By Dr. Ugoji Egbujo

When others, constrained by scruples, could only whisper their conspiracy theories , ‘the mother of the nation’ asked for cameras. What followed was even by her standards an epic. In that melodrama, she reveled all her parts – warmth, emotionality, irreverent spontaneity, crudity, daring aggression. She wouldn’t join her dithering husband in skirting around, she dived headlong and wallowed in it .

EFCC boss Magu and Patience Jonathan

In being more simple and less sophisticated, a certain license to disregard the bounds of propriety is assumed. Artlessness becomes sincerity. And peevishness can become virtuous unpretentiousness. Loyalty was being redefined as worship. Dame was an emerging political Juggernaut

Opponents mocked but her admirers grew. There is something about elitism that doesn’t sit well with the street. Some uncouthness and a bit of spontaneity helps the street find the presence of soul. Tameness and political correctness could all be sterility. But sybaritism and penchant for frivolity will always leave impressions of insatiable greed and cast disillusionment. A certain transfiguration was aborted in 2015.

She had once thought her husband’s re- lection as a high moving train. The derailment was a remote possibility. Not even that her prophesy that Fayose, with whom she has so much in common, may end up in prison, suggested any measurable probability. When she survived seven surgeries, in as many days , she compared herself to Lazarus.

And everybody geared up for more sobriety and some asceticism. No one knows how much Lazarus himself promised after his resurrection. It wasn’t long before the taking of honorary doctorate degrees in distant lands for unparalleled works done to uplift the poor became a priority. Rich ,vain women and praise singers returned to her convoy and egged her on to greater self estimation.

She started switching titles and became politically adventurous. Compunction had done nothing to deter the fascination with being a permanent secretary. The powerful can live their whims and fantasies. But if you thought the appointment was an honorary joke you would be baffled by the publicized resignation once she fell out with the Governor. Goodluck Jonathan once referred to our leaders as small minds. With Dame , however, you always knew where you stood.

Since her husband conceded the elections, and saved the country, she has remained unheard. Silence can be golden but can also be sullenness. Many issues in the Niger Delta have been begging for motherly attention. So a social withdrawal may be prudent but not statesmanlike. With violence rippling across the Niger Delta , a real Mama Peace is now particularly invaluable.

Sometime in the past, while still in Yenagoa government house, rumours of money laundering surfaced. A certain Gloria Okon type character featured prominently in the tales. Like the other rumours of highhandedness, these ones were promptly swatted away. The ordinary people retained their cynicism. Ribadu came back as a politician , with doublespeak, and made banishing the very rumours he had let fester a priority.

Fortunately, in the current episode, we have been served cold facts. She has imperiously rebuked the EFCC for having the effrontery to deny her access to billions held by proxies. The reliefs she has sought in court can’t be more benignly interpreted. Some others would have cowered but not Dame. It is not strange that she doesn’t bother about the ramifications of the implications.

African First Ladies are a special breed. Cooks and drivers can have billions stashed in their accounts for an empress. Temerity comes to her naturally, so I wonder why she bothered about disguise. It is disrespectful to deny the mother of the nation access to monies held for her by aides. It was Ghadaffi who said that the title of ‘father of the nation’ cannot be relinquished. And it would be sacrilegious to ask how she came by such money. That must be why Mama has gone to court seeking damages for the insolence.

Dame’s sense of utter indignation is understandable. She had this country and all its fawning businessmen at her feet, a few months ago. Her husband could have declared the election inconclusively and sat tight. She is from the Niger Delta, and they own the oil and all the money. Who amongst the other first ladies and wives of former governors doesn’t have millions with gardeners and barbers?

Many have theirs buried in oil and gas, and telecoms companies. So why only Dame? Why the one who needs all the money she can lay her hands on to pay her medical bills abroad? If only she could let them have some for a standard hospital in Okrika.

Dame doesn’t suffer impudence gladly. And she won’t stand any one sticking a finger into her eyes. The laws are for minnows. The mood of the public will be poisoned with sectionalism. And the whole thing will naturally transform into a witch hunt. She must be miffed by their hypocrisy. Isn’t she privy to all the skeletons in all the cupboards across the country? Do our political leaders retire into poverty?

Aren’t these the facts objectivity must confront before irritating Dame? Well, our prisons are filled with petty thieves. Should we let them all out? But Dame didn’t propound ‘treat like alike’. The ordinary people are mere pawns.

Isn’t this the reason African leaders sit tight? She must have her regrets. She could have done an Orubebe and forced the then vacillating hands of Ebele. Are they now biting the finger that fed them peace? Well, if this can’t attract a deeper inquiry and prosecution what can? This nation can’t afford any pact that legitimizes looting of the treasury by leaders. The EFCC must spare no one with wealth that cannot be accounted for. Generals living and dead cannot be spared.

Abacha has not been tried posthumously. So Dame’s anger raises fundamental questions about equity. The country has made representations declaring monies found in Abacha’s accounts stolen. Yet the nation will not prosecute Abacha.

This country. Any unwritten rule that ex leaders are above the law is immoral . We can’t catch all thieves before sending some to jail . We can’t create a class of untouchables. But what we serve the goose ,we must serve the gander.