A Dame Like Patience Jonathan! - Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
It is a classic case of 'One Week, One Controversy'! And the inimitable Dame, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, has been in the news again. She hardly disappoints. Perhaps, before your read this piece, Mrs. Jonathan would have returned from Germany where she had gone “to have some rest,” or receive medical treatment, or both, depending on whom you choose to believe between the media, opposition parties and Aso Rock spokespersons. Or her husband, our president, would have decided to come clean about her exact state of health and whereabouts.
But the latter may eventually not happen. Indeed, President Goodluck Jonathan understands this game very well. So, he is not unduly perturbed by all the din saturating the polity because of what his wife chooses to do with herself or not to say about her health condition. Yes, he does not “give a damn” because he knows full well that no sooner than his wife's plane touches down in Abuja, and she sweeps across the red carpet like the marvelous Dame that she is, than she would stumble onto another controversy which would immediately and effectively kill and bury the present one over which the media and the opposition have raised ear-splitting cries. And so life goes on. Who, for instance, is still talking about her controversial appointment as Permanent Secretary in Baylesa State or the famous purchase, (or is it donation or lending or all three?) of posh cars scandal that embarrassed us all during the African First Ladies Summit in Abuja recently.
But the problem with always refusing to “give a damn” about public opinion and hoping that each controversy would soon burn itself out and be forgotten is that, like we all know, all postponed evil days only offer temporary relief. They always have ways of returning at very inconvenient times to haunt the person concerned. And so, the best, time-tested option has always been to be open and tackle matters as they come.
Now, even though the story about Mrs. Jonathan's alleged ill-health had already appeared in the media, probably, before the president thought about how to manage the information about it, what would it have cost him to immediately confirm it, if it was true? Or summon his wife out of her “rest” to briefly show herself to the nation, to see if that would solve the often intractable traffic situation in Lagos or bring down the price of fish in Oyingbo market? Well, I can appreciate the psychology of the “most criticized president in the world.” I can imagine him wondering what his battalion of implacable critics would do with such information at that time. Would they join him to pray and wish his wife quick recovery or find ways of reaping some emotional and political capital out of his trying moments? Well, while his dilemma is somewhat understandable, it does not constitute sufficient reason for underlining the damaging impression that his paid advisers are incapable of generating a sound response to such a simple development.
Mrs Patience Jonathan
Okay, I think I can understand now. The president may have been worried that he might be asked why his wife was receiving medical treatment abroad while other Nigerians like her patronized local hospitals, more so, when he recently announced that foreign medical travels by public officials and their relatives would no longer be allowed by his administration. If he had no faith in Nigerian public and private hospitals and so had to use public fund to ferry his wife to a German hospital, why should he expect any other Nigerian to? This would naturally remind one of the edifying example of Mrs. Cherry Blair, wife of the former British prime minister, Tony Blair, who was delivered of a baby in a public hospital while her husband was in office, and stayed with ordinary Britons in a public ward. Given her earning as an upper-drawer lawyer, Mrs. Blair could afford the services of any quality hospital anywhere in the world, but she chose a British public hospital to demonstrate to the people that under her husband's watch, public hospitals in Britain have not lost their value. So, by underlining her preference for foreign hospitals over local ones, what point then was Mrs. Jonathan making about the health of Nigerian hospitals during her husband's tenure as president?
Mrs. Patience Jonathan With Her Husband, President Goodluck Jonathan In April 2011
That should be very strange information to Nigerians, because, to the best of my knowledge, Mrs. Jonathan has not resigned her appointment as a permanent secretary in Bayelsa State, from where she probably still draws unearned salaries. This statement alone speaks volumes about the chaotic nature of information management at the presidency.
I sincerely hope that Mrs. Jonathan would use this period of her rest and/or medical treatment to deeply ponder the sagging image of her husband's presidency and determine who between herself and the army of detractors had constituted the greatest problem to the current administration? Why for instance did she agree to have a street named after her in Abuja or accept the scandalous appointment in Bayelsa when she could have scored a great point by dramatically rejecting them? Why did she publicly confront Gov Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State over the waterfront demolition of structures that affected her Okrika people when she could have achieved better results and avoided undue controversy by engaging the governor privately? What did she achieve by sparking off recently the very distasteful debate about payment of salaries and retirement benefits to wives of presidents and governors, perhaps, for idling away or wallowing in countless frivolities during their husbands' tenure at our expense. The list is endless. From Bayelsa to Aso Rock, she has been trailed by overwhelming rumours of ethical problems, EFCC investigations, alleged cover-ups, high-handed treatment of public officers working under husband, excessive gallivanting, shopping sprees, wanton extravagance and the like!
Mrs. Jonathan With Mrs. Roli Uduaghan
Indeed, whenever Mrs. Jonathan returns to the country, she will do herself and her husband's political career a lot of good by grossly abridging her ubiquity and distancing herself from those friends who tell her that it is her own time to shine and dance in the open square and so should not “give a damn” about what any other person out there thinks or says about her preferences and preoccupations. Indeed, the less she is in the news, and the less controversies she stirs, the better for her husband's presidency. I wish her a sound health and her husband better luck.
*Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye is a Lagos-based Journalist, Writer and Anti-tobacco Advocate. [email protected]; www.ugowrite.blogspot.com