Barrister Wike was the only one who publicly wished the former First Lady Happy Birthday this time
MACMILLAN’S English Dictionary defines power as the ability to influence or control what people do or think. Concise it is, but then that definition does not reveal the hidden factors that constitute power- one of them is that Power is Transient.
It is only God who is almighty and all powerful and is also everlasting, He alone has claim to ultimate power.
For all mortal men, be they The Number One or the Last Man Standing, Power That Will Come Is Power That Will Go!
And so it was that on Thursday the Twenty fifth of October, Dame (Dr.) Patience Faka Jonathan turned one year older.
That morning, I was going through the dailies and oscillating between: He is full impunity (of party chairmen) and: they are bad losers (replies the party chairmen).
Then I stumbled upon the lone full – page coloured advertorial, cheerfully wishing the immediate past First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan A Very Happy Birthday!
Instantly, I flicked past the pages to the end of the paper but there was not a word from anyone else. I quickly looked through the rest of the dailies and found it was the same thing. There was just one other paper amongst the rest that had the advertorial, even at that, it was but one solitary birthday greeting also.
Interestingly, the greetings were from the same person, the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike. He was felicitating on behalf of his wife, the government and all the people of Rivers State.
Shikena.
So… what has happened to the crowd of personalities, “well-wishers”, supporters and hangers-on? Where are all those dignitaries who sat packed, shoulder to shoulder under the “main canopy” during Mrs. Jonathan’s late mother’s obsequies?
What about all the dignitaries for who no force in hell could keep them away from The Presidential Wedding of the Jonathans’ daughter, a few short years back?
If now were then; even today Sunday, birthday greetings would still have been pouring out of the pages of today’s papers by those who were unable to find space on the Thursday pages.
Meanwhile, Thursday papers themselves would have been bulging with extra pages enough to fill a book; all with ‘Birthday Greetings to the First Lady’!
And this was no more than a few short years ago, in fact not even one electoral cycle had gone past yet.
The one that shocks me the most is the complete silence of all the women who were forever around the First Lady. Have they forgotten so soon, all the preening, and the feasting that would have accompanied such a week as this?
People judge you by your actions, not your intentions.
Fair weather Friends!
When trips ‘to the Villa’ meant everything, so did the First Lady’s Birthday mean everything, in fact several of them even ‘cared’ to throw parties for her, to mark her day. These are the people who always go where opportunity is, never where opportunity is going.
Evidently, their best friend is no more that the Brightest Person Now. For tomorrow, well another powerful person will surely emerge for them to latch onto.
Oh how fleeting, how temporary their ‘love’!
Well, if there be any consolation, it will be to “see” more clearly, one’s “personal persons”, when the razzmatazz wanes.
For the Former First Lady, for all in positions of authority, as the phone calls and messages thin out, as the accolades quieten down, when all ‘the children of ‘, all ‘the sisters of’, are departed, the ensuing period should be seen as merely the signposting of the new life; the true life to be lived.
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