Reference:

The poverty we have in Nigeria is not one of bread and butter but of ideas and sincerity. If that bag of rice will bring about change I think she should take one home and share some with members of her husband cabinet, probably lift it up to God and multiply it to feed the entire nation. Maybe some bags will turn to cement and bitumen to patch the roads and build schools. Maybe some will turn to school tables and text books. Perhaps some will turn to bandages and drugs while others form transformers and electric poles. I would like some rice to turn to privatised enterprises and a few grains to handcuffs,  ah noooo it may just clasp my wrists. Hmmmm, your Excellencess (permit me), when people are starved for long emergency responders do not rush food, they carefully administer fluids first or the dying will die. Nigerians do not need charity, we need justice, equity and opportunity. We are enterprising enough to create wealth. You give us 2,000 bags of rice and spend billions on waste. You really need to eat some for deliverance.

Thank you my brother. Beaf is again at it, struggling to defend the indefensible. How many bags of rice did Dame buy when she was the first lady of Bayelsa? For those of you who may not know, based on current prices, each bag of rice is perhaps above 10K Naira. Adding Dame Patient's commission as government contractor it'll probably be about 12k per bag at the least. For 2 million bags, the current Nigerian government has just thrown roughly 24 billion Naira down the drains. These days GEJ, his family and cronies are busy shelling out Billions of Naira in the name of winning an election. Just last week it was 1 billion for garbage bins and now this!

By the time this guy becomes president, the treasury of the federation would have been emptied and then he'll take us down the same path OBJ claimed he delivered us from: DEBT, DEBT and DBET for generations yet unborn!

Where did she get the money from? She is a bloody Thief, no different from Iboiri. I don tire for all of them. Anyone who defends this can not have the interest of Nigeria at heart

http://www.pointblanknews.com/News/os3962.html

First Lady Patience Jonathan visits Stone Barns Center with Mrs Obama; advocates for sustainable food system in Nigeria

First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan commended the management of the center for the effort to create a healthy and sustainable food system.

She noted that the activities at the Stone Barns Center could be an eye opener for Nigeria in its quest for better ways of growing food.

this must be her implementation of a sustainable food system, throw rice to the serfs every other fortnight

fresh air indeed

just as you find a lot of nairalanders who support obvious crimes of morals and wrong-doing just because in their biased state of mind, you will also find millions of Nigerians who cannot recognize that GEJ like every president Nigeria has ever borne is not a honest man. we can cry all we want , grab all the bags of rice and cabin biskit, sell our votes it will not stop the inevitable, Nigeria will continue to go down the gutters of lost hope and 150 million impoverished minds  

was in abuja today

actually,

i'm still in abuja at the airport hoping this fecking air nigeria which was scheduled for 7.25 pm will come through so i don't have to spend october 1 in this town of sycophants with all these bloody nigeria at 50 and fresh air billboards everywhere

oyb:

was in abuja today

actually,

i'm still in abuja at the airport hoping this fecking air nigeria which was scheduled for 7.25 pm will come through so i don't have to spend october 1 in this town of sycophants with all these bloody nigeria at 50 and fresh air billboards everywhere

I feel your pain dude, the stench of avarice all around you must be puke inducing.

@ Topic, I'm not surprised that there are people here who view this show of shame by Dame the Dumb as simply some kind of poorly planned good gesture, if we don't have folks who think like that in Nigeria, we won't have clueless politicians like Goodluck and IBB talking down on us.

So go figure!

Kilode?!:

I feel your pain dude, the stench of avarice all around you must be puke inducing.

@ Topic, I'm not surprised that there are people here who view this show of shame by Dame the Dumb as simply some kind of poorly planned good gesture, if we don't have folks who think like that in Nigeria, we won't have clueless politicians like Goodluck and IBB talking down on us.

So go figure!

my flight into abj this morning was full of musicians prolly enroute to perform naija at 50; gej the new wind

wande coal, zakky, the prince or some such

bunch of lapdog prostit-utes - just like all those yoruba musicians who endorsed abacha back in the day

This lady is the number 3 person in this admnisration
According to the Government tab of the website nigeria.gov.ng
Infact, she is defacto number 2
We know she has unsual control over her husband
He specifically mentioned her the day he became president
This is ordinarily an ok gesture but in view of this woman's antecedents, we know that she is not ordinary
http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/sonala-olumhense/patience-jonathan-nigerias-most-powerful-woman.html

VOTE OUT PDP people!!

Noble cause. . . . .bad intentions. . . . . . . . .Poor ideas!

oyb:

my flight into abj this morning was full of musicians prolly enroute to perform naija at 50; gej the new wind

wande coal, zakky, the prince or some such

bunch of lapdog prostit-utes - just like all those yoruba musicians who endorsed abacha back in the day

SMH, O ma se o, Anyway, what was I expecting?

