In
the course of the past five years, Dame Patience Jonathan has
transformed from the unheard, supporting wife of a former
vice-president, into possibly the most talked about wife of any Nigerian
leader in history. You may like her, or dislike her, but it has become
impossible to ignore this Okrika, Rivers State born “mother of the
nation.”
In some sense, I admire Mama Peace. To begin with, I
find her to be a woman who is at home in her own skin. There are no
pretences about Mama Peace as her admirers call her. But for the heavy,
expensive organza laces and jewellery that may have come into her
wardrobe, I am tempted to assume that not much has changed about this
woman since her husband became President five years ago.
When
you accuse her of deficiency in the accurate usage of the English
language, she joins Afro Juju maestro, Sir Shina Peters, in reminding
you that “grammar no be money, grammar no be success… grammar no be my
language.” She speaks what comes to her mind, when it comes and how it
comes, not minding the headache that grammarians could suffer from her
generous verbiage. The First Lady talks her walk and walks her talk,
without regard to whose ox is gored.
Devoid of the hypocrisy of
Intellectualism which makes a lot of us pretend, Mrs Jonathan soldiers
on, unperturbed, not discouraged, not allowing the ball to drop in spite
of how much we have ridiculed and mocked her. She seems to have
concluded in her mind that the joke is on the majority of us, as she
goes on proving to us to be a better mobiliser of men than the husband
on whose ticket she has the privilege of our attention.
A
corollary to this down-to-earth nature is the power that the Dame
wields. Now, I do not mean power over her husband, although that would
not be far-fetched, after all every woman has a measure of leverage over
her spouse. But I will return to that issue in a bit.
So this
lady is powerful. While lovers of sophisticated speech grumble and
complain about how she brings ridicule to them and the country that they
love, the Dame is busy at ministering to those who hear her, to a
constituency too glad to see a president’s wife who is able to come down
to their level, sing their songs and dance to their type of music. As a
result, this First Lady has formed a band of loyalists who understands
her language and would do anything to ensure that the woman who
communicates with them retains office for another four years by electing
her husband when the time comes.
Of course, it is easy to
dismiss this theory as the ranting of a naïve writer, but truth be told,
within the seemingly endless banality of the offerings of the
President’s wife, hides a formidable communication tool, which resonates
with the ordinary woman, the woman who represents those who go to the
voting field while we are pontificating in our living rooms on the
utopian state that we desire.
But with the benefit of hindsight,
Nigerians’ disgust and impatience with First Ladies did not start
today. Since the late Mrs. Maryam Babangida gave life to the position in
the late 1980s, there has been one reason or the other to get at every
incumbent President’s wife.
For example, people felt that Maryam
Babangida controlled her husband, in addition to being too flamboyant.
Mrs Mariam Abacha was disparaged for being the power being the throne.
Justice Fati Abubakar escaped public scrutiny because she kept herself
busy in the courts without much time to court at the Aso Rock Villa.
The
late Mrs Stella Obasanjo was too flamboyant and overbearing, some will
say, for the appetite of many of us while Hajia Turai Yar’Adua
controlled not just her husband but was alleged to have held the nation
to ransom during her husband’s illness and eventual transition. And now,
Patience Jonathan! In essence, no Nigerian First Lady has passed
through that duty without one infraction or the other being held against
her at least during the pendency of the office.
Although we
make the perceived excesses of First Ladies appear exclusively Nigerian,
this is not necessarily so. For decades, wives of American presidents
have displayed a variety of these traits that upset us.
For
instance, it is said that former President Bill Clinton would possibly
have never made it to office but for his wife, Hillary, who had
predicted 20 years earlier that her husband would one day rule America
and then helped work his way up to it.
When her husband
eventually became president, Mrs Clinton directed state policy and was
put on the head of the Task Force on National Health Care reform even as
she espoused a number of key legislation. She was the first president’s
wife who operated from the West Wing instead of the customary East
Wing. She also went on to contribute substantially to some foreign
policy thrusts of the US including the appointment of Madeleine Albright
as the first female Secretary of State.
But American first
ladies started the gradual process of holding their own years before
Hillary Clinton. Sarah Polk who was First Lady from 1845 to 1849 was
said to have assisted her husband with his speeches, gave him advice on
policy matters and played an active role in his campaign even as she
reached across party lines. Edith Wilson who is cheekily referred to by
some people as America’s first female president was reputed to have
taken control of states’ affairs, deciding what came to the notice of
her husband and what did not when Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke in
1919.
Eleanor Roosevelt was the first spouse of a president to
hold press conferences, write a syndicated newspaper column, and speak
at a national convention.
On her part, Rosalyn Carter sat on the
cabinet and policy meetings and was one of her husband, Jimmy Carter’s
closest advisers. She was even named as an envoy at some point!
Laura
Bush was noted to have broached controversial issues like gay marriage,
stem cell research and abortion. She was also in the forefront of the
fight for the enforcement of the rights of women in Afghanistan among
others.
From the American experience therefore, it is obvious
that the sphere of influence of each First Lady is related to the value
that the husband places on her. And that brings me to the question of
what value President Jonathan places on his wife.
Unlike current
American First Lady, Michelle Obama, who is a fashion icon in addition
to her work on healthy eating and kid exercising, Patience in spite of
her expensive wardrobe has not made any remark fashion statement neither
has she made much out of her peace for Africa initiative.
And
as preparations for the next elections heat up, it is obvious that
President Jonathan desires to put his wife’s political mobliisation
skills to use. And I do not see anything conventionally wrong with this
as it is allowed even in the best of democratic traditions. Some
political historians in the United States indeed agree that “a spouse
can make an impassioned and defensive attack on a political rival or the
media with less controversy because it is seen as the emotional
prerogative of a spouse to do so” Something that the Jonathans or their
handlers may have studied.
However, a First Lady who wants the
respect and seeks the survival of a country must gauge her speech and
work towards protecting the values of that society. Lately, Nigeria’s
First Lady has thrown caution to the winds on more than one occasion.
She has uttered statements that have at different times seemed to
suggest violence, denigrated other parts of the country and directly
insulted the person of her husband’s main rival in the forthcoming
election.
It is alright for Mrs. Jonathan to work for the return
of her husband to office, there is however the need for more tact and
decorum in her outings. No matter how tough the campaigns get, there are
things that must not be heard from either the President or his wife as
they will send negative signals to supporters on either side. It is time
for the man and lady of the moment to apply some caution for their own
sake and the sake of the nation.
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