Abati sabotaged Jonathan’s presidency, Clark says

In from Timothy Enietan-Matthews (Nation’s capital) . . .

In an apparent response to a scathing article against him by the former Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr. Reuben Abati, Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, has alleged that Abati sabotaged the former president by failing to promote his image and achievements.

Clark also said he still sees the former president as a political son despite gaining nothing from his presidency, as against claims by Abati.

Clark, who has been under attack over his remarks that former President Jonathan lacked the will to fight corruption, wondered why he had come under vicious attacks.

The former federal Commissioner for information said it was curious that Abati, who he accused of failing to sell Mr. Jonathan’s achievements to Nigerians, could accuse him of disparaging a man he (Abati) was never loyal to, adding that at a point, he had to point out to Mr. Abati how negligent he is to his duties by not defending Jonathan against some of the scurrilous attacks against him and also by not promoting the president’s image and well-known achievements of his administration.

Clark said, “My advice that a publicity committee made up of eminent journalists be put in place in Aso Rock and that media proprietors and senior journalists should be invited to Aso Rock were jettisoned by Abati because of what I suppose is his covetousness, particularly when many journalists and media houses always complained to me that he was not carrying them along.

“Dr. Reuben Abati has risen to the defence of his last employer too late. He owes the former President apologies for his (Abati’s) failure to perform while in office. I should not be used as a scapegoat. I love Goodluck Jonathan and Goodluck Jonathan loves me,” he said.

Recalling Abati’s antecedents as a columnist with The Guardian against Jonathan, Clark said: “I do not recall any favourable remark made by Abati all those years when he was the chairman of the Editorial Board [of the Guardian] and syndicated columnist about the former president, His Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and the First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan.

“If I recall correctly, they were always the butt of ridicule by Dr. Reuben Abati. In fact, he became so notorious and fearless a critic of former President Jonathan and his wife in the Guardian Newspaper that I had to draw the attention of my cousin the proprietor of the Guardian newspaper to his excesses.

“These vitriolic attacks on former President Jonathan and his wife only stopped when he was appointed the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity by the former president,” he said.

On Abati’s claim that Clark would have remained a card carrying member of the PDP, if Mr. Jonathan had won re-election, the Ijaw leader said: “I do not know the background of Dr. Abati but for him to lie and devilishly imagine that I should have remained a PDP card carrying member if President Jonathan had won the election is satanic.”

On Jonathan’s achievements in office, Clark said he remained proud of the performance of the President in a number of areas such as the railway system, economy, fight against polio and ebola, maternal health, the power sector, etc.

“He tarred more roads than any of his predecessors; he turned agriculture to agro-business, a multibillion dollar business; he built the Almajiri schools in the Northern parts of this country.

Read also: Clark, the father, Jonathan, the son

“He established new federal universities across this nation; he allowed for free speech across this nation, and did not mind when he was criticised or, even, abused.

“People were not arbitrarily locked up in jail or prison, as he truly respected the rule of law.

“He signed the Freedom of Information Bill into law, which was not done by his predecessors; he modernized the aviation sector; he convoked a National Conference that brought Nigerians together and proffered recommendations on how to better bind Nigerians together as one.

“He sanitized the electoral system of this country, unlike what we had before him, when elections results were announced without actually voting, when ballot snatching were rampant and common place.

“He brought transparency into the electoral process – when people could vote and the votes actually openly counted without violence.

“Today he stands as the first African president to concede an election to an opponent, even before the final counts,” Mr. Clark said.

He however said, just like other leaders, Jonathan had his weaknesses and that stating them does mean he was disparaging or disowning him.

“In keeping with my character, I cannot say in private what I cannot say in the public. I do not therefore, reject or disown Jonathan as my beloved political son,” he said.

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