Shameful celebration of 50 years of Shambolic leadership.

You can Imagine IBB now speaking against a centralized Government, OBJ singing about popular protest against public waste, he even tried to give federal character a new image(after all it's not like Zoning ) mind you, he hates regional politics o, but sharing position based on federal region is fine.

I laugh in Jukun.

Bro, Tell Abuja we said hello, I hope you have some Fela songs on your Phone or something, it will help clear the mess a bit  

mystikal:

Noble cause. . . . .bad intentions. . . . . . . . .Poor ideas!

What noble cause
To bribe some people in Abuja

Ok what about the macabre dance that the harliburton case has turned to
people charged to court, but they were not notified and so did not show up
Judge is saying prosecution is far from diligent
and now they are making side deals
Julius Berger is free
http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5625387-146/government_withdraws_charges_against_berger_in.csp

I pity  my disillusioned, disoriented  and impoverished people. Get free bags of rice now and pay later with seven years of starvation. Ignorance is a very bad disease. By the way, whose money is used to buy the rice? Alaaru to nje buredi, awo ori e lo nje ti o mo . Shior to the benefactor and the beneficiaries.

Today my workmates from different nationalities at the office made me an object of ridicule after one of them exposed this shame! Can u imagine after we the Nigerians in UK have spent months rebuilding the image of the country and glorifying the new GEJ government.

I had to agree our first lady and her administration are a bunch of illiterate retards and our people are as cheap as chips
sorry

Michelle obama must be thinking - so this is the overmade up woman with bad english i had to take a picture with gets up to back where she rules

Patience Jonathan: Nigeria’s Most Powerful Woman
Sonala Olumhense

On September 11, 2006, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) seized $13.5 million dollars (US) from Mrs. Patience Jonathan, the wife of then Governor of Bayelsa State, Mr. Goodluck Jonathan. 

The International Herald Tribune quoted the EFCC spokesman, Mr. Osita Nwajah, as saying that the seizure was made after Mrs. Jonathan had allegedly laundered the money through an associate.

It was the second time in one month Mrs. Jonathan was hitting the scandal headlines.  In August, the EFCC had obtained a court order to temporarily freeze N104 million she had allegedly tried to launder through one Mrs. Nancy Ebere Nwosu.  The EFCC said it had reason to believe the seized funds belonged to the public.  In a sworn statement, Mrs. Nwosu implicated Patience Jonathan, the EFCC said.

But remember, her husband was the Bayelsa State Governor at the time.  And Mr. Jonathan’s government dashed to the defence of the First Lady of Bayelsa, alleging that the reports were part of a “plot to destabilize” the state.  Government spokesmen were falling over each other to speak for Mrs. Jonathan.  The Governor’s spokesman, Dennis Sami, described the allegations as a “charade,” the target of which the Governor.

“We are aware that the said Nancy Ebere Nwosu is a very remote relation of Her Excellency who has lived abroad for several years,” Mr. Sami said.  “She is a successful businesswoman of no little means whose business concerns do not involve Mrs. Jonathan.”

Mrs. Jonathan’s spokesman, Kenneth Ekpelu, fired an e-mail to Vanguard newspaper in which she spoke of “her husband’s opponents who strangely perceive her as the soft spot in his political armour and won’t stop hammering away at her until their decisions to oust him from office are met.”

It is funny how these canned money-laundering defenses sound alike.  Didn’t  President Olusegun Obasanjo’s United States lawyer, Mr. Kunle Fagbenle, say last November that Andy Uba—who used part of some funds laundered by means of the executive jet (allegedly without Obasanjo’s permission) to shop for Obasanjo’s farms—could not be accused of money-laundering because Mr. Uba was “already a rich man”?  And did not Obasanjo say the Uba scandal was only a “calculated attempt” to ruin his name?]

Anyhow, despite the massive protestations of Governor Jonathan, the EFCC pressed ahead.  On August 22, 2006, Justice Anwuli Chikere of the Federal High Court, Abuja authorized the freezing of the N104 million “pending the conclusion of the investigation of the activities of the said persons in connection with their involvement in the acts of money laundering and other economic and financial crimes related offences.”

And then, barely three weeks later, Mrs. Jonathan was in the news again, reportedly being separated from an astounding $13.5 million in US dollars.  She must have been one angry woman.  But all that was one year ago.

Since then, the Jonathans have moved up in the world.  They have left the relative squalor and poverty of a mere state governorship for the Vice-President’s estate.  They have left the petty limitations of Bayelsa for the limitless expanse of Abuja.  Only one man now speaks before Mr. Jonathan does.

