Clark dumps PDP, says Jonathan is weak

Chief Edwin Clark

A former Federal Commissioner of Information, Chief Edwin
Clark, has hailed the anti-corruption crusade of President
Muhammadu Buhari and knocked former President Goodluck
Jonathan for lacking the political will to fight graft.
Clark, who said it was wrong for anyone to accuse President
Buhari of fighting a selective war in his drive to return sanity into
the polity, also declared that he had formally left the Peoples
Democratic Party.
Clark called on Nigerians not to distract the President from
achieving his goal, just as he appealed to the President to
remain focused in his determination to rid the country of
corruption.
The Ijaw leader spoke in Abuja on Wednesday when a group,
Think Nigeria First Initiative, paid him a courtesy call in his
Abuja residence.
He said, “Jonathan didn’t have the political will to fight
corruption. He’s a gentleman. Drivers of yesterday are living in
palatial buildings now under his government.
“In advanced countries, when you are living above your means,
people query you. That’s not so in Nigeria. Former governors,
lawmakers are now asking for immunity.”
Clark, who was a staunch supporter of former President
Jonathan, however, said he had quit the PDP. But he said he
would not join the governing party, the All Progressives
Congress.
He said, “I no longer belong to the PDP. I won’t go to the APC
either, but I will continue to talk as an elder statesman and
leader of this country. I have left politics.
“If anyone comes to me to say he’s running for any elective
position in the PDP or the APC, I won’t support you. I’m not a
member of the PDP anymore.”
It was however not clear if Clark quit the party because of the
defeat suffered by Jonathan during the last presidential election.
It will be recalled that President Buhari, who was the candidate
of the APC, defeated Jonathan, who was the PDP candidate
during the election.
Clark also accused former President Olusegun Obasanjo of
institutionalising corruption in the country.
He had also said that he and other supporters of former
President Jonathan were worried because of the outcome of the
last presidential election. He, however, added that there was
nothing they could do since the former President had conceded
defeat.
He said, “Some of us were worried when Jonathan conceded
defeat. We were worried. If a man who contested election
conceded defeat, who are you to say no?
“Elections had been held, winners had emerged and losers had
agreed, what next? Buhari is now my President and the
President of Nigeria.
“We should all try and support him, particularly in his
determination to eradicate corruption in Nigeria. For eight years
Obasanjo legalised corruption.
“Yet, he’s the one talking about corruption today. Nobody should
distract Buhari from fighting corruption. People should stop
talking about sectional or selective justice.”
Clark said those who ruled the country before Buhari, like the
late President Umaru Yar’Adua and Jonathan didn’t have the
political will to fight corruption.
He specifically accused Yar’Adua of being a friend to the jailed
former Governor of Delta State, James Ibori.
Clark said, “Yar’Adua became friend with Ibori, who is very
corrupt and because of this, he could not fight corruption.”
In his reaction to Clark’s dumping of the PDP, the National
Publicity Secretary of the party, Chief Olisa Metuh, said the party
would want to wish the elder statesman well.
“He is a man we respect so much. If he’s leaving our party and
wants to retire from politics, we wish him well,” Metuh said.
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