By Tony Nwankwo

Comrade Joseph Evah, coordinator, Ijaw Monitoring Group (MIG) and former Publicity Secretary, Ijaw National Congress (INC), in this interview, speaks on the state of the nation.  Excerpts:

There is a call by the House of Representatives that Kingsley Kuku and Asari Dokubo should be probed for threatening Nigeria’s unity?
They are only following similar comments in the past from the North. Since there was no sanctions for the previous threat, they felt it is’ a normal thing. So we want the House of Representatives to invite all those that made similar comments since independence in 1960.

Aides of the Minister of the Niger Delta, Elder Godsday Orubebe,  have been attacking Ijaw leader, Chief E.K. Clark. What do you say to that?

In a normal situation, I expected the minister to disown the writers of those senseless comments. Ijaws all over the world with conscience are ashamed of the publication particularly in a situation where the authors are claiming to be defending a man who used the name of Chief E.K. Clark to be minister in his life time. What is happening to Ijaw land? When people acquire some wealth, they look down on elders and leaders. It is not part of  our culture. Those of us who are not politicians will never allow these politicians to rubbish our culture and tradition. We are not saying people are not meant to disagree but a situation where our society will now turn to animal kingdom where conscience means nothing to people is unacceptable. How can somebody bit the finger that fed him within a period of six years because of naked ambition? It is not Ijaw way of life. We don’t need the Bible to tell us that. We will not allow politicians to play politics with our culture and tradition. In Africa culture, if a father publicly abuses his son, the son will never reply  until he returns to the innermost part of the home to re-open the issue or the son will look for the age-mate of his father to complain for settlement but, because Nigeria is a mad country, nobody cares whether neighbors are laughing at the level we open our nakedness in public.

Can we describe Clark as the most prominent Ijaw leader?
The man you label as  Ijaw national leader was the same person who got the Aso Rock Villa to make Orubebe minister. When that tension was making front page stories, where were these followers of Orubebe?  In fact, Chief Clark led Orubebe by the hand like a kid to the chamber of the Presidential Villa to be sworn-in as minister after Chief James Ibori tried to stop Orubebe and Chief Clark vowed that his boy, Orubebe, must be made minister.  We all added our voices.  I have all the press statements I made to support Chief Clark’s efforts; so what is happening now make me sick and we can’t keep quiet. How did Chief Clark have the boldness to openly challenge President Yar’ Adua and vowed that there will be no peace in Delta State unless his boy (Orubebe) became minister if he is not Ijaw national leader? No Ijaw person dead or alive has made that history. Chief E.K. Clark is a special breed and, in some planets, people like him are worshipped.

The minister’s supporters say Clark’s son lost election; so where is his political relevance?
Such people should be ashamed of their conscience. In fact it was because of the humiliation of Orubebe by the Ibori factor in Aso Rock at that time that made E.K. Clark to deepen his attack on my friend Governor Uduaghan. When Yar’Adua emerged as president, James Ibori was so powerful in the Villa, so it was easy for Ibori to insist that since Chief Clark was against Ibori’s choice of Uduaghan as the governorship candidate in 2007, he (Ibori) also sought to humiliate Clark’s candidate for ministerial position. I hope the family of Orubebe will call him to order before he embarrasses himself the more. I hope President Jonathan will call him to order; you see, if Ibori did not disgrace Orubebe during the swearing-in of ministers, Clark would have easily settled his problem with Uduaghan.

You were close to Governor Uduaghan when Chief Clark pulled against him. How were you  able to handle the problem?
It was a difficult situation but I was able to control myself. I never showed disrespect to our national leader. Anybody who says Chief Clark is a self-styled !jaw leader needs spiritual deliverance. In the last constitutional conference of ethnic nationalities organized by the  Obasanjo administration where all the geo-political zones in the country sent their best brains, South-South leaders such as Admiral Akhigbe (former military vice president), Chief M.T. Mbu (first republic minister), Dr. Gamaniel Onosode, one of the grandmasters of the economic world (Global Economic Guru), Chief A.K Horsfall, pioneer Director-General of National Intelligent Agency and former Director-General of State Security Service {SSS), among other super men, nominated Chief E.K Clark to lead our region to engage in intellectual warfare with the other zones to secure the future of our children’s children that led to the famous walk out by our delegates that brought fear to the rest of the country.  Is that the elder statesman that Orubebe and his co-travelers are calling self-styled Ijaw leader? They need spiritual deliverance.

There was this stalemate at the swearing-in of ministers from the Niger Delta during the Yar’Adua period.  What happened?
You know that President Goodluck Jonathan is the father and patron of all gentlemen in Africa. The former vice president was marginalized and he carried the burden until he became the acting president before the death of Yar’Adua. Jonathan was so isolated in the system to the extent that even when Yar Adua decided to meet with militants from each state of the Niger Delta, he was not included in all the arrangements. He went to the venue as a speculator.  The late president was relating with Bayelsa militants through the governor. I think Jonathan is the most loyal deputy that the world has produced.

Sometime ago, you hosted Uduaghan in Lagos, and Chief Clark kicked against it How do you reconcile such positions?
Pa E.K Clark is not against any tribe. I hosted Uduaghan because he saved Ijaw students from starvation when Goodluck Jonathan was vice president. Jonathan could not operate freely.  So, I  decided to mobilize Ijaw students to storm Abuja, to give Jonathan moral encouragement. I mobilized over 6,000 students from various higher institutions with the theme, “Niger Delta must be like Abuja.  Some of the personalities that attended the programme were the first lady, Mr Oronto Doughas, the current Bayelsa Governor  Seriake Dickson,  Ben Bruce among others. The then vice president was not even comfortable with the programme, so he tried to discourage me. He told me if I did the programme they will think he sponsored it. But I insisted that it must go on because we wanted the world to know that the future leaders were behind the vice president. Our expected population doubled when students started arriving Abuja. So feeding and accommodation became a problem. I went to the villa to see the vice president.  I told him to provide us with food and he called one of the Niger Delta governors to help.

The governor met us and asked me what was my business if the vice president was being harassed.  I put a call to Governor Uduagha to beg and he sent his commissioner for information, Mr. Oma Djeba, to Abuja to arrange food for the students.  That was how Ijaw students were able to stay in Abuja.  So for an Itsekiri man to be concerned about the condition of Ijaw students nation-wide, we felt the best way to honor him was with Ijaw supreme honour.