Yes, Mr. Jonathan is the Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the second most powerful man in the country.  He is also the man President Yar’Adua is trusting with the challenge of the Niger Delta, where billions of dollars are expected to be spent over the next few years.

He has also been talking about democracy, corruption, the rule of law, and development.  Just over a week ago, at the All-Delta Peoples Conference in the United States, Mr. Jonathan disclosed that President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua had authorised the release of all funds due the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). In addition, “Special funds will be provided for special projects in line with the master plan,” he said.

And Mrs. Jonathan has been speaking too, telling Nigerian women how they can become more fulfilled citizens.  Up in the rarefied air of federal authority, you can preach any sermon, even while you have around your neck diamonds and jewels of $13.5 million, and gold bracelets of N104million.

This is all quite ironic.  The Jonathans are living in a dream state.  They moved into the governorship in Bayelsa when Dipreye Alameiseigha was consumed in a corruption blaze, and into the vice-presidency when the PDP sought someone to balance Umaru Yar’Adua on the PDP presidential ticket.

But they take quite a few scandals with them.  Mr. Jonathan left Bayelsa State in a thick cloud of suspicion.  Many Bayelsans believed his government had fleeced the treasury.  While Mr. Jonathan said upon assumption of office he had inherited a state treasury N25billion thick, he refused to say what was left there as he vacated office.  Bayelsans alleged he had swept the commonwealth clean, and that most public projects were left uncompleted.

Two months after he assumed the vice-presidency, Mr. Jonathan came under severe national pressure to follow the lead of his boss and make his assets declaration public.  It took several nerve-wracking weeks of trying to dodge the responsibility, but he finally released the document, which showed the former university lecturer was worth an absolutely unbelievable N295 million.  He had only been the Governor for 17 months, and this means he had been growing richer at the rate of close to N17 million per month.  Naturally, wink-wink, he did not include his wife in his declaration.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Jonathan…

In its report of last April’s election, the New York based Council on Foreign Relations observed that Patience Jonathan was generally regarded as the “greediest person in Bayelsa State” and a woman of great cruelty. Last June, the Niger Development Monitoring and Corporate Watch (NIDDEMCOW), a local non-governmental organization, asked the EFCC to publish its report on Mrs. Jonathan.

The EFCC has not.  This is not particularly strange; the Commission is not in the habit of issuing such reports.  But nothing has been heard from the Commission since the flurry of activities of August and September last year.  That coincides with the period before Mr. Jonathan emerged Yar’Adua’s running mate.

Apparently, even scandals of that magnitude are no obstacle in Nigeria.  Mr. Jonathan got the vice-presidency, and the only man he is answerable to is about to put into his hands, theoretically for the Niger Delta, all the diamonds and gold a man could want.

And his wife?  Patience Jonathan apparently hates that kind of snail pace to fortune.  Indicted by the EFCC in only eight months as First Lady on a charge of laundering a few Naira bills, she moved to dollar bills in the millions the following month.  That same month, the EFCC report to the Senate called her by name.

Again, this does not seem to matter in Nigeria: weeks later, in October, the Owu Kingdom, President Obasanjo's people, honored the Jonathans with chieftaincy titles.  In that culture, Obasanjo is the Balogun of Owu; Mr. Jonathan became the Obateru.

If Mrs. Jonathan must was thrilled on that day, she must be over the moon today.  An EFCC indictment, and yet she can get on any of our presidential jets at any time and drink champagne at State functions.

And how much taller she must be, these days as she stands on the authority of the vice-presidency!  From such heights, not only do you dwarf an EFCC, are invisible.  What a country!

What I really fail to understand is: If Mrs. Jonathan can so effectively laugh at the so-called war on corruption, does that not make her the First Lady?  On what basis does she perform her functions – the recommendations of the EFCC?  Why has Mrs. Jonathan assumed the status of untouchable, or is she truly the nation’s most powerful woman?


thieving womann!!!! shezz nt d first nd by Gods grace she would be d lastt

Beaf:

The discussion is now farcical. Juju ke?!
Please lets keep it mature. Next thing, we'll hear that Uncle Joe's cap na jass!

Haha. Deny the presence of juju in Nigerian politics and you will be denying the fact that the pope is a catholic. In other words, Nigerian politics = Juju riden. The deaths witnessed in patience's rice gallore is another evidence. Beat it NL campaign cordinator!

janus05:

Haha. Deny the presence of juju in Nigerian politics and you will be denying the fact that the pope is a catholic. In other words, Nigerian politics = Juju riden. The deaths witnessed in patience's rice gallore is another evidence. Beat it NL campaign cordinator!

Na wa o!
This is really funny to me. Do you really think juju can win elections?

