Tinubu’s action on Rivers crisis unconstitutional - Clark

 

Chief Edwin Clark

An elder statesman Edwin Clark has faulted Tinubu’s intervention into the political crisis rocking Rivers State, describing it as “anti the constitution”. 

Tinubu had waded into the crisis in Rivers State with Governor Sim Fubara and his predecessor – FCT minister – Nyesom Wike reaching a deal brokered by the Nigerian leader.

But Clark, who is the Convener of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) said Tinubu’s action is against the country’s constitution.

“Mr President is the President of Nigeria and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria and I am one of those giving him that support,” he said on Channels Television’s Politics Today. 

“But as a father, I will be a dead man if I fail to mention to Mr President: ‘This action you are trying to take is not in the right direction; is anti the constitution”.

According to him, with “public opinion” against the deal Tinubu brokered, the Nigerian leader has to reconsider the action.

“So, I am pleading with Mr President not to be carried away with the ambition of one person,” he said.

“I sincerely, on behalf of the people of the South-South, the Niger Delta, and the  Rivers State people, plead with Mr President to: ‘Please, reconsider the action that has been taken!’ Nigerians are not happy,” the elder statesman added.

‘Play According to the Rules’

Clark’s comment came on the same day that Wike blamed Fubara for the crisis in the state.

“Some of you do not even know that Mr President had invited us privately,” he said in Port Harcourt during a thanksgiving ceremony in honour of the state’s immediate past Commissioner for Works George Kelly Alabo.

“I said: ‘Do this, do this, do this, do this’. And you agreed before Mr President and you did not do it? And Mr President said, ‘Okay, let the larger state come’. We must allow our people the simple things. I’ve done my own part and I’m happy and I’m doing well in Abuja too.

“So, all of us should love this state but leave this propaganda, leave blackmail. There’s nothing I’m looking for in this state now. I have my own budget as FCT minister.

“It’s like a governor of a state. I have my own commissioners. By January, I present my budget before the National Assembly. I will preside over the expenditure. All I’m saying is if you’re a politician, play according to the rules.”