To all Nigerians, Dame Patience Jonathan,
the wife of the president is so many things
put together in one person; her way of life
(not minding she’s the first lady), the way
she talks and many more will come across
to you as someone who would not take a
‘no’ for an answer.
In this new opinion piece, Olusola Fabiyi,
who writes for The Punch, recounts the
style brought to the political space of
Nigeria by the wife of President Goodluck
Jonathan, during the outgoing political
dispensation. He recounts how the first
lady gallivanted around during the pre-
election period, saying some very surprising
things that ought not to come out of a
president’s wife. Read the engaging opinion
below:
The wife of President Goodluck Jonathan,
Patience, was not a contestant for any political
office in the just concluded general election.
However, she was more prominent at the
various campaigns of her political party, the
Peoples Democratic Party, was involved in –
during the countdown to the polls.
Patience Jonathan
She was optimistic that her intervention in the
campaigns would save from defeat her
husband, who was the presidential candidate
of the PDP – and whose public rating had
plummeted.
Popularly referred to as ‘Mama Peace’ by
admirers, Patience was a delight to watch as
she danced to various songs by popular
musicians on magnificently decorated podiums
draped in the party ’s green-white-red flag
colours. And she had no patience when
lambasting the opposition All Progressives
Congress, which was at the receiving end of
her outbursts. Indeed, Patience poked direct
verbal attacks and innuendos at the
presidential candidate of the APC, Muhammadu
Buhari.
At a campaign rally organised in collaboration
with PDP women in Lokoja, Kogi State,
Patience appealed to her audience to vote en
masse for the PDP and her husband. She said
that Buhari’s brain is dead. Urged to speak
further by her supporters who shouted, “Mama
Peace, tell them,” she described Buhari as
unfit to govern Nigeria.
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The retired permanent secretary from Bayelsa
State, who is more at home with Pidgin English
than Standard English, said, “Wetin e dey find
again? E dey drag with im pikin mate,” in
Pidgin English. “Old man wey no get brain, him
brain don die pata pata.” Shaking her heads
with contentment because of the approval she
got from the cheering crowd, she further told
the crowd that their days of freedom were
numbered if they voted Buhari. “If you vote
Buhari, na your prison; if you vote APC, na
your wahala.” Taunting them about the
catchphrase of the APC which is “change,”
Patience said, “What is change? Why did you
not change things when you were there? Is it
now that you want to be doing the things you
weren’t doing before? “Jonathan looked at us
and said, ‘Women, I am giving you the position
of the Chief Justice of this country.’ Okonjo-
Iweala is a woman, Diezani is a woman. 70 per
cent of his cabinet is women. He also gave us
the opportunity to start enrolling for the
regular combatant course at the NDA (Nigerian
Defence Academy). He wants continuity
because he has vowed to do more. He places
Nigerians in his mind and if he says he will do
this, he will do it. So what are we looking for?
If we women of Nigeria don’t appreciate
Goodluck and we are looking for (a) bus
conductor? It is left for us.”
After appealing to voters to obtain their
Permanent Voter Cards in order to participate
in the election, she told them that she did not
come to them with empty hands after all. “I
thank you very much the people of Kogi. This
time around I came to thank you very well. I
brought some gifts for you, I brought rice, I
brought meat, I brought brocade. I brought
many things for you. These things are not for
election but to thank you very well.”
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Chief
In another rally in Calabar, Cross River State,
Patience said that anyone chanting “change”
should be stoned. “I’m telling you, anyone that
comes and tell(s) you change, stone that
person. What you did not do in ‘19 kikilili,’ is
it now that age has caught up with you that
you want to come and change? You can’t
change rather you will turn back to a baby.”
At the Akwa Ibom PDP women rally, Patience
took time to teach the women the meaning of
“corruption.” Her decision to speak on the
topic, it was gathered, was informed by the
APC’s anti-corruption campaign. In the
countdown to the presidential election,
especially, the Jonathan administration was
accused on many occasions of being weak to
wage war on corruption. But Patience said the
APC’s promise to fight corruption should be
discarded, describing it as a lie.
She said she was at the rally to say the truth.
In a peculiar voice, she said, “Akwa Ibom
people, judge o, because we are not here for
lies. We are not here for propaganda; because
their own number one campaign is (anti)
corruption. As if they are not corrupt. They
are not corrupt. What do you call corruption?
He has a house. You, are you living outside?
Are you living in the forest? It’s corruption. In
abroad, if a young boy works so hard and buy
(s) a copter, we praise the boy. But in Nigeria,
if a young boy works so hard and buy(s) a
copter, we say he’s corrupt. Why? Why can’t
we encourage the young ones to grow? Why
can’t we encourage them to do better? We, our
mother born us and train us, why they trained
us is that we should be better than them. Are
we to bring the young ones down? It’s not our
portion.”
In unison, the women shouted, “Amen!”
