The raging battle between Nigeria's former military head of state, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida and foremost Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, newsmen gathered, is far from being over.
Maintaining his stand that the attitude of certain Northern leaders are not helpful in the fight against the dreaded Islamic sect, Boko Haram, Chief Clark insisted that Gen. Babangida has not done enough to assist Goodluck Jonathan-led government tackle the insecurity problem.
He stressed that the former military president must tell Nigerians why he has not deemed it fit to talk to the members of the sect the way he did during the Niger Delta crisis. Clark said Nigerians will like to find out why Babangida has been silent for so long and why he is refusing to talk to Boko Haram, since he is such a great patriot as claimed in the statement he made.
The 85-year-old statesman was reacting to Babangida’s condemnation of his comments which noted that Clark might have been beclouded by his old age to the extent he could no longer notice his (Babangida) efforts towards resolving the Boko Haram debacle.
Clark’s comment, which did not go down well with Gen. Babangida, was made when he addressed a state of the federation lecture recently at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) in Abuja.
Clark, who apparently stood his ground as contained in a statement he issued in Abuja which was signed on his behalf by his Legal Adviser/Consultant, Mr. Kayode Ajulo, noted that the popular amnesty programme which late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua deployed to stop the activities of Niger Delta militants, was made possible by Clark’s going to the creeks with the then Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan, to talk to the militants to drop arms and embrace peace.
“Ordinarily, Gen. Babangida should have joined many other Nigerians who applauded Chief E. K. Clark for crying out over the wanton loss of lives being experienced daily over the senseless killings of Nigeria’s women and children, Christians and Moslems alike,” the statement said.
