Professor William Beinart of St. Anthony’s College, Oxford University and Director of African Studies Centre in Oxford was an excellent host when Nigeria’s Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke delivered a lecture on the topic: “The Future of African Energy in a Changing World” on May 20, 2013.
It was a great success and the timing was perfect – right at the beginning of the annual Africa Week in Oxford, which is meant to sensitise the world about Africa and its peculiar circumstances.
Balliol College, the Oxford University College that has produced numerous British Prime Ministers along with other Colleges of Oxford University:
David Cameron – (Brasenose); Tony Blair (St. John’s); Margaret Thatcher – (Somerville); Harold Wilson – Jesus (Balliol); Edward Heath – (Balliol); Sir Alec Douglas-Home – (Christ Church); Harold Macmillan – (Balliol); Anthony Eden – (Christ Church); Clement Attlee – (University); H.H. Asquith – (Balliol); Marquess of Salisbury – (Christ Church); Earl of Rosebery – (Christ Church); William Edward Gladstone – (Christ Church); Earl of Derby – (Christ Church); Sir Robert Peel -(Christ Church); George Canning – (Christ Church); Earl of Liverpool – (Christ Church); Lord Grenville – (Christ Church); Henry Addington – (Brasenose); Earl of Shelburne – (Christ Church);
Duke of Portland – (Christ Church); Lord North – (Trinity); Earl of Chatham – (Trinity); George Grenville – (Christ Church); Henry Pelham – Hart Hall (later Hertford); Earl of Wilmingto (Trinity College), chose to match St. Anthony’s College by hosting a distinguished Nigerian to speak on a well chosen topic: “Africa’s bewilderment – What Happens Next?
Out of fear that the hall would be overfilled and create both safety and security problems, the name of the speaker was deliberately omitted from the flyers, leaflets and programme. Regardless, the hall was jam packed anyway. After a masterful and excellently choreographed preliminaries, the master of ceremonies duly announced the name and credentials of the guest speaker in classical Latin.
It turned out to be none other than Edwin Clark, Nigeria’s former minister of information and currently a foremost Ijaw leader. The audience erupted into resounding applause. The chief was decked out in his traditional regalia as the Eni of Ijaws in the Niger Delta of Nigeria.
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It turned out it was his 86th birthday and he was rewarded with chants of “Happy Birthday.” Even more remarkable was that there was a formidable contingent of those who were fellow lodgers at the British Council Hostel in Hans Crescent, Knightsbridge London SW1 in the 1960s. They turned up to surprise the chief.
Also in the audience were those who studied Law at the Inner Temple at the same time as then Edwin Clark Esq. Regardless of their advanced age, they all stood up to cheer their friend and colleague. One of them even joked that while most Nigerian students ended up at the Methodist Hostel or Nigerian Hostel in Bayswater, those who were being prepared for leadership positions in Nigeria were accommodated at the more classy Hans Crescent Hostel just a stone throw away from the world famous Harrods Department Store in Knightsbridge.
Clark rose to the occasion and like a seasoned lawyer, he was as combative as a tiger. To start with, he revealed that he had planned to confine himself to Abuja and only make regular visits to his village in Burutu, which had suffered terrible damage from the recent flood. Even the graves of his ancestors had been flooded. However, he could not refuse the invitation to speak on a subject that was very close to his heart. Besides, at the age of 86 he could not be afraid of speaking the truth and nothing but the truth – no matter whose ox is gored.
Furthermore, according to the chief, he wanted to debunk the nonsensical assertion by President Nicolas Sarkozy who as the President of France declared in a speech delivered in 2007, at the Cheik Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal: “The African man has not fully entered into history… has never really launched himself into the future.”
The chief was clearly livid with rage but he never lost his poise. He declared how elated he was to see so many of his old friends, classmates, course mates and professional colleagues, especially those with whom he had lost contact for over 60 years. He assured the audience that as an elder statesman, he did not wish to make any comments on political issues beyond the general observation: “The president of Nigeria is undisputedly the most powerful president in the world. The president has become too powerful and any president of Nigeria who wants to use all the constitutional powers as granted and contained in the Constitution would become a dictator.”
He quickly added a caveat: “It’s my 86th birthday today and the best present you can give me is to pray for me and spare me any questions about the politics of Nigeria’s 2015 elections.
