THE Convener and National Leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, and Leader of the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders’ Forum, SMBLF, Senator Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, lived the concluding part of his action-packed life at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, where he died last Monday for some interwoven reasons.

He told Saturday Vanguard years before his death that it was to provide a central location for leaders of southern Nigeria to forge a common front on matters of national importance.

He ensured this by getting the South-East leaders under the auspices of the Ohaneze Ndi-Igbo and Afenifere under the umbrella of the South-West to unite with the South-South, which he led before reaching out to the Middle-Belt leaders in northern Nigeria.

Clark desired an encompassing coalition of incorruptible leaders from all sections of the country to engage the government and speak for the people at all times. He was working towards it when he finally gave up the ghost this week.

The other reason he described as personal was to gain easier access to medical facilities in the nation’s seat power because of certain health challenges an aged person like him would always face.

Heart Challenge

For those familiar with the dogged Niger Delta leader, he had a heart challenge which his doctors successfully managed for many years within and outside the country. He lived longer than many politicians who visited him and thought he would die before them.

He traveled to the United Kingdom on some occasions for health checks and came back always feeling stronger before death finally struck.

Clark was the only person who unquestionably emerged as the leader of the South-South and Niger Delta without people contesting his claim to the title.

A one-time Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, and the Attah of Eket in Akwa Ibom State, Chief Nduese Essien, asserted: ”Edwin Clark was a leader par excellence, generally accepted by his community, accepted by the South-South, Southern Nigeria and Nigerians as a whole. And people like him are needed all the time. In any nation and any community, people like him are needed.”

His Kiagbodo community in Burutu Local Government Area in Delta State, like any other typical Niger Delta settlement, lacked electricity and other amenities of life, which made him stay back in Abuja, where he has a house to attend to his health.

Before Clark relocated to Abuja some years ago, the lawyer resided in Warri and Kiagbodo, his hometown. He was a businessman and built Edwin Clark University in Kiagbodo while in Abuja to quicken the development of the Ijaw enclave.

Politicians used to pay him visits at his Kiagbodo country home until he moved to Abuja, forcing them to trail him to the nation’s capital.

Until 2004 and after, Senator Clark lived in Delta State, but after 2007, he moved to Abuja. The former Minister of Transport, Rt. Hon Rotimi Amaechi flew from Port-Harcourt to meet Clark, the national leader of the Ijaw ethnic nationality, at his Kiagbodo country home when he campaigned for governor of Rivers State in 2007.

After the ex-governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, who took over from his predecessor, Chief James Ibori, his successor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, and the incumbent, Rt. Hon Sheriff Oborevowri found time to pay homage to Clark in Abuja.

Clark was the most powerful Delta State elder statesman till he breathed his last on Monday. Royal fathers, who he was their subject, respected him because of his outspokenness. Other Niger Delta leaders kowtowed to him as well as the youths.

He stayed In Abuja to galvanize other national leaders – Prince Okareme, Delta PANDEF chair

The state Chairman of PANDEF in Delta State, Prince Maikpobi Okareme, who corroborated our findings, said: “His major reason for staying in Abuja was because of the opportunity to galvanize the Southern and Middle Belt leaders, he was the alter ego of the group, which we can equate to wanting to get Nigeria united.”

“And he succeeded in doing that because the leaders from the four regions gave him that honor as the person with the charisma to do what he did. At the 2005 National Constitutional Conference, he emerged as the de facto leader of the South-South. Then, in 2014, as the engine room of the 2014 confab, selected leaders held nocturnal meetings to agree on issues, he emerged as the rallying point for southern leaders.

“His primary reason for locating to Abuja was national unity, to galvanize leaders across the various zones on a platform to discuss and take common positions on certain issues on how Nigeria ought to be governed.”

He went for treatment In Abuja and didn’t return – Omo-Udoyo, a relative

One of his surviving lineages, who the elder statesman funded her education, Koshare Clark-Omo-Udoyo, told Saturday Vanguard at Kiagbodo, his hometown in Delta State: “I do not know why he stayed at Abuja. Probably, he just decided to stay put there. When he came from one treatment, he stopped there. He did not come back again, even until now.”

“He has not come home for a long time, so I call him to hear his voice. He uttered softly on the phone the last time we spoke. I did not know, maybe because he was in pain, my mother’s last son, the professor was there with him.

When I called him, somebody picked it up and gave it to me, he asked of me, my children, and everybody in the compound, especially my younger brother. He first asked about my younger sister, then all of us, and he said okay, probably, he wanted to pass a message through me.

”I spoke to him about two days before the day he died; I talked with my brother, the professor. He said he was sleeping; that was the only day we spoke.

“I would not have gone to school if not for him. I miss him; his position is now vacant. It is a great loss, not just to us but to Nigeria as a whole, because he was a voice that spoke the truth. His dream was about education, though I never sat with him to discuss politics.”

