Involvement of the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, in politics and governance since the emergence of her husband as Nigeria’s president has made her a subject of unending controversy. In this report, Associate Editor, Sam Egburonu, attempts a deconstruction of Mrs. Jonathan’s sensibilities and offers a concise presentation of what we may call her complete works.
She is a woman only few people can ignore. Full of activity, ever visible and never ready to keep silent even if the issue at stake would be considered by many in her position as too delicate, Dame Patience Jonathan, wife of Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan, has, perhaps, because of her directness, become one of the deepest puzzles in Nigeria’s political discourse.
Already, her resolve not to hide this character trait, which had evidently attracted unending criticisms from opponents, is considered the reason for the depth of criticism she receives from her opponents.
Her admirers however say she is being criticized unfairly as most of the alleged unsavory utterances are born out of deep love for her husband and her passionate sensibilities.
Perhaps, the first major occasion for that contradiction, was the height of the controversy over the kidnap of the Chibok girls by Boko Haram insurgents last year’s May. Then, the opposition was making a mince meat of her husband, President Goodluck Jonathan, for failing to believe the reality of the national tragedy, and Mrs. Jonathan, in a passionate effort to help the matter, convened a meeting with some of the relevant personalities in the Chibok matter, including the parents. In that meeting, the Nigeria’s First Lady, showed so much emotions to help counter opposition’s allegation of insensitivity when she broke down in tears.
At a meeting with wives of the governors of Nasarawa, Zamfara, Kaduna, Katsina, Kogi, Gombe, Benue, Abia and Akwa Ibom States in Aso Rock, she also expressed worry at the attitude of the wife of the Borno State Governor Mrs. Nana Shettimah, towards the missing Chibok school girls.
The meeting and the expression of concern, which were generally acknowledged then and praised however became a subject of controversy when the First Lady flayed Shettima’s wife for allegedly being “unconcerned over the girls’ abduction.”
It was a rare drama as Mrs. Jonathan suddenly burst into tears, saying repeatedly “God is watching oo,” adding, “Before all these killings, I called and told the First Lady of Borno State to let us come together. She answered me yes, but when the kidnap happened, I called her, she did not answer me. I invited her, she did not turn up even up till today. No woman will fold her arms when her house is on fire. Today, my house is on fire.
“Before last Friday, I called her and she promised to attend the Friday’s meeting here. But to our greatest surprise, she sent her commissioner for women affairs. Also today, she sent her commissioner for women affairs. She is the mother of Borno State. She is the first mother of these missing girls. I am their grandmother. She is not coming out. All Nigerian women are calling her. If she is not concerned and she says she doesn’t want her people to be safe, then it is left to her. If you tell us you are not crying, why should I cry more than the bereaved. If I cry more than the bereaved, the world would ask me a question.
“If after today, Borno women say we should not help them, then Nigerian women, don’t demonstrate again. If you demonstrate and police do you anything, you are on your own. Borno women are playing game. Nigerian women should not go out for demonstration. Don’t use school children for demonstration again. Borno women are not ready for cooperation”, she said.
The First Lady added, “People are dying. How can you play politics when you see your fellow human beings dying? Nigerian women, I beg you to support me. Why we will join our husbands to kill others. We want the killings to stop. If we don’t get to know the whereabouts of our daughters, the next thing is they (Boko Haram) will get to us. I am not accusing anybody. My own is let us stop killings and kidnapping. Let us say a stop to these.
“We don’t know what might happen. We don’t wear bullet-proofs. I am not exempting myself or my husband. If I am found guilty, let me go instead of blood to flow. If our constitution is the problem, let them amend it. Today’s meeting will not end because the abducted children are still not out. If you say I should go and sleep, I would go and sleep. But if you say we should move forward to see the end of this, we would go forward”, she said.
Her dramatic intervention to the Chibok girls’ saga has since then remained a subject of ridicule and criticism even as every of her public comments have also exposed her to more criticisms.
The stoning saga:
Perhaps, the latest utterance of Dame Patience Jonathan, for which she has been criticized and blamed for not helping her husband’s political fortunes is the comment she made in Calabar, where she allegedly called on her supporters to stone her husband’s political opponents. The First Lady, also called ‘Mama Peace,’ had reportedly told PDP supporters, “Anybody that tells you change, stone that person.”
Mrs. Jonathan made this appeal to her supporters in Calabar on March 2, 2015, while campaigning for her husband, President Goodluck Jonathan.
Patience Jonathan said: “Anybody that come and tell you change, stone that person. Anybody that come and tell you he will change, stone that person.
