By Donu Kogbara
IN last Friday’s column, I made the following  comments about Dame Patience Jonathan, the First Lady:

It takes less than 30 minutes to drive from my village to her village, so I feel as if we are Sisters of sorts. And I have fondly praised her on this page quite a few times. But she needs to protect her image more zealously.

Her name keeps cropping up whenever toxic conflicts in our state – Rivers – are being discussed. And she’s often strongly suspected of being behind all manner of irregularities.

Many people were, for example, sure that she was lurking in the background when militants stormed Government House last month to demand Amaechi’s removal. I would like her to be…genteel, decorous and totally uncontroversial.

*Readers’ Reactions

Here are some Vanguard readers’ reactions to my comments about Dame P:

From: Ifeka Okonkwo [email protected] 

Donu, the office of the First Lady which is unconstitutional, should be scrapped, as the wives of the President and the governors use such an illegality to boost their family fortunes for their generations yet unborn, while most of their compatriots are trying to eke out a living with the skin of their teeth, including myself who is a pensioner and whose pension is nothing to write home about!

+2348078921191 Manni

Donu, you are great. At least you have been able to tell Dame Patience the truth. I always wondered why she gets involved in so many controversies.

+2348033323555 Anonymous

Nigeria has generated so much embarrassing controversies. If so much inglorious and bad publicity trails Dame Patience while she is still in power, one wonders how history will deal with her when she is no longer in power.

Anonymous (requested that his number be withheld):

Donu, can’t stop loving your frank and sincere blasting of Dame P. Why is she distracting a man (Amaechi) who is performing fairly well? She should cross over to my state and see six years of waste.

+2348069811376 Opara

Haba! You more or less accuse the President’s wife of terrorism based on rumour. If you have facts, let us have them. Otherwise, by African or even Western standards, you have been grossly disrespectful. You forget that we have some basic responsibilities towards constituted authority.

A perfect Presidential spouse

The day my comments were published in this newspaper, the Dame came to Rivers State and we were told that she would stay here for a while, attending various social and official functions. And she quickly made her presence felt.

First she was enthusiastically welcomed at the airport by a large crowd of politicians who have axes to grind with Amaechi. Then she created massive traffic jams in the centre of town – where she has built a palatial residence – because several roads were totally shut down by her security operatives.

Then, in a speech that she delivered at a wedding, she not only lavishly and pointedly praised Amaechi’s opponents and predecessors but scathingly implied that Port Harcourt has ceased to be a beautiful garden city during his tenure.

She has also informed the anti-Amaechi elements who have treated her like a Queen since she arrived that this is the first time she’s been “properly” acknowledged on her home turf since her husband became President.

Meanwhile, she’s been holding meetings with stakeholders. And I’m hearing that senior police officers are reporting to her; and it has to be said that many people feel that she’s (inappropriately) carrying on like an alternative governor.

I have always liked feisty females who fear nobody, bluntly speak their minds and do their own thing. But Dame P is being a bit too feisty, even for a Feminist like me! She is generating too much tension and being excessively combative.

Most of the Rivers State indigenes I know – Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi included – were very happy when one of our own became the most influential woman in Nigeria. And I know that looks are not important within this context, but we can be forgiven for frivolously boasting about Dame P’s prettiness.

Official residence

Amaechi proudly hung a nice photograph of Dame P on the walls of his official residence as soon as she became First Lady; and it is so damned sad that a plethora of possibly avoidable misunderstandings have muddied the waters and made Dame P feel neglected and slighted by her own state government.

But she and Amaechi can resolve their problems without being spiteful and confrontational. Most conflicts can be sorted out via honest and humble communication. And I – and so many other onlookers – will be immensely disappointed in Dame P if she continues to parade herself as an implacable rival who is eager to abuse powers to which she is not constitutionally entitled.

 A perfect Presidential spouse is one who is quietly supportive rather than aggressively self-promoting. A word is enough for the Wise.