Leader of Southern and Middle Belt Leadership Forum (SMBLF), Chief Edwin Clark, has alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari discriminated against the South-South region as he violated his inauguration pledge to be fair to all parts of the country.
Speaking during a farewell press conference to Buhari in his residence in Abuja on Sunday, he described the outgoing president as the worst leader Nigeria has ever had, accusing him of failing to see the entire country as his constituency.
Quoting Buhari’s statement where he said, “Having just a few minutes ago swore on a holy book, I intend to keep my hope and same as President to all Nigerians. I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody”, Clark noted that the president only observed it in breach.
The elder statesman said: “In the past 8years, President Muhammadu Buhari has demonstrated in most cases that he did not belong to the whole country but to a group; his tribe and religion, which is contrary to what he said in his inaugural speech that he belong to everybody.
“For instance, he appointed fourteen out of seventeen security Chiefs from one section of the country. So, the declaration that ‘he belongs to everybody and nobody,” was a sham. I make bold to say that the reverse has been the case, “he belongs to some people,’ but not the entire Nigeria.
“Even in simple matters like extending the good wishes of the government to notable personalities in the country on their birthdays or other landmark attainments, the Muhammadu Buhari administration was selective and biased in who it chooses to recognise or consider worthy of goodwill messages.”
Clark recalled the way Buhari made appointments in his government, accusing him of nepotism.
He stated: “Conclusively, uncivilized bias, unfairness, and nepotism have been the staple characteristics of the Buhari administration.
“For instance, as I had cited earlier, out of the 17 top Military, paramilitary, security, and Intelligence related positions in Nigeria; persons from the northern zones of North West, North East, and North Central are at the helm of fourteen while only three are held by persons from the three southern zones of south-south, southeast, and southwest.
“The government need not be told that discrimination is a danger to any society, particularly, a plural society like ours.
“We, I and 15 other patriotic Nigerians, are currently in court, over the desecration of the Federal Character Law on appointments by the Buhari administration.
“Probably, it never occurred to President Muhammadu Buhari that he is president of the entire country and not just a section; and that he was elected by all zones of Nigeria, including the southern zones; without the votes from the South, he would not have satisfied the constitutional requirement of 25% in 2/3 of the States and the Federal Capital Territory to become President of Nigeria.
“I considered it an obligation to make this communication from a standpoint of patriotism to limelight the failures of the outgoing administration, particularly, the callous inattention of the administration to issues of the Niger Delta region and to further accentuate the developmental necessities of the people of the region, with the justified expectation that the incoming federal administration will bestow a fairer disposition and responsiveness to the Niger Delta region.
“What is needed, indeed, is a just, equitable, and more egalitarian approach to the administration and management of the nation’s resources and the conduct of state affairs. This country belongs to all of us!”
The former Federal Commissioner for Information observed that the outgoing administration failed to construct a single road in the South-South just as it ignored the region in railway infrastructure as it preferred to pay attention to other parts of the country.
He blasted ministers from the South-South who served under the outgoing government, saying that all they did was the bidding of their master.
Clark accused former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Silva, of signing off marginal oil fields to people from other regions while neglecting Niger Deltan citizens.
Similarly, he said former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, was more interested in providing railway infrastructure to Niger Republic than reviving the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri corridor in his own area.
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Clark also tasked the outgoing governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, to account for the sum of N1,077,450,286,552.17 he allegedly collected on behalf of oil producing communities from 2015-2022 as 13% derivation fund.
He told the governor in an open letter: “My findings reveal that you have received a total sum of ₦1,077,450,285,552.17 (one trillion, seventy seven billion, four hundred and fifty million, two hundred and eighty five thousand, five hundred & fifty two Naira, seventeen Kobo); as 13% derivation fund in your administration.
“There will be need to give an account of this money. This letter will be copied to your predecessor in office Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, for him to also account for the money he received from the Federal Government from June 2007 to May 2015, amounting to ₦765,662,198,080.07 (seven hundred and sixty five billion, six hundred sixty two million, one hundred and ninety eight thousand, eighty naira, seven Kobo).
“From the records available, you have only released, in instalments, the sum of ₦232 billion to the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC) out of the 50% of the derivation fund received, which ought to go to the oil producing communities.
“In fact, you kept under your control the total amount paid by the Federal Government, and dispense it as you like. This is ultra vires.”