”What you did not do in …, is now that old age has caught up with you, you want to come and change? You can’t change; rather you will turn back to a baby. You will turn back to a baby. From old age nothing, so nothing like change. Rather (it) is continuity,” she further added.
The First Lady advised the women to ensure they cast their votes in the coming elections even if they were in having labour pains.
“Even though belle (pregnancy) is disturbing you, tell it baby, baby let me go and vote. Baby wait let me go and exercise my mandate. Baby wait let me go and do what I can use to feed you. Baby wait for me, let me go and vote, after voting, I will come and deliver you, and you won’t die because Goodluck has given all the safety measures. You won’t die,” Mrs. Jonathan urged the excited crowed.
Reactions to her utterances:
More than in all the other instances where the utterances by the First Lady have elicited reactions, her recent call to stone all agents of change has received unprecedented reactions.
The first to formally react to the comment was the target of the verbal attack, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.). The retired army general and his party threatened to drag the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, before the International Criminal Court, ICC, for allegedly mobilizing a hate campaign against Buhari.
Buhari in his protest said Mrs. Jonathan, whose husband is the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, asked supporters of her husband to “stone” anyone who chants the APC’s change slogan.
The protest was made by APC Presidential Campaign Council (APCPCO) in a statement issued in a letter of complaint against the First Lady, signed by the Director General of APCPCO, Governor Rotimi Amaechi. The campaign council said the protest letter will be formerly dispatched to the ICC, the Inspector General of Police, IGP, and the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, among relevant authorities.
A statement from the campaign organisation quoted Amaechi as saying that “Change, as the entire country must know by now, is the slogan of the APC the rallying cry of a political party that wishes to bring hope of greater and better things to come for Nigeria and Nigerians. By her statement, Mrs. Jonathan was clearly calling on PDP supporters in Calabar to attack supporters and campaigners of the APC in the state.”
The APCPCO’s statement likened some of Dame Jonathan’s inciting comments and conduct during this political campaign season, to those of Mrs. Simone Gbagbo, wife of the former president of Cote D’Ivoire, Laurent Gbagbo, prior to that country’s 2010 election.
The party recalled that the ICC indicted Mrs. Gbagbo for her part in planning to perpetrate brutal attacks including murder, rape, and sexual violence, on her husband’s political opponents in the wake of the 2010 election.
APCPCO said that Mrs. Jonathan does not occupy any formal office in the Nigerian government, adding that the position of First Lady is not recognized by the Nigerian constitution.
It further stated that Gbagbo’s case showed the ICC’s awareness of how someone beyond formal governmental and military hierarchies can be identified as responsible for serious international crimes.
The APCPCO pointed out that, “Jonathan’s incontrovertible hate speech not only contravenes the laws of the land, but also goes completely against the Abuja Peace Accord jointly signed by the two presidential candidates, General Muhammadu Buhari and President Goodluck Jonathan as a gesture aimed at forestalling violence before, during and after the 2015 elections.
“PDP supporters in the state who may not know better could easily yield themselves to the First Lady’s admonition and embark on a process of wanton stoning and other attacks against APC members,” Amaechi was quoted as saying.
Since the publication of that protest letter, many Nigerians have reacted to the matter, either in defence of the First Lady or in support APC’s call to caution the First Lady.
Mrs. Jonathan’s supporters, including the husband’s party, the PDP, argued that her comments were not enough to drag her to ICC. Other commentators however think otherwise.
Prof Itse Sagay, for example could not hide his conviction that by her utterances, the First Lady adds no value to President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid.
Sagay reportedly said, “I feel very sad given the level of the person it is coming from. It is extremely in bad taste because it is purely abusive and insulting; it has no value because it does not add to the value of the PDP. It does not enhance the possibility of the president being re-elected. It was a very bad insult and raw abuse, which is not expected of people of the status of the First Lady. I am extremely disappointed. It is below the status of the First Lady.”
But Dr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) believes ICC is made for more serious issues, not for political issues.
“I do not know whether the ICC is the appropriate venue. The worst case is to say that Nigeria laws can deal with whatever issue that APC is making. There are two ways to do it. First is to approach our national laws on defamatory so that you can go to court and sue the person. Secondly, they can say that she is criminally inciting. My point is that the ICC is made for more serious issues and not for political issues, for God’s sake. Whatever the First Lady must have said right or wrong, the point is that there are national laws.”
Another Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Emeka Ngige, however expressed concern that such matters can lead to anarchy. “I think anything one is doing now, once it does not conform to International Court practices, you can find yourself answerable in or outside the shores of your country. And one of the issues that are taken to ICC are matters that could lead to anarchy, like seen in Ivory Coast,” he said.
