By Reuben Abati

Democracy is readily associated with freedom: the freedom to be free in many respects and increasingly in Nigeria, many of our compatriots, particularly persons in positions of privilege and authority confuse this with the right to be disagreeable. The sober truth is that democracy is about rights and responsibilities, a democratic dispensation therefore cannot be a licence for disagreeable conduct as a norm; just as the possession of power in any form does not guarantee the right to be reckless or to ignore the etiquette required of office holders. Anyone in the corridors of power, either by chance or right, or appointment, is expected to behave decorously.

Dame Patience Jonathan, as she is now referred to, our President’s wife, failed the test this week in Okrika, Rivers State. It is trite knowledge that there is a critical difference between Yenagoa and Abuja, and a world of difference between being the wife of a Deputy Governor/Governor/Vice president and being the wife of Nigeria’s No 1 citizen. When people suddenly find themselves in such latter position, prepared or unprepared, anywhere in the world, they are taken through a crash programme in finishing and poise and made to realize that being the wife of an important man comes with serious responsibilities lest they sabotage the same person that they should be supporting.

If Dame Patience went through such re-orientation, the course was incomplete. This week, we got a feedback drawn from her visit to Rivers state to launch her NGO – the Women for Change Initiative, when she ended up in Okrika, her home town. This homecoming became an egoistic show-off as she openly contradicted the state Governor, offering him unsolicited lessons on how to develop the Okrika water front and school system, in addition to pointed comments on the use of the English language. The Governor had reportedly insisted that his administration must demolish some houses which adjoin the schools in Okrika in order to create a proper learning environment. Dame Patience disagreed.

She then gave an unsolicited lecture on the land tenure system telling the Governor: “I want you to get me clear. I am from here. I know the problems of my people so I know what I am talking…” The Governor tried to explain his administration’s policy and the larger public interest. The Dame reportedly cut him short: “But what I am telling you is that you always say you must demolish; that word must you use is not good. It is by pleading. You appeal to the owners of the compound because they will not go into exile. Land is a serious issue.” Wao! “that word must..is not good.” We must all commit that to memory as we re-learn Practical English according to Patience Jonathan!

If it is in the place of the President’s wife to teach a state Governor how to run his state, it is definitely not in her place to veto a state policy (the reason the governor used the word “must”), not even her husband has such powers. It seemed as if Dame Patience Jonathan was determined to impress her kith and kin. She told them she had directed the governor not to demolish their houses. Then, she left straight for the airport obviously having overstayed her welcome and having behaved like a bad guest. She was scheduled to visit the prisons to grant amnesty to some inmates (is that really her duty or something that should be in her itinerary? ); she was also meant to commission some projects. The face-off between her and the governor put paid to all that.
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On the eve of her arrival, a group which calls itself “the Okrika Political Stakeholders Forum” and “the people of Kirikese” had actually placed an advert in the papers welcoming “our amiable daughter and sister…to Rivers state and your home town Okrika.” They also brought up the issue of “the land reclamation and shore protection project at Oba Ama, Okrika being undertaken by the Rivers state government.” (Daily Sun, August 23, 2010, p. 2). Either on the strength of this advertorial or private consultations, Dame Patience must have felt compelled to be a partisan stakeholder and intercessor. She needed to put Rotimi Amaechi, the state Governor in his place and that was what did. She recommended “pleading,” – that advice is actually meant for her. A state Governor is a duly elected official; and in a Federal system, he is not answerable to the President, and nowhere is the president granted the powers of a Headmaster over state governors. In Okrika, Dame Patience behaved so impatiently and spoke to Governor Amaechi as if he is on the staff of the Presidency. It may not be her fault though. Amaechi caused it all by bringing himself to such level by undertaking to debrief Dame Patience about his administration’s programmes and activities in the misguided hope of getting cheap political endorsement. He should have asked his wife to attend to her. On the issue of land, Dame Patience should be reminded that the Land Use Act, Section 1 thereof, says the state Governor holds the land in trust for the people. Land matters in the state are beyond the ken of the wife of the President!


