Edwin Clark
The unusual attack on the body of governors raised questions whether Mr. Clark, a one-time Minister of Information, was articulating an argument shared by the Nigerian president. The Forum has had a history of confronting Mr. Jonathan on some political and economic issues. Mr. Clark’s critical view was contained in an open letter to the Forum.
The president’s associate read the letter at a gathering Thursday at his new palatial residence located at Plot 43, Haile Selassie Crescent, in the Asokoro section of Abuja.
Mr. Clark accused members of the Forum of breaching the Nigerian constitution with impunity. The statement read, “I wish to dwell on some of the offending activities of the Governors Forum which are driving the country to madness but which as members you do not care about, provided you achieve your purpose and the Forum’s over-bearing influence on the Peoples Democratic Party, the supremacy of which you have hijacked.
“The Governors Forum is now acting as an opposition party to the Federal Government.
“It deliberately breaches with impunity, the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Constitution of the PDP, without any challenges.
“The Forum has now become a threat to the peace and stability of Nigeria. Most of the governors today, are more dictatorial than the then military governors. The President should ban them.”
Mr. Clark regretted that President Jonathan might not be able to abolish the Forum since members of the National Assembly were unlikely to pass a bill to that effect.
He argued that “members of the assembly are loyal to the governors, who put them in the office." He stated that the National Governors Association in the United States of America, which the Forum copied, operates within the confines of American law. He described the Nigerian Governors Forum as “a thorn in the flesh of the country.”
Mr. Clark praised the American counterparts of the Nigerian governors he criticized. “For instance,” he stated, “President Bill Clinton on his own as the Governor of a very small state, Arkansas, and as a chair of the [US Governors] Association, did not use it for his personal gains but rather worked assiduously under the platform and directive of the Democratic Party, to become one of the most successful Presidents of the United States of America.”
Reacting to Mr. Clark’s attacks, an aide to one of the governors in the northern part of Nigeria told Saharareporters that the erstwhile minister’s call for the ban of the Forum was a non-starter. The aide accused Mr. Clark of playing to the gallery as part of a scheme to weaken opposition to the idea of Mr. Jonathan’s second term. “It is simply a political game to pressure governors to support President Jonathan’s bid for a second term,” he said
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