Elder statesman and leader of the Ijaw Nation, Chief Edwin Clark, has called on the leader of the Ijaw People’s Congress, Senator George Sekibo, to advise the immediate-past Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, to let his successor, Siminalayi Fubara, have peace.
Clark faulted the claim by Sekibo that Wike had done a lot for the Ijaw people by supporting Fubara to become Rivers’ governor.
Sekibo, while leading a delegation of the Ijaw People’s Congress to a meeting with the Prof. Benjamin Okaba -led Ijaw National Congress and Ijaw Youth Council, at the Ijaw House in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, on Friday, had said that the narrative that Wike hated the Ijaws was not true.
He also said that the Ijaws were a minority in the state, adding that Wike had given five of nine federal appointments to the state to Ijaw indigenes.
However, in a letter to Sekibo on Sunday, Clark said the Ijaw had made sacrifices for the survival of Rivers State, of which Wike himself was a beneficiary.
Clark said the Ijaw supported Wike’s political career and never asked him to bow to them throughout his eight years as Rivers governor.
Clark described the Wike-Fubara feud as sad and disturbing, noting that Wike epitomised the godfather-godson syndrome.
He said, “I am, therefore, at a loss when I listened to your narrative regarding the unimaginable extent to which Wike has helped the Ijaw people. On the contrary, perhaps unknown to you, Wike has been the number one beneficiary of the goodwill of the Ijaw people. Throughout his political life, he has benefited from the help of the Ijaws.
“That is why his disagreement with Siminalayi Fubara, whom he had picked over and above all our other sons and daughters, is quite sad and at times, disturbing. It is not a fight between the Ijaws and other groups. No, because this fight is actually about what is right and proper. He epitomised the so-called godfather-godson syndrome.
“He is not the first person to have been a major political actor and later come to the centre. Many of us were key political powerbrokers in our states and came to the centre, yet shun suffocating godfatherism roles as much as possible.”
He urged the Sekibo and his collegaues to advise Wike to focus on his job as FCT Minister, noting that his image had been dented on the national scene.
“Since you and your colleagues are close associates of Wike and are ready to go to any extent to promote his image, which has now become totally dented on the national scene, it is time to advise him to face his work in Abuja and leave the governor to do his work.
“My dear son, you are an Ijaw man from Ogu. Did the people of Ogu lord it over Barr. Nyesom Wike because they fought to make him governor? What you and your fellows are doing is sacrificing the Ijaw soul on the platter of political patronage. Think again!” Clark said.(Punch)