She urged the electorate in the state not to
throw away the opportunity of returning her
husband to power, saying that a bird in hand
is worth two in the bush. Besides, she warned
that the opposition was planning to build
prisons where she said criminals would to be
kept.
Buttressing her illustration with one of her
hands behind her, she said, “A bird at hand is
worth a million in the bush. Nigerian women,
let us shine our eyes. Women of Nigeria, are
you ready to go to prison? Are you ready to go
and give your father food in the prison? It is
not our portion. We reject it.
READ ALSO: Jonathan’s Failed Re-Election Bid:
Patience Dodges Public Functions
“Akwa Ibom State is a PDP state. It’s not for
expired drugs, because APC cannot heal you,
outdated drugs cannot heal you. Let them call
it any name. Just like as my husband younger
brother (Governor Godswill Akpabio) have (sic)
said, they will continue changing name until
they will reach (sic) Ebola. And they will call it
Ebola.
“You know what Ebola normally do? Although
Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has said Nigeria is not
Ebola country. So, they cannot bring Ebola to
Nigeria because Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan
and PDP government will wipe it off. And they
will bury it because it cannot stay here at all.
So, let them continue changing their name. If
they fail this time, because I know they have
failed, you will hear they will change their
name again. They will change it and answer
another name.”
Her many references to prison in the course of
her campaigns suggested that Patience dreaded
jail. At Ibadan, Patience stated that the APC
was planning to send her to prison. But in
order to avoid this, she invoked the ‘Holy
ghost fire’.
She said, “I want to warn you not to listen to
the APC. The APC does not have materials to
match what the PDP has on (the) ground. Their
candidate was there in governance initially.
What did he do? They only sent your fathers to
prison. They are planning to even send me to
prison. Holy ghost fire! Holy ghost fire! Holy
ghost fire! They have nothing to offer.”
As she prepares to vacate Aso Rock with her
husband on May 29, Nigerians will still recall
how she burst into tears when she realised that
Hajiya Nana Shettima, the wife of Borno State
Governor, was absent at a second enlarged
stakeholders’ meeting on the abducted
schoolgirls. The President’s wife burst into
tears after she took a roll call and discovered
that the governor’s wife and the other people
she invited refused to honour her invitation.
Before she shed tears, she said repeatedly,
“There is God in everything we are doing. There
is God in everything we are doing. Those
bloods that are sharing in Borno will answer.
God will answer. What of two teachers that can
tell us that they conducted that exam, do you
come with any, Principal? No, too? Na only
you waka come? Chai, chai, there’s God, there
is God , there is God!’’ And Patience wept.
The wife of the President had summoned the
governor’s wife, officials of the West African
Examination Council, security chiefs and other
government officials to her ‘office’ to seek
clarification on the conflicting issues about the
exact number of the missing schoolgirls from
Chibok. She was, however, astonished that the
majority of the officials refused to turn up.
This action infuriated her. She didn’t hide her
displeasure as she said in anger, “I asked her
to come with the principal and parents: she
did not turn up till today. She is the mother of
these children, I am their grandmother. She
should be more concerned and come to her
grandma. The police, Army, WAEC, government
officials came with a few of their own but no
parent was present to tell us their child was
kidnapped or among those who escaped. It is
because we are pained and crying, that is why
I am doing so. Why should I cry more than the
bereaved?”
PDP women leaders such as Amina, the wife of
Vice-President Namadi Sambo; Helen, the wife
of the Senate President, David Mark; and PDP
national women leader, Kema Chikwe, among
several others, will miss the enthusiasm and
fun Patience brings to politicking.
Even her fellow African ‘First Ladies’ are
getting set to bid her goodbye as she prepares
to quit her position as the President of the
African Ladies Peace Mission.
Nigerians are patiently waiting to see if her
successor, Aishat Buhari, would surpass the
records set by the Rivers-born politician.

this thing long oooo

.

*Coughs*
I no read am but lemme not drop any comment

My mama peace is A real politician,,she always wins the battles that confronts her

At first I was filled with displeasure for her utterances but as I read on I couldn't help but laugh.

She over stepped her boundaries but I won't totally blame her for her husband's defeat, she contributed like 2-5%

Aisha Buhari will be on the quiet side. I don't think her husband nor his party will allow her exercise that kind of freedom mama peace exercised.

dmandy:
this thing long oooo

that is how her foolishness long.

She is a disgrace to the office of the first lady, she's a disgrace to the federal republic of Nigeria. We need a beautiful, charming, and vibrant first Lady like Aisha Buhari. Thank God our prayer have been answer!

“Wetin e dey find again? E dey drag with im pikin mate, old man wey no get brain, him brain don die pata pata.”

Was she really high when she uttered these words? Very very crude and uncouth!

She inadvertently caused her husband to lose with her bickerings.