Kiagbodo monarch, HRM Fuludu, residents speak

Some residents of Kiagabodo confided in Saturday Vanguard that they wanted Chief Clark, the Otota (Spokesperson) of the community, to return home many years ago because they knew that his physical presence in the town would attract good things, but he could not grant the wish.

The Pere (traditional ruler) of Ngbilebiri Kingdom, Kiagbodo, Delta State, “HRM Samuel Fuludu, speaking to Saturday Vanguard in Kiagbodo, said: “Clark was the spokesman of the kingdom and a leader in Izon (Ijaw) land. He was one of our greatest sons. He fought for justice, fairness, and even the right administration in my domain.”

”He fought gallantly over the years on the issue of resource control for the Niger Delta. He has even established a university in this community. The university’s name is Edwin Clark University. By rating of the universities in Nigeria, it occupies the 25th position.

”The university provided the bottled water you see there (pointed at a nearby table). Many universities in this country cannot do something meaningful like that. This is the first time we have seen a university with a product, which is a plus.

”We dearly missed him because for us to see his kind again, it will take a decade or two in Nigeria. To see a personality like Chief Dr. E. K. Clark will take a long time. As Chief Obafemi Awolowo said in his time, before you see my kind of person again, it will take you a decade or two decades.

“It is happening already; my kingdom is mostly touched by his contributions to Izon land, our country, kingdom, Burutu local government area, and Delta State.

”I know his burial will be a moment of great joy to so many people because he has lived a fulfilled life in his time. It is our joy and thinking that the state government should continue to partner with us to ensure we sustain the desired peace, unity, progress, and prosperity in our kingdom.

”We urge the federal and state governments to make this place (Kiagbodo) a local government. They should create a road at the national level, particularly at the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, to immortalize him. The government should also site, in his memory, a Federal High Court in this kingdom.

Celebrations in Kiagbodo

Informed persons and traditionalists have opted to pay condolence visits to the bereaved Clark-Fuludu Bekederemo family of Kiagbodo Town, in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State, at his family home in Kiagbodo, and not Abuja, where he had a temporal residence.

Kiagbodo has been agog since his death, for it produced a great son who spoke the voice of Nigerians and stood as a moral compass to the political leaders.

The chairman of the Kiagbodo community, Mr. Paul Clark, said: “Edwin Clark is my senior brother, my eldest brother, but we do not call him elder brother, we do not call him brother, we call him father, Edwin Clark is my father. Daddy has passed on. That was on Monday.”

”Today, Daddy said we should celebrate him. He was a great man. He fought to unite the country. He fought for the Niger Delta. He said we should celebrate him today, and what you see here, we are celebrating him here.

”We are going to celebrate for three days here. You see the chairs, canopy, and the disc jockey, yesterday, we just finished day one. Today, we have started another round. You look to my left, and you will see two cows there, they will be slaughtered today. People will come and eat and enjoy themselves. That is what daddy said.

”Edwin Clark was a great man, this is no exaggeration, the father of Niger Delta, the national leader of the Ijaw, the leader of Southern Nigeria and Middle Belt. Edwin Clark hated oppression.

”Before he died, he stood for the unity of Nigeria; he said we should live together, and nobody should oppress anybody.”

Another side of Clark

A granddaughter of Senator Clark, Hon. Charity Clark, confirmed that the departed Niger Delta leader took time to ensure that his relatives willing to be educated attended school.

”My father is next to E.K. Clark, and daddy was the person who trained me at the Teacher Training College, Bomadi, and he is the one who made me a councilor. So he did many things for me. I cannot forget him that is the reason why I am here (Kiagbodo).

”I lost my daughter a few days ago, but because of Papa, I came here. He is a hero to my father’s children, When find ourselves in trouble, we run to him for succour, and he always stands for everybody.”

”So every day, every time, I will continue to remember him. I will continue to remember him because he is the one that brought me to this stage. I was a councilor in the Burutu local government area. He made me a councilor in Burutu local government.

“I studied at the College of Education; he trained me in everything. Papa is a great man; I do not call him uncle. When I married, they paid my dowry to him. I will miss him forever because I do not know who I will run to again. He is the only one I have been running to.

”I cannot go to Abuja because of my health. Therefore, I am here with my mother and mother-in-law. I will continue to remember him until God calls me. It is not a forgotten story,” she said.

His sister, Mrs Fine-Titi Clark-Ologbo, said: “Papa is my father’s senior son, I was next to him. My feeling is what you see in me now. If you ask me how I feel, what did you want me to say?”

“He has left us, tell me what I will say. The primary school I attended was because of him. He did so many things for us; he gave me a job where I work now.” (Saturday Vanguard)