The wife of the President of Nigeria, or a state Governor, or a local council chairman, is not a state official. The same applies to husbands if the gender is reversed. He or she is unknown to the constitution or the governance structure. Recent history has however made it a convention to have the spouses of persons in such positions under the guise of providing support, play some ceremonial roles. This has been routinely abused. Under the Jonathan presidency, Dame Patience Jonathan even got a special allocation in the original budget for the 2010 Golden jubilee anniversary whereas she has no official, financial reporting responsibilities! The international standard is that spouses in these circumstances must not only appear but be seen to be above board like Caesar’s wife. They must not misbehave like Marie Antoinette.

When Cherie Blair, wife of former British PM, Tony Blair started buying up houses, apartments and antique furniture, the public raised questions. It didn’t matter that she was a professional in her own right, a Queen’s Counsel with a traceable source of income. There were also questions about the scope of Hillary Clinton’s influence during her husband’s Presidency: Americans wanted to be sure that it was the man they elected that was in charge, not his wife. A couple of weeks ago, the American public was up in arms against Michelle Obama and her poll rating dropped drastically after a visit to Spain where she and her daughter reportedly stayed in a $7, 000 a night hotel.

Much earlier, Nancy Reagan was also the butt of public criticism, with people asking: who is she? And this is not a female thing. In Britain, Prince Phillip, the Queen’s husband, is constantly criticized for putting his foot in his mouth. He once said for example that “British women can’t cook.” He told a visiting Nigerian President, all dressed up in babariga (name withheld): “you look like you’re ready for bed.” During a state visit to China, he told British students: “if you stay much longer, you’all be slitty-eyed.” Prince Phillip’s supporters insist that he is honest, but the majority ask: how is the Queen coping with such a man who is perpetually saying something offensive? There may be persons who defend Dame Patience’s aggressive style, but some of us ask: how is the President coping?

Since Dr Jonathan assumed office, he and his wife have been practically on the road. The Dame has travelled from one state to the other, under the auspices of the Women for Change Initiative. In every state she tells the women to vote and “make sure your vote counts if you like my husband.” Is she now a partisan politician? The Jonathans must be told that Nigeria does not have a co-Presidency. We have only one president and his name is Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. And by the way, what does Dame Patience Jonathan do for a living? She obviously does not have to deal with the challenges of rotation and zoning in her home, unlike the three wives of the Adamawa Governor, Murtala Nyako for whom zoning and rotation have become topical subjects or the wives of South African President Jacob Zuma – that is why she can afford to be so meddlesome!

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When she misbehaves as she did in Okrika, she creates the impression that her husband is not in control of his own home. First ladies are prominent figures but their conduct is an eternal subject of public interest. In Nigeria, there was Victoria Gowon, there was also Ajoke Muhammed: dignified and restrained. There was Maryam Babangida – she was influential but no one could accuse her of verbal recklessness; Mrs Abdusalami Abubakar was a court judge, totally self-effacing, No major social party was complete without Mrs Stella Obasanjo, yet she controlled her tongue. Mrs Turai Yar’Adua was described as the power behind the throne and she proved that during the period of her husband’s illness but she was carefully reticent. At the state level, there was Remi Tinubu in Lagos state and Onari Duke in Cross River state who have both conducted themselves responsibly in and out of office. The new First Lady likes to travel, party, and talk outside the script. People are beginning to learn to read her lips in order to understand her husband. Dame Patience must not push her Goodluck.

-This piece was written by Dr.Reuben Abati in 2010.

If I wrote this and find myself in this situation today I will have no other option but to commit suicide if anyone pull this up.

Another article by the shameless doublespeak


The article is originally titled ‘Doing It The Chilean Way: Lessons For Nigeria’, written by Dr. Reuben Abati in October 2010.

