[quote][/quote]The First Lady syndrome
Last Updated on Monday, 06
August 2012 11:57 Written by
Dr. Jibrin Ibrahim,
jibrin.ibrahim172@gmail.com
Monday, 06 August 2012 00:00
In her acceptance speech after
being sworn in as a permanent
secretary in the Bayelsa State
civil service, Dame Patience
Jonathan made a passionate
appeal that First Ladies should
be given a constitutional role in
our political system. It might be
this lack of a constitutional role
that pushed her into seeking
promotion in the civil service.
The week of her swearing in
also provided the occasion for
the bitter conflict between her
and the previous occupant of
the position, Hajia Turai Yar’adua
over land allocation for their
“pet projects”.
Over the 25 years, the First Lady
phenomenon has created a
dynamic in which political space
is being appropriated and used
by the wives of the men in
power, for their personal
aggrandisement, rather than for
furthering the interests of
women and the wider society.
The First Lady syndrome is a
new international political
phenomenon that has been
traced to the 1992 World
Summit for the Economic
Advancement of Rural Women
hosted in Geneva at the
initiative of six First Ladies, three
of whom, Maryam Babangida,
Elizabeth Diouf and Suzanne
Moubarak, were Africans. For
the first time, wives of heads of
states sought to play an
autonomous and co-ordinated
role in international politics in
their capacities as wives. The
First Lady syndrome, however,
first hit the international
limelight in the 1995 Beijing
Conference when a large group
of First Ladies met in a context
of a major world event and
took the limelight. In Africa, the
First Ladies Summit was first
hosted in Yaoundé, Cameroon,
by Paul Biya’s wife, Chantal Biya,
during the 1996 OAU Summit.
The communiqué of the
meeting, which focused on
strategies to improve the lives
of rural women, was
incorporated into the official
communiqué of the OAU
meeting.
Nana Rawlings was the first
great African First Lady. During
her husband’s rule, she had no
official position in government
but was all the same playing a
major role in formulating and
even implementing policies
relating to women. The main
organisational structure that
Nana Rawlings developed was
the 31st December Women’s
Movement (DWM), named after
the second coming to power of
her husband in 1981. The DWM
was a huge organisation with
about 30 affiliate organisations
and claimed a membership of
over two million members
rooted in the countryside. Nana
Rawlings was able to
appropriate concerns that are
current in the international
development community about
the necessity of focusing on
rural and poor women.
While Ghana was the first African
country that gave institutional
prominence to the First Lady
syndrome, Nigeria is the country
where it has flourished the most.
The late Maryam Babangida was
the pioneer when her husband
became president and she
opened a First Lady office for
herself in the presidency and
became a prominent figure in
Nigeria’s public life. This would
be the first time that the wife of
a Nigerian head of state would
use her spousal position as a
basis to play a prominent role in
the nation’s public life.
In 1987, Mrs Babangida
launched the Better Life for
Rural Women Programme (BLP).
The wives of all senior state
officials were incorporated into
the organisation. The wives of
military governors in the states
became chairpersons of the
state BLP and wives of local
government chairpersons acted
likewise at their level. A lot of
state resources were unofficially
channelled to the BLP and
major fairs that got a lot of
publicity were organised. The
BLP claimed to have made a
major contribution to improving
the lot of rural women. The
claims include the organisation
of 10,000 co-operatives, 1,793
cottage industries, 2,397 farms,
470 women’s centres and 233
health centres. Most serious
observers are, however, of the
view that all these figures were
concocted and nothing tangible
happened.
In 1990, the National
Commission for Women (NCW)
was established as the official
state organ charged with
handling women’s issues. The
establishment of the NCW was
in fact first announced in
President Babangida’s message
to the launching of Maryam’s
biography, The Home Front, on
19th September 1988. Maryam
Babangida therefore must have
believed it was created for her.
When, however, the NCW under
the leadership of Professor
Bolanle Awe tried to establish
the organisation as an
autonomous body with full
competence in handling all
issues relating to women,
Maryam got very upset. Her
baby was trying to become a
rival organisation. She had
security officials arrest and
bundle out Professor Bolanle
Awe from NCW.
Dame Patience Jonathan and
Hajia Turai Yar’adua should
recall what happened
subsequently. To establish a
permanent place for herself in
history, Mrs Babangida obtained
public money through her
husband whom she used to
establish a huge edifice in Abuja
which she named the Maryam
Babangida Centre for Women
and Development. In 1992
when it appeared that they
might have to leave office soon,
Mrs Babangida applied to the
Corporate Affairs Commission to
register the Centre as a Trust,
with her and her son
Mohammed as Trustees for life.
The application was queried by
the Commission because they
had not gone through the due
process of advertising the Trust
in three national dailies and
obtaining a security clearance
(The News 25/7/94). The Centre
was registered as she had
wished anyway as a property of
MIB (Maryam Ibrahim
Babangida) Foundation.
In 1993, General Sani Abacha
took over power and his wife,
Mariam Abacha, became the
First Lady and occupied the
office established by her
predecessor. Her eldest
daughter, Zainab, then had the
brilliant idea of also opening her
office of the First Daughter in
the Presidency. Mariam Abacha
was sufficiently confident of her
powers to openly declare in a
BBC interview that although she
was not taking decisions herself,
ministers and even foreign
diplomats who are seeking for
an appointment to see her
husband come to see her and
she has the capacity to fix their
problems (Punch, 4/11/99). In
their “professional careers” as
wives of army officers, Mariam
Abacha had developed an
apparent rivalry with Maryam
Babangida. Having got her turn,
she set out to dismantle the
work of Mrs Babangida. The BLP
was dissolved and a “new”
similar organisation, the Family
Support Programme (FSP) was
established. A state instrument
to implement it, the Family
Economic Advancement
Programme, was also set in
motion and significant state
funds were devoted to it. State
officials were incorporated into
the structure, just as Maryam
Babangida had done. The
Maryam Babangida Centre for
Women and Development was
taken over by the state and
renamed the Women’s Centre.
Power is ephemeral. Maryam
Abacha for her own posterity
established the Maryam Abacha
Hospital for Women which was
also taken over and converted
into the National Hospital.
There is one positive narrative
of a Nigerian First Lady, Justice
Fati Abubakar, whose husband
was Head of State in the one-
year interregnum following the
death of Sani Abacha. General
Abdulsalam Abubakar’s wife, a
High Court judge, established
Women’s’ Rights Advancement
and Protection Alternative
(WRAPA). Unlike the two
previous First Ladies, she started
by formally registering the
organisation. She also refused
to use her husband’s position to
make state governors and
government departments
contribute to WRAPA’s purse or
acquire land allocation by
political fiat. WRAPA today is
generally recognised as one of
the most serious and most
effective non-governmental
organisations fighting for the
advancement of women’s human
rights in Nigeria.
The syndrome, however,
returned after Mrs Abubakar. On
24 June 2003, the late Stella
Obasanjo called the wives of
state governors to Abuja and
publicly declared that: “There is
only one First Lady in Nigeria.
Period.” (Africawoman no 4,
2003:1). She warned them in
front of television cameras that
there was only one First Lady in
the country and her name was
Stella Obasanjo. She directed
them to stop using the title First
Lady of their husband’s states
and revert to their proper title
of governor’s wives. As Turai
Yar’adua and Patience Jonathan
fight over the future legacies,
they should take time to reflect
on past legacies.

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Culled from www.dailytrust.com.ng/index.php/daily-columns/173641-the-first-lady-syndrome