Lifestyle

Edwin Clark Dies At 97

By Web News 489

Former Federal Commissioner for Information and South-South Leader, Edwin Clark, has died at the age of 97.

According to a statement signed by Professor College Clark of the Clark-Fuludu-Bakederemo family and Ambassador Dr. Godknows Igali, the National Chairman of PANDEF, the elder statesman passed away on Monday night, February 17, 2025.

Clark’s death comes just days after the passing of Afenifere leader, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, who died at the age of 96.

A towering figure in Nigerian politics and a relentless advocate for the rights of the Niger Delta, Clark was a lawyer, administrator, nationalist, and freedom fighter.

He served as Commissioner for Education in the Mid-Western Region from 1968 to 1971, and later as Commissioner for Finance and Establishment in the defunct Bendel State between 1972 and 1975.

Clark was appointed Commissioner for Information in 1975 and subsequently became a Senator from 1979 to 1983.

Beyond his political career, Clark was a leading voice for regional and national unity. He was the leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, the South-South Peoples Assembly, and the Southern and Middle-Belt Leaders Forum, SMBLF.

His advocacy for resource control, fiscal federalism, and the development of the oil-rich Niger Delta region earned him both national recognition and respect across Nigeria’s geopolitical divides.

Vanguard/Adetutu Adetule

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Politics

Zone Presidency to the South – Southern Leaders Charge Parties

By Web News 523

The leaders of the major southern socio-political organisations under the aegis of the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders’ Forum have reiterated that Nigeria’s collective future depends largely on the decision of the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party, amongst others, to zone its presidential ticket to the South.

They warned that if the principle of zoning and rotation of power between North and South was scrapped by the parties, the country should ‘‘go back to what we were before the amalgamation of 1914.’’

This was made known in a communiqué titled ‘Do not jettison zoning, SMBLF cautions PDP’, jointly signed by the leader of the forum, Chief Edwin Clark; the President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Professor George Obiozor; President of the Middle Belt Forum, Dr Pogu Bitrus; and the National Leader of Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, and made available to The PUNCH on Monday.

The leaders further stressed that any attempt to “perpetuate a northern presidency through unnecessary intrigues and conspiracies after the eight years of Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), because of a hypothetical majority, would no doubt heighten the dissension in the country.”

The communiqué read, “The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders’ Forum is dismayed by the purported recommendation of the 37-member PDP Zoning Committee to throw the party’s 2023 presidential ticket open to all parts of the country and the justifications afterwards.

“The said conclusion of the Governor (Samuel) Ortom-led Zoning Committee is unfair and unacceptable.”

Accordingly, SMBLF urges the National Executive Committee of the PDP to reject outright the recommendation.

 “SMBLF cautions the PDP not to violate its principle of zoning and rotation of power between the North and the South, noting that the founding fathers of the party and the framers of its constitution, in cognisance of the nation’s diversity, and in line with the federal character principle, rightly provided under Section 7, Sub-section 3C, that there should be a rotation of party offices and elective offices, not only to promote equity, fairness and justice but equally to avoid the preponderance of persons from any particular section or ethnic group of the country in the running of the affairs of the party and the government of Nigeria as we have today.

The Punch