COMING shortly after the disgraceful bomb blasts in Abuja that robbed Nigeria of glory on the occasion of its golden jubilee anniversary, Chile’s inspiring handling of the rescue of 33 miners, trapped since August 5 in the San Jose gold and copper mine, provides very useful lessons in national character, national solidarity, values and leadership that should be of interest to all Nigerians. The rescue operation was Chile’s finest moment of the year, nothing could be more memorable and moving than that moment shown on cable television all over the world when with the emergence of the 33rd miner, the Chileans broke out in song: their national anthem, and thereafter took to the streets of Santiago and Copiapo in jubilation. For them adversity had turned into triumph and history. When President Sebastian Pinera gushed: “we did it the Chilean way”, he underscored the sense of national pride and determination that defined the entire process. You know the worth of a nation by the way it treats its citizens in difficult circumstances.

The story of those 33 miners would have been different if they were Nigerians. They would have been left for dead or allowed to die. For almost 17 days, there was virtually no trace, no contact with the trapped miners. But the Chilean authorities kept searching and when they found traces of life, they set to work determined to rescue the miners. They spared no expense, nor effort. The initial projection was that it could take four months to get to the men, 2,041 feet below the earth surface, but it took 69 days and 8 hours. Even the rescue operation was completed earlier than scheduled in 22 hours 37 minutes. The entire will-power of a nation, the spirit of the people, helped to propel the rescue team to success.

In Nigeria, the accident would have been described as an “act of God.” The President would have gone on television to say that “this is the work of his enemies, an act of sabotage designed to bring his government to ridicule.” All the time that the Chileans spent thinking through the rescue process mobilizing international support, would have been wasted by Nigerians on unnecessary politicization of the incident. Our ever-ready army of opportunistic soothsayers, prophets and pastors would have come forward to claim that they had previously predicted that a serious calamity involving human lives would befall the nation. No serious effort would have been deployed towards rescue services. When a C-130 aircraft crashed in Ejigbo in 1992, many of the victims were alive for more than ten hours. They were left to die. In another plane crash, as the victims cried for help, other Nigerians looted the scattered luggage.

There was something in the Chilean incident about the value of human life: its sacredness. The government of Chile demonstrated that it values its citizens no matter how lowly placed. The Nigerian government may not worry itself sick about an incident involving only 33 persons out of 150 million. Our governments treat us as if we, the people are expendable. Chile is a small country of 17 million people but it stands tall on the scale of humanism. Two weeks after the Abuja bomb blasts, government still has no record of the victims, or the survivors or those who were traumatized by the incident and who may require further help. In the Niger Delta where we have had many cases of pipeline explosion and fires, the victims are often accused of inflicting the tragedy upon themselves. In cases of oil spillage which damage the ecology of the area, the blame is heaped on saboteurs, vandals and militants and the government is unconcerned about the associated tragedy.



In Chile, the devotion of the government in that moment of tragedy was instructive. As each miner was successfully rescued, medical teams were available to conduct tests and to take the person to a medical facility for further examination. The Chile mission was a multi-national rescue operation: American drillers, NASA officials, media crews from Asia, South Africa, Europe and the United States; different professionals were also involved: nurses, doctors, geologists, engineers, psychologist, counselors, physiotherapists, and so on. For the next six months, the government has promised to keep the men under observation. Mining accounts for 40% of Chile’s earnings, but the ordinary miner is a poor man (earns about $1, 600 per month); in Nigeria, working class people do not get such quality official attention as we saw in Chile.

President Sebastian Pinera was in charge. He and his wife stood by as the miners were being rescued. One of the miners was a Bolivian. The Bolivian President, Evo Morales travelled to Chile to show that Bolivia cares. In Nigeria, that one citizen would have been ignored: “what is he looking for in Chile, for God’s sake? – would have been the question on every lip. And if in an attempt to share out of the international limelight, the Nigerian President decides to go to Chile in solidarity with the Nigerian miner, he would as usual travel with the largest delegation imaginable with representatives from every clan and ethnic group; the cost of the travel alone would have been nearly double the entire expenditure of the Chilean government on the rescue operation! But that is if the President condescends to travel to Chile because of one Nigerian miner.

