“When people suddenly find
themselves in such latter position (being the wife of Nigeria’s 1
citizen), prepared or unprepared, anywhere in the world, they are taken
through a crash programme in finishing and poise and made to realise
that being the wife of an important man comes with serious
responsibilities lest they sabotage the same person that they should be
supporting. If Dame Patience went through such re-orientation, the
course was incomplete.”
The above excerpt was Dr. Reuben Abati’s
assessment of Nigeria’s so-called first lady, Patience Jonathan, in
August 2010. Almost four years on, despite having the opportunity to
have the same Abati put her “through a crash programme in finishing and
poise,” Mrs Jonathan has remained consistent with her lack of poise and
class. With the same Abati an aide to her husband, President Goodluck
Jonathan, Patience would rather probably engage the talents of the same
Abati in putting up a press statement excusing her now predictable lack
of poise and empathy.
The First Lady loves to be seen and
perceived as the “Mother of the nation”, whatever that means, but on
account of her classless antics over the last few days, she is not even
worthy of being deemed the mother of a kindergarten class. Being
classless and without any sense of decorum is one thing, being
perpetually ready to display such when class and decorum would suffice
is a cause for concern, especially if the subject in question is the
wife of the President of Nigeria. Mrs. Jonathan has shown this side of
hers to Nigerians over the years but it did hurt to see her go global
with her overbearing antics that portray her as one without any sense of
control or discipline.
The arrest of Mrs. Naomi Nyadar and
Saratu Angus Ndirpaya of Chibok town allegedly on the orders of the
First Lady is an unfortunate one. It again empathises the insensitivity
of the President and his wife. Accusing people of not supporting the
President, her husband, just because they decided to join fellow
citizens in demanding that the government immediately does something
concrete about the rescue of the over 200 abducted schoolgirls. Accusing
them of being Boko Haram members just to find an excuse to hang them on
even shows a side of her that adds to her image of one without sense of
order and time.
The First Lady must really now believe
that she is some sort of alternate president, that if her husband cannot
act for any reason, Nigerians would be pleased to see her act. Seeing
as she was not voted in by Nigerians, she probably believes acting as
the alternate president would require the use of force.
Or, on what grounds would the First Lady
order Nigerian women to stop protesting? What rights or sense of
achievement makes her think that people like Oby Ezekwesili and Maryam
Uwais would listen to her? What has the First Lady achieved in her
personal place as a woman outside of the “achievements” associated with
her being the wife of the President? It is easy to get carried away with
being the First Lady but ours must understand that, outside of that
name, she would find it really difficult among most Nigerian women.
At a time our country is being bombarded
by the twin realities of a demonic terrorist group and a helplessly
incompetent and uncaring President, a First Lady who constantly
terrorises ordinary citizens with her highhandedness cannot be the right
mix at these times. It is not bad enough that the First Lady did
nothing about the abducted girls for almost two weeks since their
abduction, she wants us to believe that she cares more than the mothers
and women who have been at the forefront of demanding that the
government #BringBackOurGirls. Shedding political tears will not
suddenly erase the silence that was her response after the abductions.
It has suddenly become globally “cool”
to be seen caring about the girls, our Mother of the nation thinks
shedding tears on national TV will easily set her up for sainthood. We
are not fooled.
And then there was the President
himself! “Some of those cases they call corruption, are just people
stealing!”, the President said on Sunday night during the Presidential
media chat.
Nigeria shares most of its major
challenges with several countries around the world, but the one
challenge that is unique to Nigeria is the Goodluck Jonathan challenge.
The Presidential media chat that held on Sunday, May 4, is a clear
indication that, not only is our country in dire straits, but as long as
Jonathan is in charge, we will have several more days of screaming
about the same challenges. The only difference would be in the intensity
and size of the damage that’d be inflicted on Nigerians by the Jonathan
administration.
In case you have not been paying
attention, President Jonathan has spent considerable time defending two
major issues, three if we add the now defunct, abandoned cassava bread
project. You’d be hard pressed to find a presidential media chat where
our President did not defend this one minister we must now begin to
admit he holds dear to his heart. The President was far louder and
passionate when he was defending the Minister of Petroleum Resources,
Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke’s rights to spend N10bn on each of her at
least three jets than he did speaking about the still abducted Chibok
girls. Expectedly, you cannot defend a Deziani and not defend the
umbrella under which her image has come to be seen and known by ordinary
Nigerians; corruption. Mr. President believes that no matter how much
you steal from government, you are “just stealing” and we cannot call it
corruption. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu
Tambuwal, once said Jonathan’s “body language” shows he supports
corruption but watching Sunday’s media chat, one could see the
President’s lingua franca is corruption.
If you are still waiting for this
administration to fight corruption, your wait is not likely to end. The
reason is obvious; no corruption is going on under this administration;
if you would call it correctly, you can say they are “just stealing.” We
are done for and we must begin to understand that as long as we have
this man running this country, our hope for a better country will
continue to diminish each day he is allowed to take the decisions that
not only affect our own lives but that of generations unborn.
Anyone who watched the media chat and
did not feel sad for Nigeria and Nigerians is likely to either be a
direct beneficiary of this administration or someone with an acutely low
expectation of who and what a president represents and should be like.
If that last Presidential media chat was indeed presidential in
execution, then we can begin to refer to anyone who calls himself a
billionaire as a billionaire irrespective of how empty the bank account
and net-worth.
Jonathan should save Nigeria and its
destiny; he should check out of power as soon as he can, latest May 29,
2015. He compared the Chibok abductions to the search for MH370, but can
Nigerians compare the Malaysian government’s response to that disaster
and his response to the Chibok abductions? We cannot compare because he
was dancing Skelewu at a political rally in Kano a day after the
abductions and was never going to do anything about it. Thank God for a
burgeoning group of active citizens who kept the issue on the front
burner. May God save Nigeria from the Jonathans!
No comments:
Post a Comment
whizqidconcept@gmail.com