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Chief Edwin Clark, an elder statesman and the Leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum said that Igbo should have been allowed to secede at the start of the civil war in 1966 by former military Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon. Clark made this statement during an interview on Arise TV while canvassing for the two major political parties in the country, All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to zone their presidential tickets to the South East geo-political zone. He laid emphasis on the continued Igbos marginalization since the end of civil war and the unfairness that never ceases to stop.
He said: “Gowon should have allowed the Igbo to go, if they are to be treated as second-class citizens. If zoning, which will heal the wounds, is not done, there will be no Nigeria. Nobody will remain in this country as a second-class citizen.
“The North believes their population can be used to oppress other Nigerians. This is not acceptable. The era of that has gone. There are many good Northerners but the Fulani-oriented ones want to dominate everywhere.”
“My idea of zoning the presidency to the South East is well known. No Nigerian will like to live in a country where certain people believe they have the only right to lead. The APC believes the 12 million votes by President Muhammadu Buhari might be eroded, if it is zoned to the South. The PDP is also considering zoning to the North. This is unfair, he said.
Clark further stressed that, “Nigeria stood on three legs, and it has never been steady since one of the legs was destroyed during the Civil War. I unpacked all these facts in my forthcoming memoir, Brutally Frank.”
Guardian reported that Clark “said there was no moral justification for keeping people who are not being treated fairly, stressing that the region must be accorded sense of belonging. Clark said it was unacceptable for a region to have a domineering spirit because of its population, adding that those opposed to a South East presidency in 2023 are ready to see the end of Nigeria.”
You guys continue to make the same mistakes that will hunt you everywhere.
“ Why should the Igbos apologise for the military coup that they were not part of? Were the generality of Igbo people consulted by the 5 majors that they were going to luch a coup? How many Igbo people were privy to the coup? Did the northern military officers who lunched sucessive coups all over the years also apologised to Nigerians? Some of you keep on repeating the “worn out” mantra that Aguyi Ironsi imposed unitary system on Nigeria. Did Aguyi Ironsi dissolve the regions? Did
Aguyi Ironsi create any state? If you guys are really in support of regional system, why did you support the creation of states by Gowon? Why didn’t you tell Gowon that the idea of state creation is wrong? Was Awolowo not part of that government? Were the Igbo people there when Gowon created states? Were they not in the new republic of Biafra? If you guys are honest about regionalism, why didn’t you accept Ojukwu’s idea of confederation at Aburi accord Ghana which would have strengthened the regional government and prevent the war? Sophisticated morons, you people rejected Ojukwu’s offer of restructuring in the form of confederation in 1967 and lunched a war of attrition against the Igbos, wasting the lives of 3 million Igbos in the process, only to come back in 2022 to ask for the same restructuring that you rejected in 1967? And still you want the Igbos to come and offer you “apology” for killing 3 million Igbos in pursuit of your “illusion” and vain glory? Are you sure that you ever went to school? I suspect that you have mental problems. Look at an “indentured slave” that cannot even distinguish his left from right talking about knowledge of history. Do you know what history means? Did you ever attend a history class? I have broken my ribs with laughter. For your information, the existence of Nigerai is a human tragedy, and it will definitely be consigned to the dustbin of history. It doesn’t matter how you feel or how you try to shy away from this painful reality but that is the truth staring everybody at face, and it must happen. Politics is not a game of number, otherwise a country like Switzerland would not have accepted a power sharing agreement in order to keep their country together. Bosnia-Herzogovina is also into power sharing agreement” -Robotics