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2023: ‘A United Nigeria Is The Ultimate’ – PDP Replies Edwin Clark

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The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has replied to the prominent Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, over his comment about the party’s vice presidential candidate, Ifeanyi Okowa.

The PDP said the elder stateman should leave political sentiments behind and think about a united Nigeria after the elections.

A spokesman of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Charles Aniagwu, gave the submission at a press conference on Friday in Asaba.

According to him, the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and his running mate were prepared to keep to the terms of the peace accord it signed in the presence of prominent Nigerians, principally the former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar and the very revered Bishop of the Catholic Church, Hassan Kukah among other members of the National Peace Accord Committee.

Aniagwu’s reaction follows a call for Okowa to step down as Atiku’s running mate by Clark

Naija News reports that Clark tagged Okowa a betrayer, saying God would not answer his prayers as far as the elections are concerned.

Clark, at a press briefing in Abuja on Thursday, asked Okowa to apologise to the people, his colleagues and Southern Nigeria.

He slammed Okowa for accepting to be running mate to PDP presidential candidate, Abubakar Atiku, and therefore asked him to step down.

However, Naija News gathered that Aniagwu in his reply to the elder statesman said he should stop creating an agenda capable of causing conflict between the North and the South ahead of the polls.

Clark was told not to mortgage the unity of Nigeria at the expense of his preferences, adding that Nigeria’s unity was paramount to the continued existence of the country.

The PDP chieftain submitted that “As an administration here in Delta and as a political party the PDP, our Presidential Campaign Council has enormous respect for Chief Edwin Clark.

“We have enormous respect for him on many grounds as an elder statesman, as somebody who has played very wonderful roles in our country as a former minister, and as a Nigerian allowed by the constitution to have an opinion on issues.

“So we have enormous respect for him and that respect we will continue to give to him.

‘’It might be pardonable for the young ones to talk about the North and South dichotomy, but Edwin Clark has been around even before the Civil War, and he knows the geographic composition of Nigeria with brothers and sisters crisscrossing the North and the South.

‘’By tradition, not by law, the choice of a running-mate has always cut across the other zones different from that of the presidential candidate. In this regard, delegates of the PDP overwhelmingly elected Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

‘’In fulfilment of the constitutional provisions and after wide consultations, saw that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa would be able to add value to his quest to lead Nigeria out of the woods and have a much more united country.”

He continued that the PDP respected Clark so much, but elders must make comments that are in line with our desire to remain as one country.

Aniagwu stated ‘’So, for our elder statesman to cast aspersions on Governor Okowa and label him a betrayer cannot be in the interest of nationalism. If someone must be patriotic, as Pa Clark has shown over time, his recent comments do not suggest the way for our continued unity.

‘’We also know that Pa Clark has made his choice in this election. First, he took sides with Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, even when the last President of the PDP (Goodluck Jonathan) was from the old Rivers State (Rivers and Bayelsa).

‘’If we are talking about equity and justice, could it have been fair that the power coming back to the south would have still come to the same state, even when we have 17 states in the south?

‘’Are we looking for a regional president or one who would govern the entire country? So, elders and everybody must try as much as possible to bury their sentiments under the need for us to be nationalistic.

‘’We need a united country that can survive beyond the election and build for us to call home even beyond the elections. So, any comment that fuels such division cannot be in the interest of current and coming generations.

‘’We advise our elder statesman, whom we respect very well, not to allow the politics of sentiments to injure his prominent position. As an elder statesman, the integrity and sanctity of our constitution are fundamental. The unity of this country should be paramount.

‘’Therefore, those that should know in the categories of Edwin Clark cannot, because of the sentiments and conveniences of today, push an agenda that is inimical to the unity paramount for us to move as one country.”