The call by Chief Edwin Clark for President Goodluck Jonathan to declare a
total State of Emergency in Adamawa , Borno and Yobe States have been
condemned by Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa and his Yobe State
counterpart Alhaji Ibrahim Gaidam.
Nyako and Gaidam described the call as an attempt to sabotage the nations
democracy.
In a statement Issued by spokesmen of both governors – Ahmad Sajoh for
Nyako and Abdullahi Bego for Gaidam stated that the comment “is
unthoughtful, provocative, diversionary, totally out of sync with
democratic norms and values and unfortunate”.
“The comments made by Mr. Edwin Clark last Thursday on the security
situation in the northeast have come to the notice of their Excellences
Governors Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe State and Admiral Murtala Nyako of
Adamawa State.
“Chief Edwin Clark was quoted as calling on President Goodluck Jonathan to
declare what he called ‘a total state of emergency’ in the three states of
Yobe, Borno and Adamawa, suspend all democratic structures and appoint
sole administrators to run the affairs of the states. Mr. Godswill
Akpabio, governor of Akwa Ibom state was also reported by sections of the
media to have made similar comments.
According to the governors,” The phrase ‘sole administrator’, as noted by
many commentators, is a ‘constitutional aberration which cannot be found,
even impliedly, in any of the 320 sections of the 1999 Constitution’. Mr.
Clark’s comments (and indeed Mr. Akpabio’s) therefore smack of fascism and
are clearly a veiled attempt at sabotaging our nation’s democracy which
should be resisted by all and sundry.
“Chief Clark made a very serious analytical faux pas when he tried to
liken the security situation in Yobe, Borno and Adamawa States with the
situation in Ekiti state when an emergency rule was declared in that state
during a previous administration. The situation between now and then could
not be more different.
“As a former senator, Mr. Clark would ordinarily be assumed to understand
the meaning of the provisions of section 305 of the 1999 Constitution
which gives the President the power to declare a state of emergency in all
or parts of the country. One would also assume that Mr. Clark would know
that a state of emergency is also not exclusively applicable to security
situations.
“That Mr. Clark would gladly and blindly ignore overriding legal opinion
and historical contexts and suggest something that goes against the letter
and spirit of our Constitution as a democratic nation go to show that not
only is he not wishing Mr. President well; he in fact is bent on scuttling
our democracy apparently in pursuit of totally parochial, ethnic and
political agenda.
Mr. Clark also demonstrated crass ignorance and insensitivity to the
plight of people in the northeast by suggesting that somehow the missing
Chibok school girls would not have been kidnapped if Borno State was under
a ‘total state of emergency’.
Is Chief Clark not aware that over the past 12 months, there was all
manner of security presence in the three states when we witnessed some of
the most heinous and despicable terrorist attacks on our schools in
Mamudo, Buni Yadi and Gujba and on our towns and villages from Izge to
Baga?
Their Excellences Governors Gaidam and Nyako therefore reject and condemn
in their totality the anti-democratic sentiments expressed by Mr. Edwin
Clark. The governors call on Mr. Clark, now in his 80’s, to use his age
and experience by contributing to the peace and unity of the nation rather
than stoking tensions and being a voice for division and disunity.
“The governors also call on Nigerians to discountenance Mr. Clark’s
unstatesmanlike and unfortunate comments and to continue to support the
broad based effort aimed at addressing the security challenges currently
facing the country”.