BY EMMA AMAIZE, REGIONAL EDITOR,   SOUTH-SOUTH

IF there is any single Nigerian that is believed, far and wide, to have a big influence on President Goodluck Jonathan, the person is the former Federal Commissioner for Information and national leader of the Ijaw ethnic nationality, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark.

Not even the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, who anointed Dr. Jonathan as vice president under the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and battled to ensure he was made Acting President when it became palpable that Yar’Adua was dying in 2010, could be credited with such gargantuan influence.

Chief Clark is well regarded by most Ijaw people of the Niger-Delta, including the President himself for his audacity and fearlessness in voicing his mind, no matter whose ox is gored. Some people see him as rare gem in the South-South firmament and love or hate him; one thing you cannot take away from Clark is his resoluteness and doggedness on matters he believes in.

In May, last year, at the Mediterranean Recreational Centre, along Kwame Nkrumah Crescent, Asokoro, Abuja, when a birthday bash was put together for the Ijaw leader, the gathering showed the authority of Chief Clark and those who believed in him as an emerging power bloc. It was like a political summit of sorts and since then, his assumed clout has been on the climb.

Chief Clark dreamt of a South-Southerner becoming President of Nigeria and never knew that it would come to pass in his life time as far back as 2004 or thereabout in Calabar under the auspices of the defunct South-South Peoples Conference, SSOPEC.

For somebody, who had maintained severally in the past that he had collected his boarding pass and was sitting on the departure lounge, waiting for his flight to eternity, the elder statesman was bowled over when the opening came evidently for an Ijaw man, from the South-South, to become Acting President in 2010.

The Ijaw leader made some enemies and friends in his strong-willed battle to see that Jonathan was elected President in April. At a time, he advised Jonathan to detach himself from former President Obasanjo so that he would not hoodwink him, but as he pointed fingers at Obasanjo, so other people pointed fingers at him, asking President Jonathan to put Clark at bay so as not to attract denigration to his government.

Clark , undoubtedly, had it bumpy with leader of the Northern Political Leaders Forum, NPLF, Mallam Adamu Ciroma,  who,  he once described as a “political lightweight”  before they buried the hatchet. It is the same story with other South-South leaders, who see him (Clark) as somebody trying to corner the President to himself alone.

Mr. President had to okay a delegation of PDP leaders on a trouble-shooting mission to the North during the campaign after some heated exchange and reservations were made by some leaders on the hard comments of Chief Clark.

The President found himself in a position later among Northern leaders where he had to rationalize Clark’s outburst and put the statements in perspective for those who felt offended.

However, what many do not know is that Chief Clark is not as commanding as they think he is in relation to President Jonathan, but he is muscularly connected to Mr. President. He   is one of the few persons that has the President’s ears

A source told this writer that on the larger Niger-Delta affairs and issues of Ijaw nation, President Jonathan has found Clark’s views and contacts very useful and he defers to Chief Clark.

Clark has also had his way even in appointment of cabinet members; it was Chief Clark that pushed forward the Minister of Niger-Delta, Elder Godsday Orubebe and the Minister of State for Education, Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi. Many of his followers are on the list for federal appointments.

However, Chief Clark does not wield the kind of power that people think he commands over Jonathan. “The President has great respect as his leader and elder statesman. He addresses Clark as father and Clark calls him, my son. While the President uses the word sir when addressing him, but that is humility, he does not allow Pa Clark to dictate to him because the buck stops on his table”, a source confided in Vanguard.

Indication that Jonathan is not Clark’s alleluia chorus vocalist is comprehensible in the Clark versus Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan brawl in Delta state.

There was nothing Clark did not do to make the President Jonathan use his powers to drop Governor Uduaghan as the party’s candidate for the April 26 governorship election. In fact, he did not want a re-election ticket for Uduaghan, and his followers believed that with his proximity to the President, which he boasted about, they would frustrate Uduaghan and inaugurate their own candidate as governor of the state.

At a period, last year, in the rumble between Uduaghan and Clark, which is still persisting, Uduaghan got enraged and declared that nobody, no matter how powerful the person was, could fence him away from President Jonathan. It was unambiguous who he was alluded to even though no name was mentioned.

The governor went ahead to adumbrate that Dr. Jonathan is a son of the entire South-South and not the property of any individual, who would want push other people around.

Before his death, the former President, Umaru Yar’Adua had cause to tell Dr. Jonathan, then his deputy, to settle the differences between Uduaghan and Clark. The effort failed and in 2010 when Uduaghan’s election was annulled, Chief Clark tried all he could, but Mr. President declined to succumb to his pressures.

One of the special assistants to President Jonathan told this writer at Abuja recently, “You know that Clark is a foremost South-South leader, the President knows his excesses but out of respect for who Clark is and what he represents, he  cannot  ignore him, he listens to him.

The man is old enough to be his father and if he is okay with his advice or suggestion to him, he takes it, but if he is not convinced, the President knows how to civilly decline without offending the sensibilities of the elder statesman. This is his position and I can tell you that authoritatively. It is not that he wields influence over the President. It is just a son paying respect to an elderly person as tradition demands”.

The special assistant stated, “The President is not an uninformed person, take the current lobby for ministerial cabinet positions, some people have advised him not to listen to governors in the appointment of ministers, the President knows why such advice was given.

Some governors have also brought list of nominees without widespread consultation in their states, he has noted that, some people are even self-centered in the recommendations and it is his responsibility to sieve the chaff from the grain”.