Nigerian leaders, particularly those from the Southsouth geopolitical zone have been thrown into mourning by the death of irrepressible Ijaw leader Chief Edwin Clark, who died on Monday, 17 February.
His death was announced in a statement by his family confirmed on Tuesday morning.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, his predecessor, Mohammadu Buhari, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, and other prominent Nigerians were unanimous in their praise of Clark, the ferocious advocate of resource control and development of the oil-bearing communities.
President Tinubu described Clark’s death as a sobering loss. Rivers and Delta governors, Siminilayi Fubari and Sheriff Oborevwori respectively, mourn the passage of an elderly counsellor to leaders at various levels and the end of an era.
Ijaw activist and chairman Tantita Security Services Limited, Chief Government Ekpemupolo, said the region, and Nigeria had lost a great leader, strong voice and champion of development for oil-bearing communities.
Clark was a prominent politician and fearless activist who remained an active strong voice in the Niger Delta through the Pan Niger Delta Forum, and other groups.
He worked with the administrations of military governor Samuel Ogbemudia and head of state General Yakubu Gowon between 1966 and 1975.
In 1966, he was a member of an advisory committee to the military governor of the Mid-Western Region province, David Ejoor, and was appointed Federal Commissioner of Information in 1975.
Clark was an unofficial advisor to President Goodluck Jonathan and a philanthropist who founded the Edwin Clark Foundation and established a university in his hometown in 2015.
Since 1996, Clark was been generally acclaimed as the foremost leader of the Ijaw nation.
He supported the Ijaw ethnic group in Delta State during an ethnic crisis in Warri and led Ijaw leadership delegations to meet political leaders.
