Kunle Olasanmi
Ijaw leader and former minister of information, Chief Edwin Clark, has said that the planned National Conference will not lead to disintegration of the country.
The elder statesman said the dialogue would pave way for every group to express their views on how best the country could achieve greater unity.
On his face-off with Chief Raymond Dokpesi, Clark said the media mogul had in time past worked against President Goodluck Jonathan and as such, had no basis to be in the government.
He said the more Chief Dokpesi continues to insult him, the more he would continue to lose in the scheme of things.
While receiving elders from North Central zone led by former deputy senate president, Ibrahim Mantu, who paid him a courtesy visit, Clark noted that it is by having on board every ethnic nationality for the sake of equality and justice that the nation can thrive on the part of development.
He stressed that no matter what is happening right now on the political front, Nigeria will not divide adding that the country has gone through that road before.
“The national conference will be a success. I believe in justice and equality. Without equality, there is no country.
“Nigeria will not divide, we have gone through that part before”, he stated.
Speaking on the purpose of the visit, Senator Mantu said that the group came to join forces with the South-south to ensure that the choice of the people emerges in the coming 2015 general elections.
Mantu, who highlighted Chief Clark’s contributions to the political development of the country said, unlike some other elders in the land who only indulge in letter writing, Clark always championed the cause of national unity.
Mantu said, “There are people of your age who are dragging this nation back. We know some who are into one form of letter writing or the other. But for you, a tree can make a forest.”