Chief E. K. Clark and his moral icons
Naturally I continued with my speech and acted as if he wasn’t even there but I knew that he would take his time and eventually hit back at me and claim his pound of flesh. Yet even with that expectation nothing prepared me for the virulence and sheer ferociousness of his counter-attack. And that counter-attack […]
Naturally I continued with my speech and acted as if he wasn’t even there but I knew that he would take his time and eventually hit back at me and claim his pound of flesh. Yet even with that expectation nothing prepared me for the virulence and sheer ferociousness of his counter-attack. And that counter-attack was launched during a public lecture on August 1st 2012, when the elder statesman, during the course of his lecture, passionately proclaimed that I was holding myself out as a ‘’moral icon’’ after ‘’embezzling funds’’ that were entrusted to me when I was Minister of Aviation and that were meant to be used to ‘’stop planes from crashing and to reform the aviation sector’’. This was on live television and it was being watched by millions of Nigerians all over the world.
And of course the gathering loved it and cheered him on even though the organisers of the event went to the podium as he spoke and advised him to stop mentioning names and saying such things about people that were deemed innocent until proven guilty. Yet Chief Clark, in his characteristically brazen manner, brushed their concerns aside and boldly proclaimed that he would continue his epistle regardless of all because he was ‘’already in the waiting room before leaving this life,’’ and he didn’t care about the consequences of what he was saying. It was all very dramatic but, needless to say, his assertions were false.
Though I know that the man hates me with the biblical ‘’perfect hatred’’ I still found it extraordinary that someone of his sheer standing, magnitude and gravitas would seek to pronounce guilt on me on a matter in which he clearly knows nothing about.
It is a sad testimony to his excitable nature and his penchant for making unsustainable and irascible assertions that he should, on this occasion, have turned himself into a prosecutor, a judge and a jury in a matter that is before a duly constituted court of law.
Let it be on record that not only did I not embezzle any public funds but also that I was cleared of doing so by the Senate Aviation Committee which conducted a public hearing into the whole matter in 2008.
Even the EFCC, after initially charging me in July of that same year, dropped those charges one month later for want of evidence. Contrary to Clark’s assertions, I was the one that actually investigated and exposed the embezzlement of 6.5 billion naira from the 19.5 billion Aviation Intervention Fund which had taken place just before I became Minister in 2006. I was the whistleblower in that matter and I was the one that wrote to President Obasanjo and reported it.
Yet in a manner that is so typical of Nigeria when it comes to such matters, I was punished for doing so and I was later accused of committing the very crime that I had exposed. Is that not absurd? In their zeal to effect the orders of the late President Umaru Yar’adua and to get me at all costs the Farida Waziri-led EFCC, without any prior investigation into the matter, detained me for 10 days in their custody and proceeded to charge me in an Abuja magistrate’s court for the supposed misappropriation of the said 6.5 billion naira.
Yet one month later, after realising the futility of their cause and after establishing all the relevant facts, they withdrew those charges against me and instead prosecuted my predecessor in office for that same offence at the Abuja Federal High Court.
Chief Clark claimed that I ‘’embezzled the money’’ that I was given ‘’to use to stop the plane crashes’’ yet the truth is that not only did I not embezzle one kobo but also that not one plane crash took place under my watch. This is despite the fact that 5 crashes had taken place the year before I became Minister.
The fact of the matter is that by God’s grace my team and I put an end to those crashes and saved lives. It was as a consequence of our hard work, our prayers, our dedication to duty and the solid reforms that we put in place that those crashes stopped and did not occur again for at least one year after we left office.
Yet without knowing these facts, Chief Clark got up in a public forum on live television and not only made the most scurrilous, slanderous and outrageous allegations against me but he also pronounced me guilty of a crime that I did not commit.
Is it a surprise that we are in such a mess in this nation when an elder statesman behaves in this indecorous way. It is common knowledge that he is the Godfather-In-Chief of this administration but the question is whether he is making more friends or enemies for his son, President Goodluck Jonathan, when he behaves in this way and when he throws all caution to the wind and pontificates about issues that he knows nothing about?
Perhaps I should point out the fact that the charges that were preferred against me by the EFCC in a Lagos High Court on December 2008, 6 months after the first set of charges had been withdrawn, had nothing to do with the 19.5 billion naira Aviation Intervention Fund.
It was obvious from the outset that all those charges were malicious and politically-motivated yet for the last four years I have kept my cool, honoured the conditions of my bail and avoided discussing the issue publically for obvious reasons.
I have resisted and fought those charges vigorously for all those years and the likes of Chief E.K Clark and all the others that have sworn to see my end can be rest assured that I will continue to do so as long as I have breath in me.
In God’s time and in God’s way He will vindicate me. It is however most unfair for Chief Clark to pronounce me guilty in this matter and to label me as a criminal when a court of law has not done so. This is especially so when our constitution confers on me the presumption of innocence unless and until I am proven guilty.
On a final note let me end this write-up with a word about political persecution and the usage of politically-motivated charges to intimidate those that are perceived by the government of the day as being vocal and dangerous enemies that must be silenced at all costs.
This is nothing new. And regardless of it’s success or otherwise it changes nothing when it comes to God’s purpose. When God’s hand is on a man for leadership or greatness you can lock him up in the deepest and darkest dungeon below the sea and throw the keys away but when the time is right God will spring him out again in order for him to fulfill destiny.
The problem with people like Chief Clark and those that do not understand the power of God and the pull of destiny is that they refuse to learn from history. Let me give you some examples. The three greatest leaders that Nigeria ever had, namely Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Sir Ahmadu Bello and President Olusegun Obasanjo all suffered persecution at one point or the other in their lives and every single one of them was convicted by a court of law and spent at least three years in jail.
Awolowo was wrongly accused of treasonable felony, Obasanjo was wrongly accused of plotting a coup and Ahmadu Bello was wrongly accused of stealing public funds. All three were targeted by the powers that were at that time who thought that they had successfully silenced and discredited them forever by jailing them.
Yet when the time was right circumstances suddenly changed and God’s purpose spoke for all three of them. Awolowo was brought out of jail to become the de facto Prime Minister of Nigeria, Obasanjo was brought out of jail to become the President and Bello went on appeal, won his case (Chief Bode Thomas of ‘’Thomas, Williams and Kayode’’ the first indigenous law firm in Nigeria who was the law partner of my late father Chief Remi Fani-Kayode and Chief Rotimi Williams represented him in court) was acquitted and freed and went on to join politics and become the greatest leader that northern Nigeria has ever known. Destiny and the power of God spoke.
As relevant is the bitter end terrible sorrows that engulfed those that persecuted them and that orchestrated their terrible ordeals. My point is simple and clear- regardless of what the powers that be decide to subject us lesser mortals to, God alone rules in the affairs of men and determines the destiny of nations.
Even though some who stalk the corridors of power today believe that they have the power over life, liberty and death, in reality they control and have nothing. This is because the God of Heavens alone controls all that is in the universe. Any man that has been so intoxicated by power or by his access to the President to the extent that he is ready to play God at every given point in time ought to be pitied for his naivety.
Chief E. K. Clark, the great leader and elder of the Ijaw nation and the political and spiritual father of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, in my view ought to be viewed in such a light.
Chief Femi Fani-Kayode is a former Minister of Aviation and wrote in this piece from Abuja