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By Tony Eke

A number of Nigerians admire the leader of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum(PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark, for two principal reasons. The first is his traversal of several fields long before he joined the elderly club decades ago. The other reason has to do with his consistent advocacy for probity and accountability in public administration. He is quite resolute in the latter aspect as his regular interventions in public affairs convey some fidelity to truth. In a way, his critical analysis of governance patterns at the federal and subnational levels is not lost on the discerning. By the time he would have completed his remarkable earthly sojourn, Pa Clark might be numbered as the foremost Nigerian of Ijaw extraction that ever lived in post-independence Nigeria.

Given his kind of person, Pa Clark is perceived differently in many quarters. A category of persons sees him as an exemplary crusader of worthy causes that are potentially beneficial to the general public, a discernible feature that cannot be ignored by anyone seeking an exploration or delineation of his personality traits. To another category, he is seen as an implacable critic, a fastidious elder statesman, and the troubler of successive governors of Delta State in the post-1999 years.

Somehow, Pa Clark walked a different path a week ago, an action which confounded numerous persons who have followed his periodic assessment of executive office holders in Delta State and contiguous jurisdictions. His commendation of Delta State Governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori’s performance in office was novel as it was pleasant. Unequivocal in his assessment of Oborevwori’s achievements, the elder statesman’s description of the governor’s superlative performance compared to his predecessors seemed extraordinary.

Let me make a confession: I was literally taken aback by the striking headline, but not the prominence which the news story deservedly got in some dailies. At a first glimpse, I had thought that the lenses of my reading glasses had lost their clarity and quickly used a microfiber cloth to clean them up. Yet, I got the same meaning that I earlier had. The next thing I did was to look for a paragraph where he was quoted verbatim to be doubly sure that the old man had actually spoken. My eyes picked up a fairly long sentence which was clear in meaning, without the minutest ambiguity whatsoever. Indeed, Pa Clark spoke glowingly about the changing face of Warri, unlike what it was in the intervening decades.

Pa Clark’s overview of the facelift that Warri is currently receiving not only validates the general approbation of the Oborevwori infrastructural facelift of the intertwined abodes of Warri and Uvwie but also elongates the commendatory viewpoints of eminent personalities in our state. It may sound hyperbolical, but never in the nearly 34-year history of our state has an administration received much acclamation for its performance in less than two years in office.

Although the deliberate improvement of Warri delights a broad spectrum of Delta society, it makes a greater meaning to the category of persons who knew or appreciated the enviable status of Warri many decades ago. Then, Warri ranked as one of the best cities in Southern Nigeria. With a coastal geography, a flourishing seaport, oil producing companies and service firms, a mix of three founding ethnicities, and influx of our compatriots from other parts of the country, Warri was the place to be from the fading years of colonial times to the first two decades of post-independence Nigeria.

However, Pa Clark’s assessment of Oborevwori’s achievements in office is not restricted to Warri. His reference to numerous towns and localities across the state as beneficiaries of the Oborevwori administration’s programmes is very true. Some communities which had not benefitted from road infrastructures are now being remembered. A case in point is my ancestral homeland, Amai in Ukwuani Local Government Area, where an earth road linking it with Aragba-Orogun, which we had yearned for its construction since 1999, is now being excavated. Besides, a street that links two of the five quarters in the same vicinity is also undergoing construction. It’s the first time my land of birth will benefit from an internal road infrastructure since the creation of Delta State.

A summation of the issue under discourse shows that Pa Clark has two sides to his personality. He commends good governance when he sees one just as he does not shy away from criticising misgovernment under any guise. Therefore, the description of the old man as controversial by his detractors is only contextual rather than generalized. The deduction from the latest offering of Pa Clark is that an objective mind is not coloured by prejudice or hate in his assessment of public governance of his geopolitical entity. Rather, a fair judgment is a reflection of the nature of policies and programmes and the benefits that will accrue to the people, both at the present time and in the future.
* Tony Eke, a journalist based in Asaba, can be reached via tonek6819@gmail.com or on 08035504896 (text only).