisa Metuh,
said the party would want to wish the elder statesman well.
“He is a man we respect so much. If he’s leaving our party and wants to retire from politics, we wish him well,” Metuh said.
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