The Catholic Church has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to scrap the office of first lady in the three tiers of government, saying the office was a conduit through which public funds were illegally wasted.



This was contained in a communiqué by the Catholic bishops of Ibadan Archdiocese and Ekiti, Ilorin, Ondo, Osun and Oyo dioceses.



The communiqué obtained by our correspondent on Wednesday, was signed by the Archbishop of Ibadan Diocese, Most Rev. Alaba Job, and the Bishop of Osogbo Diocese, Most Rev. Leke Abegunrin.



It said, “We implore President Jonathan to restore some credibility to the (anti-corruption) campaign by taking decisive measures to reduce corruption in the country.



“He will do well to scrap the unconstitutional “first lady office” through which money is wastefully and illegally allocated right from national to local government and ward levels.”



Jonathan’s wife, Patience, together with several wives of state governors and council chairmen utilise public funds in the running of their offices which are not recognised by the country’s constitution.



The clerics decried the deplorable state of public infrastructure across the country, hinting that several lives had been lost to bad roads, epileptic power supply and ill-equipped hospitals.



Buttressing the position of the clerics, a lawyer, Mr. Lanre Akintunde, said the disbursement of public funds for the running of the offices of first ladies showed a failure of the Nigerian state and an utter disdain for the constitution.



“It is absurd that elected public officers, right from the President to the least elected public officer, are always denigrating the Nigerian nation and her people through shocking disregard for the country’s laws,” Akintunde said.



The clerics urged Jonathan to review the huge remunerations accruable to public officers across the country, stressing that the situation was capable of aggravating violent crimes, fraud and insecurity.


http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201009021342646

Why is it that how people due to some selfish things they gain from politicians find it easy to say the truth.pls. tell me one thing any state or nigeria has gained from the office of first lady expect except just stealing our wealth under the disguise of motherless homes or blind homes.if they have such good will,why haven’t they had such NGOs or helping homes before becoming first lady after all they were all rich then.first ladies office should be scrapped.enough of people like turia.

These first Ladies are not celebrities - NGO my anus.

Patience Jonathan's attitude in Rivers State is costing her family a lot.I pray Nigerians to forgive her.Women are generally too emotional and sometimes act ignorantly.

the office of the 1st lady needs to scrapped!

[size=14pt]WAS THERE EVER AN OFFICE OF THE FIRST LADY ?  . I was under the impression it is an honorable post like a honorable Professorship  just to keep the spouse busy when oga is all over the place. The post over the years seem to have gained a life and a notoriety of its own courtesy of Mariam Babangida the first ever glamourous and over pampared first lady.[/size]

damn! i was beaten to it

there is so much smoke and mirrors about the much touted reforms by the prsident who has achiev more in three months than other achieved in three years

lets see the 'quiet one' develop some balls and scrap this albatross

more on the current occupant of this exalted office

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5565603-146/patience_we_are_watching.csp

Shortly after the general elections of 2007, an American organisation embarked on a capacity building initiative for the then Vice President-elect, Goodluck Jonathan. The programme comprised visits to some governmental institutions in the United States and short courses at some of the country’s leading universities. But there was a domestic snag for Mr. Jonathan, the freshly minted president of Nigeria.

Patience Faka Jonathan, his wife, desperately wanted to be on the trip. Consistently, she worried her husband to take her along on the trip, but the organisers said that was impossible as there was no provision for spouses during the trip. Yet, Mrs. Jonathan continued to worry her husband while using her mobile phone to monitor his movements. She was afraid, she admitted to one of Mr. Jonathan’s aides, of her husband and strange women.

“Madam, please don’t worry. We are only going for seminars; there are no women accompanying us on this trip,” an exasperated aide told Mrs. Jonathan. “ ,” she said loudly on the phone to the aide.

Exercising control

Aides and associates have reported how the new First Lady loves to be in control, how she has a strong personality, and how her husband defers to her on certain matters.

Of course, this is not strange, because contrary to popular belief, women really exercise greater power than their spouses in certain instances.

Just think of medieval wars that were fought to win women’s hearts, and how former American President, Bill Clinton, campaigned that, “for the price of one, you get two” meaning his wife, Hilary, will be an active participant in governance. The resultant failure in the inability to push the health care policy bill during that period has been attributed, in some quarters, to the meddlesomeness of Mrs. Clinton in her husband’s government.

In contemporary Nigeria, a popular thinking is that perhaps, the late Umaru Yar’Adua would have received greater sympathy if not that his wife hijacked him and screened off most people from having access to her him.

Words like ‘cabal’ became the order of the day, with Turai Yar’Adua giving orders, even to state officials. It was also said that she nominated people into her husband’s cabinet. Yet, the office of the First Lady is not recognised in the country’s Constitution. A careful look at the pictures of the movement of the late president’s body from Aso Rock, and the burial in Katsian, will show a woman whose face not only expressed grief, but bewilderment at a reality of life - death. Mrs. Yar’Adua seemed to be asking, “Is it really over?”

Beyond pillow talk

There have been reports that Mrs. Jonathan’s input into her husband’s cabinet goes beyond ‘pillow talk’, to her also nominating people into the cabinet. But we are watching. Nigerians will remember how in August 2006, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) agents seized N104 million from one Nancy Ebere Nwosu, said to be an associate of Mrs. Jonathan. On 22 August, 2006, Justice Anwuli Chikere, of the Federal High Court, gave the commission legal backing to retain the money pending the conclusion of investigation.

On 11 September of the same year, a whopping $13.5 million was seized from Patience Jonathan herself by the agency. The investigation into these two cases are still outstanding as at this moment. Furthermore, the Council on Foreign Relations, in a report on the April 2007 elections in Bayelsa State, said that Patience Jonathan was regarded as the “greediest person in Bayelsa State.”

It is up to the First Lady to prove them wrong. She is not a member of this government, but a wife to the head of government, and so must learn to maintain the dignity that goes with her new office.

It was good enough that her husband acknowledged her in his acceptance speech. But it will be best if she recognises her limits and be conscious of what is decent. Again, Nigerians are watching Patience Jonathan.

lies lies lies!!! shame on next newspapers!! they must have been hacked

lets see if the browbeaten president will do whats write - someone post this on his facebook wall, like his other oga(obj) he probably does not read the papers