18 things to know about late Ijaw leader Chief Edwin Clark

18 things to know about late Ijaw leader Chief Edwin Clark

The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) leader died on Monday night, according to a statement by his brother Prof. C. C. Clark and son Penawei Clark for the children.

1. Edwin Clark was born May 25, 1927.

2. He was 97.

3. He was a Nigerian Statesman, Ijaw leader and politician from Delta State who worked with the administrations of military governor Samuel Ogbemudia and head of state, General Yakubu Gowon between 1966 and 1975.

4. 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.

5. In 1983, he was an elected senator for three months at the twilight of the Shagari administration.

6. Clark was an unofficial advisor to President Goodluck Jonathan.

7. He was a philanthropist who founded the Edwin Clark Foundation and established a university in his hometown in 2015.

8. Clark was born in Kiagbodo, in the Ijaw area of what is now Delta State.

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9. He attended primary and secondary schools at Effurun, Okrika and Afugbene before completing further studies at the Government Teacher Training College, which later became Delta State University, Abraka.

10. Clark worked briefly as a school teacher before traveling abroad to earn a law degree.

11. The Nigerian poet J. P. Clark was his younger brother.

12. He was a Federal Commissioner for Information.

13. Clark’s involvement in the political process began during the pre-independence period when he was elected as Councillor for Bomadi in 1953.

14. Clark later joined the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC).

15. While a student at Holborn College, he was active in the West African Students’ Union.

16. During the second republic, he was a member of the national executive committee of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and was the treasurer of the party in Bendel State (now, in part, Delta State and previously the Mid-Western Region province).

17. Since 1996, Clark had been a self-described leader of the Ijaw nation.

18 things to know about late Ijaw leader Chief Edwin Clark