Patience dumps Dickson as the scales finally fall from the eyes of the ‘romantic pair of lovers’
Like all such ‘marriages of convenience’, the political alliance between Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State and the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, finally collapsed like a pack of cards on October 23. I cannot say precisely when the ‘romance’ started. But not many would doubt that it was initiated by the governor, who must have felt he needed the First Family’s support to realise his political ambition. It was in furtherance of this objective that the governor appointed Mrs Jonathan as a “super” permanent secretary in the Bayelsa State Civil Service in July 2012, barely five months after his inauguration. She was one of the 17 persons so appointed. Expectedly, the appointment caused outrage in the country, with many people expressing misgivings about it and the extent to which the civil service had been politicised, because, clearly, such appointment is injurious to the civil service, which is supposed to be the engine room of governance in the state.
Without doubt, it was an abuse of privilege which did not make sense in a place like Nigeria. What would the wife of the President of Nigeria do with the ‘peanut’ that a permanent secretary (super or ordinary) earns monthly, compared to the unlimited pork in the care of public office holders here? May be elsewhere, where public servants, including the president, are closely monitored to ensure that they do not have access to more than belong to them from the public till, such peanut could amount to something; definitely not here where public functionaries can spend and all we would do is keep wondering who appropriated the money for them and when?
But Governor Dickson, like most public officers in the country defended the appointment; he even quoted the constitution to support his decision. The governor probably would have quoted another section of the constitution to support himself or even quote the same section upside down if he did not want to do what he did. The point I am making is that deep down in his heart, the governor knew he made the appointment due more to political exigency, even if he was not willing to admit that much.
Mrs Jonathan’s resignation has however confirmed what many of us have always known about such ‘marriages of convenience’. Once the scales fall from the eyes of at least one of the lovers (which is more than enough requirement for a ‘divorce’) the ‘wedlock’ collapses. Since it takes two to tango, and since, as the late Chief Moshood Abiola once said, one cannot clap with one hand, the collapse of the ‘unholy wedlock’ was only a matter of time. That time came on Thursday.
Those who feel the resignation might be to pave way for others to climb in the civil service must have got it all wrong. Since when did the First Lady realise that her appointment was blocking others from making progress, after all, she was appointed more than two years ago? Secondly, how can only one space given to her be the obstruction on the part of those deserving elevation in the state civil service? At any rate, what would it cost the state government to create offices for the deserving even where none ever existed; after all, again, there is a precedent already? For sure, Governor Dickson would gladly have created other offices if that had been the problem. So, that excuse certainly, does not hold water. Moreover, at 57, the First Lady still has at least three more years to go, given the retirement age in the state civil service pegged at 60. Why then would she be in a hurry to leave the system?
In essence therefore, the only plausible reason that could be adduced for her resignation is that she felt she has bided her time enough and it is now time for her to come out of her shell which she had recoiled into a few months back, following persistent bashings she received online after the now famous blood that they are sharing (shedding) saga. Mrs Jonathan ‘s running battles with the governor have been in the news for long; apparently it has got to a point where she can no longer stay in her shell if she is to stop the governor’s reelection bid. Already, according to reports, she has her eyes on Waripamowei Dudafa, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Domestic Affairs. Dudafa, a former Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in Bayelsa State appears the only man that President Jonathan and former Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha can trust and are therefore likely to back for the state governorship election in 2016. It would appear therefore, that Dame Jonathan is in charge of that flank for the election, apparently to allow the president concentrate on other areas that might not want to capitulate to the almighty ‘federal might’ in the coming elections.
We cannot also forget that Mrs Jonathan is a veteran of political battles. Her issue with Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State is still fresh in mind. She bared her mind on the rift with Amaechi to 16 bishops from the south-south geopolitical zone who visited the Presidential Villa in July, last year. According to her, “This matter started as far back as four years ago at Anyugubiri in Okrika when I begged him not to demolish a part of Okrika but (that he should) dialogue first with the people. After that incident, he called the chairman of Okrika (local government) and sacked him for holding a reception in our honour; that boy was the first victim. He also put my people on curfew for nine months. I called him and pleaded with him but he refused. Then I began to hear all sorts of propaganda in the media against me; this is not the way …”
It is a long story but the kernel is that Governor Amaechi stood his ground from the beginning to the end. No doubt he paid some price for that because his state was nearly made ungovernable by the powers-that-be. It could not have been worse for Governor Dickson if he had followed a similar course that is almost certain he would have to pursue now that the president’s wife is almost set to go for his jugular. The governor must have realised, perhaps belatedly, that there are some people like that who can hardly be pleased once they have made up their minds or have their minds made up for them. But my own take is that what the governor cannot tolerate as a big man, he should have been rejecting even when he was poor.
Mrs Jonathan has by her resignation confirmed the saying that the cane that was used to whip the first wife (Timipre Sylva in this instance) was never thrown away; it was merely hidden in the ceiling. Now that they have need for it again, they are going to retrieve it.
This however is contrary to what Mrs Jonathan told the visiting bishops on Amaechi’s matter because; at a time in her speech to them, she went scriptural. At another, she went philosophical. Hear her: “… I pray that God touches Amaechi’s heart as per his hot temper because when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers … Hebrews 12:14 urges us to embrace peace with all men without which; we cannot see God. Amaechi is my son; I cannot fight him, and I cannot kill him”. And the philosophical: “He shouldn’t be used by outsiders against his own blood because this seat is vanity. “One day, no matter how long it takes; we will leave this seat. Power is not forever”. Got the contradiction between words and deed?
Anyway, all said, whether the forces against the governor would prevail or not is difficult to predict, but what may not be is the fact that even the Dudafa that they reportedly prefer today is coming to have the same comeuppance. It is only a matter of time for today’s lucky man to realise that he cannot please his political godfathers. Once upon a time, Dickson was the anointed child with whom they were well pleased. As things stand, the governor must realise that he has a lot to contend with. If Dame Jonathan could treat Amaechi whom she referred to as her “son” the way she did, then Dickson who is not her “son” should know what to expect. But, like all those who rode to power on the back of the tiger, he needs more than his present tough posture not to end up in the tiger’s belly, and to win the battle ahead. If the matter is about wars and chariots, he needs no soothsayer to tell him he is not in contention. He would be fought on all fronts – land, air and sea.