“I have been a senator and former minister in the Second Republic. There is no point in dwelling on any regrets. What is far more important is to recognise that considering my age, I am already in the departure lounge waiting for the aircraft it may please the Lord to send. I am ready for the Lord to call me.
“Let us be clear about one thing. When I speak, I speak as an elderly man and I must speak frankly and bluntly. What I cannot say here and now, I don’t know where and when I will have another opportunity to bare my mind.”
The elder statesman was still warming up before he delivered another salvo: “At 86, I am a fulfilled man. However, posterity will judge me harshly if I do not discharge my obligation to speak the truth and lay good examples worthy of emulation by the generations that are already with us or are yet to be born.
“Nigeria is a richly blessed country but corruption has become endemic and has almost ruined our value system and compounded the problems of our nation.” The chief quickly got into his stride.
Cheerfully, he beamed and declared: “The First Republic was Nigeria’s golden age, especially the judiciary which was my terrain as a practising lawyer. Even during the military era, much as military rule was condemnable, the judiciary was not as corrupt as it is now. You cannot compare the judiciary of the First Republic or even during the military with the one we have today. We need to clean up the place.
“Apart from the corruption in the judiciary, we must recognise the festering sore of ethnicity and tribalism as fatal. If left unchecked they pose a serious threat to the corporate existence of Nigeria. We must strive to rise above ethnicity and tribalism. For the benefit of the young ladies and gentlemen who are in the audience. I make bold to say that the Rt Honourable Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe an Igbo was more popular in Western Nigeria (among the Yorubas) than in the East (the domain of his fellow Igbos). Azikiwe won election in Lagos and Western Nigeria.
“It was entirely on merit. I was a member of the Zikist Movement and I was in a position to know what was going on. Everything was dictated by the spirit of nationalism. This cannot happen again in Nigeria. If it happens, the election will be annulled. The Igbos are everywhere in all parts of the country. If they try it, the election will be annulled. In Warri, during our time in the 1950s and 1960s, Igbos contested and won elections, but not now.”
The elder statesman was not yet done with the judiciary. He lamented the decay in the judiciary but blamed the malaise partly on lawyers, particularly the older generation of lawyers.
“In those days, those lawyers who became SAN, where great lawyers; some of them no longer look like SAN today so the respect is going down. I am a lawyer but the older generation of lawyers do not care for the welfare of the younger lawyers. They pay them small allowances, whereas some of them are using the money to buy private jets.”
The Ijaw leader who bemoaned how lawyers are given the privileged status of SAN explained that in the past, the position of SAN was given to lawyers based on hard work. But now, it is debased, as the award of SAN to lawyers is based on “long leg.”
Citing instances of the level of corruption in the country, Clark lamented the trial of a former governor of Delta State, James Ibori, who was acquitted by Nigeria’s judiciary, but convicted by the British legal system for corruption. “Look at a judge who was posted to Asaba to try Ibori on 170 charges. He gave judgement in two hours; is Ibori not serving a jail term in Britain today?
“Did he not plead guilty? He admitted his guilt but there in Nigeria, he was discharged and acquitted, but shamefully that same judge who acquitted Ibori on all the 170 count charges is there today and nothing is being done to him in Nigeria. I urge the Chief Justice of Nigeria to continue with the good work she is doing to sanitise the judiciary.
The constitution does not provide for perpetual injunction against a man charged for criminal offences, but today a judge who gave that kind of injunction is still parading himself as a judge. Some of those who are not qualified to be there have the tendency to be corrupt.”
He therefore called for the amendment of the constitution to contain both elements of presidential and parliamentary system of government. He cited France and Kenya as countries that are operating both systems, adding that it will help solve some of the political crises in Nigeria.
Though the elder statesman promised not to comment on politics, he could not resist the urge when a last minute question was asked on General Muhammadu Buhari’s comment that President Goodluck Jonathan is incompetent. He quickly reacted, questioning Buhari’s competence to question the president.
He described Buhari as “a man who removed his brother from office,” and blamed him for misleading members of the Congress for Progressive Change to become partially responsible for the misfortunes of democracy in Nigeria.
“Shagari was one of the most respected presidents of this country – a patient man, a man who never offended anybody. He had just won an election in 1983, what did he (Buhari) do? Buhari went and removed him from office. Was he saying that Shagari was not efficient?”
Randle is a former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and former chairman of KPMG Nigeria and Africa Region. He is currently the chairman, JK Randle Professional Services.