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During the Ikeja cantonment bomb blast in Lagos, President Obasanjo showed up at the venue of the tragedy which claimed hundreds of lives and the only word of comfort that he had for those who dared to ask him a few questions was: “I don’t have to be here!” It took the Bola Tinubu government to provide leadership at that critical moment, while Obasanjo waltzed away. Leadership is about duty. Pinera considered it his duty to stand up for the miners. So also Evo Morales. President Goodluck Jonathan visited the victims of the October 1 Abuja bomb blast in the hospital but after the photo-op that this provided, he and other Nigerian leaders began to play politics with the tragedy.

There has been no talk about political gain in Chile and neither the ruling party nor the opposition saw the accident as an opportunity to score political points. Character: the foreman was the last man to exit the mine, the first rescue worker to go down was the last to return. If it were in Nigeria, there would have been a fight over the order of exit.

We saw in Chile, national institutions that are capable and effective. The rescue capsule was built by the Chilean Navy. In many countries of the world, when there is a national emergency, the military are usually the first to step forward to help. The Nigerian Navy and the other armed forces are under-equipped. Our military officers are busy intimidating the public with their uniforms, chasing innocent citizens off the road with their sirens. Chile’s success rallied the people around the national flag. They could sense correctly that their country had won the respect of the world. All through, the white, blue and red Chilean flag was on display. The capsule was draped with it. On October 1, there was no excitement over the Nigerian flag.

And did anyone notice the discipline of the crowd at the rescue site? There was no riotous behaviour, no ethnic associations turning the event into a cheap popularity campaign, no sachet water sellers. There is ethnic diversity in Chile but this was not an issue. If it were in Nigeria, there would have been a distractive national argument over the rescue process. If the first man to be rescued was Hausa, other Nigerians would have protested that this is an extension of the politics of Northern domination. The Yoruba would have called for a National Conference! If there had been no Easterner among the first ten to be rescued, there would have shouts of marginalization and how Easterners are the best of the miners and should have been rescued first.

If no minority showed up early enough, minority groups would have called for a Constitutional Amendment to address the mischief of the majority ethnic groups always thinking that Nigeria belongs to them alone! There would have been demands for the application of the federal character principle even in the choice of drillers and engineers. The politics of ethnicity would have been so overwhelming; the world would again have been forced to ask: what is wrong with Nigeria? Not to forget the fact that in the course of the rescue, some of the foreign journalists could have been kidnapped; some of the officials will have their pockets picked!

Human tragedies which should unite us as a people, often divide us further in Nigeria. Chile, Pablo Neruda’s country, has just shown us that national character can be built through extra-ordinary moments in history. For Chile, the tragedy has been a call to action. Questions are being asked about safety and the mining industry. Top regulatory agency officials have been fired, 18 other mines have been shut down.

There are plans to convert the San Jose mine into a national monument, to be a symbol of hope for future generations. In Nigeria, we don’t teach history nor do we know how to preserve it; often we miss opportunities for progress. The change that we seek must begin at the level of national character, first by our learning to value human lives and working towards preserving the dignity of man in all ways through our institutions.

You ought to know the only singular reason why people vent against the government is because they feel deprived of the fact that nothing gets to them. When it does, they shutup. It is a clear indication that most of these people do not have an initial ideology that pushed them to do what they do other than anger for the govt.. if ruben abati had one and he saw that as a driving force, he would have rejected the job of a presidential spokesperson when it came in the first place.. op you would do the same too. Its very few individuals lets say 1 out of 10,000 who would.

It just goes to confirm all i keep saying all the time on this forum, poverty is nigeria's only problem..

Abati is a shameless rogue.

I no fit read all that

just summarize, whats the point?

FASTFORWARD TO 2014 AND HE'S ON GEJ's PAYROLL, THE STORY HAS CHANGED.
SO MUCH FOR HIS DOUBLE SPEAK.

A dishonourable hungry man who has been over fed is the case of Abati.