Chief Edwin Clark, leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, has suggested that previous military Head of State General Yakubu Gowon should have allowed the Igbo to secede at the start of the civil war in 1966.
Clark stated this during an interview with Arise TV, in which he criticized the unjust treatment of the South-East by concentrating power in the northern area.
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He emphasized the need of giving the region a feeling of belonging and urged political parties, particularly the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party, to provide their presidential tickets to a candidate from the South-East.
“My idea of zoning the Presidency to the South-East is well-known. No Nigerian will like to live in a country where certain people believe that they have the only right to lead. The APC believes the 12 million votes by President Muhammadu Buhari might be eroded if it is zoned to the South. The PDP is also considering zoning to the North. This is unfair.
“Nigeria stood on three legs, and it has never been steady since one of the legs was destroyed during the Civil War. I unpacked all these facts in my forthcoming memoir ‘Brutally Frank’,” Clark stated.
He also stated that there is no moral reason for maintaining individuals who are not being treated decently, emphasizing the need of treating the region with a feeling of belonging.
