Is Dame Jonathan the weak link?
By Nathan Egba
In recent times, bashing of the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan seems to have become a favourite pastime, especially amongst the vocal national press.
What initially seemed like a timid, once in a while criticism finally blossomed into what is now a mini fair in the press, following the First Lady’s recent visit to her birth State of Rivers and the reported fall-out with Governor Chibuike Amaechi.
In the process, a lot has been written about Her Excellency, most of it obviously unfair, with some papers even going as far as writing editorial columns on the her and her visit to Rivers .
But the question is, do all these commentators really know the First Lady and is it right to base their assumptions about her on a few actions?
I accept that people who find themselves in leadership positions in different spheres of human endeavour are saddled with extra responsibility of having to conduct themselves in exemplary manner , so as to send the right message to those looking up to them.
However, from the various write-ups I’ve read, it’s obvious that most, if not all the writers do not really know the First Lady and that’s not a surprise, considering that until fate thrust her on the national scene, she had managed to keep a relatively low profile.
Some writers have tend to portray her as over-bearing and power drunk, therefore ultimately a baggage for the Presidency. But my personal knowledge of her spanning nearly forty years tells a totally different story.
First, Dame Patience Jonathan is not new to the corridors of power, having being around since 1999. And in all that time, the only time her name appeared in negative light on the national scene was when some political opponents of her husband who was then governor of Bayelsa tried to get at him by setting her up through a bogus petition to the EFCC.
Our experience of Dame Patience Jonathan throughout the eight years of their sojourn in Government House Yenagoa is that of a humane, caring and popular woman, who is very passionate about issues concerning women and their children.
Consider this; as a twelve year old starry-eyed youngster’s fresh from home and in the boarding house at our local school called Nembe National Grammar School, Nembe, Bayelsa State, it was difficult for this writer and my twin brother to settle into the daily rhythm. Consequently we missed out on meals as older students would outsmart us at meal times etc.
It wasn’t long before our story went out to town, because as identical twins and at twelve we were the smallest in the school. On a certain Saturday, a free day for students to visit the town, I was accosted by the then Patience Oba now Dame Patience Jonathan (who at that time was in nearby all girls school) in company with her friends, who told me of hearing about our plight.
From that day, she adopted us as school sons and would periodically send us provisions, sometimes money and even cooked food until our class two or three when we were better settled in the school.
I’ve not bothered to remind Her Excellency about this since I met her again after her husband became Chief Alamieyeseigha’s running mate in 1999.
But as Liaison Officer in Abuja, I invited Her Excellency, then as Deputy Governor’s wife, to my son’s one year birthday anniversary in Abuja, purely out of protocol.
To our shock she turned up, straight from the airport with her in-laws and some children and spent a good part of the day with us .Such is the extent to which the woman is capable of going for friends, family and associates.
Bayelsans and indeed those who have associated closely with her would never cease to talk about their adoration for her humane and motherly nature.
It pains me therefore, to read some of the stuff written about her. My sense is that, in the true nature of politics in Nigeria; some people are actually looking for a weak link in a near faultless Jonathan Presidency.
But is Dame Jonathan really over-bearing and power-drunk as the press would have us believe? I don’t think so.
However, it won’t be wrong to describe her as an executive activist because she does not shy away from propagating her beliefs and convictions, for example, her current pre-occupation of encouraging the women population to join politics in order to contribute to governance and social engineering.
I can almost hear someone ask, if she is all this, why the scene at Okirika?
It’s hard to tell but I suspect two things, the first being that, being easily swayed to pity, the First Lady must have been over-whelmed by complaints from the people of the area concerning the Government’s handling of the various demolition exercises.
The other factor may be that officials of the State Government failed to anticipate and therefore manage the media fall-out effectively, thereby leaving the press to run in all directions with the story.
The First Lady, from the little I know of her and what close associates also say, has never shown herself to be disrespectful of people including those below her. She is also a great respecter of offices, so she would not ordinarily demean a governor.
It is necessary at this point to call for a cessation of hostilities between the First Lady and the press to enable both sides concentrate on more important and productive matters.
