*Urges Tinubu To Implement 2014 National Conference Report
ELDER statesman and leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin K. Clark, has urged the Igbo not to relent in their quest for leadership positions in the country.
He also called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to implement the report of the 2014 National Conference Report to re-unite the Igbo and bringing them to the position they occupied before the civil war.
Speaking on Thursday, August 15, while receiving a delegation of 10 Igbo leaders in commemoration of his 97th birthday, on May 25, Clark said Nigeria is a big family and its leaders, particularly Presidents, should avoid the temptation of making appointments on ethnic basis, as such portends a very dangerous trend for the country.
He said there is no conquered Nigerian, advising public office holders to stop mystifying those who appointed them and seeing them as gods, saying even though courtesy demands that people appreciate when things are done for them, doing so with a slave-like mentality is tantamount to adulation.
He charged the Igbo to hold their heads high, as they have always held positions of reckoning in the country, recalling the activities of past Igbo leaders, such as Jaja Wachukwu, who was a Pan-Africanist and most respected first Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs.
He said the Igbo who find themselves appointed to positions, especially at the national level, should see themselves as qualified to hold such position and not to be subservient, because if other Nigerians are qualified, they are also qualified.
He stressed the importance of equality, encouraging the Igbos to recognise their worth and qualifications in leadership roles, even as he expressed optimism that the Igbo would put their acts together to achieve their desire.
Clark said he was very surprised and elated by the visit, even as he expressed his condolences to them on the demise of the president general of Ohanaeze Ndi-Igbo, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, which he described as a great loss not just to the Igbo, but to the people of the Southern and Middle Belt and Nigerian.
Leader of the delegation, Chief Simon N. Okeke, said the visit was to felicitate with Clark on his 97th birthday on May 25, and also to show appreciation for his selfless leadership of the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF), comprising the people of Middle Belt, Southeast, South-South and Southwest.
They delegation thanked Clark for always speaking out for them against perceived discrimination, marginalisation and injustices against them in the country, praying that God would continue to keep him in sound health and mind.