Beaf:

Na wa o!
This is really funny to me. Do you really think juju can win elections?

If Juju can kill, what is winning elections?

youngmonie:

Patience Jonathan: Nigeria’s Most Powerful Woman
Sonala Olumhense

On September 11, 2006, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) seized $13.5 million dollars (US) from Mrs. Patience Jonathan, the wife of then Governor of Bayelsa State, Mr. Goodluck Jonathan. 

The International Herald Tribune quoted the EFCC spokesman, Mr. Osita Nwajah, as saying that the seizure was made after Mrs. Jonathan had allegedly laundered the money through an associate.

It was the second time in one month Mrs. Jonathan was hitting the scandal headlines.  In August, the EFCC had obtained a court order to temporarily freeze N104 million she had allegedly tried to launder through one Mrs. Nancy Ebere Nwosu.  The EFCC said it had reason to believe the seized funds belonged to the public.  In a sworn statement, Mrs. Nwosu implicated Patience Jonathan, the EFCC said.

But remember, her husband was the Bayelsa State Governor at the time.  And Mr. Jonathan’s government dashed to the defence of the First Lady of Bayelsa, alleging that the reports were part of a “plot to destabilize” the state.  Government spokesmen were falling over each other to speak for Mrs. Jonathan.  The Governor’s spokesman, Dennis Sami, described the allegations as a “charade,” the target of which the Governor.

“We are aware that the said Nancy Ebere Nwosu is a very remote relation of Her Excellency who has lived abroad for several years,” Mr. Sami said.  “She is a successful businesswoman of no little means whose business concerns do not involve Mrs. Jonathan.”

Mrs. Jonathan’s spokesman, Kenneth Ekpelu, fired an e-mail to Vanguard newspaper in which she spoke of “her husband’s opponents who strangely perceive her as the soft spot in his political armour and won’t stop hammering away at her until their decisions to oust him from office are met.”

It is funny how these canned money-laundering defenses sound alike.  Didn’t  President Olusegun Obasanjo’s United States lawyer, Mr. Kunle Fagbenle, say last November that Andy Uba—who used part of some funds laundered by means of the executive jet (allegedly without Obasanjo’s permission) to shop for Obasanjo’s farms—could not be accused of money-laundering because Mr. Uba was “already a rich man”?  And did not Obasanjo say the Uba scandal was only a “calculated attempt” to ruin his name?]

Anyhow, despite the massive protestations of Governor Jonathan, the EFCC pressed ahead.  On August 22, 2006, Justice Anwuli Chikere of the Federal High Court, Abuja authorized the freezing of the N104 million “pending the conclusion of the investigation of the activities of the said persons in connection with their involvement in the acts of money laundering and other economic and financial crimes related offences.”

And then, barely three weeks later, Mrs. Jonathan was in the news again, reportedly being separated from an astounding $13.5 million in US dollars.  She must have been one angry woman.  But all that was one year ago.

Since then, the Jonathans have moved up in the world.  They have left the relative squalor and poverty of a mere state governorship for the Vice-President’s estate.  They have left the petty limitations of Bayelsa for the limitless expanse of Abuja.  Only one man now speaks before Mr. Jonathan does.

Yes, Mr. Jonathan is the Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the second most powerful man in the country.  He is also the man President Yar’Adua is trusting with the challenge of the Niger Delta, where billions of dollars are expected to be spent over the next few years.

He has also been talking about democracy, corruption, the rule of law, and development.  Just over a week ago, at the All-Delta Peoples Conference in the United States, Mr. Jonathan disclosed that President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua had authorised the release of all funds due the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). In addition, “Special funds will be provided for special projects in line with the master plan,” he said.

And Mrs. Jonathan has been speaking too, telling Nigerian women how they can become more fulfilled citizens.  Up in the rarefied air of federal authority, you can preach any sermon, even while you have around your neck diamonds and jewels of $13.5 million, and gold bracelets of N104million.

This is all quite ironic.  The Jonathans are living in a dream state.  They moved into the governorship in Bayelsa when Dipreye Alameiseigha was consumed in a corruption blaze, and into the vice-presidency when the PDP sought someone to balance Umaru Yar’Adua on the PDP presidential ticket.

But they take quite a few scandals with them.  Mr. Jonathan left Bayelsa State in a thick cloud of suspicion.  Many Bayelsans believed his government had fleeced the treasury.  While Mr. Jonathan said upon assumption of office he had inherited a state treasury N25billion thick, he refused to say what was left there as he vacated office.  Bayelsans alleged he had swept the commonwealth clean, and that most public projects were left uncompleted.

Two months after he assumed the vice-presidency, Mr. Jonathan came under severe national pressure to follow the lead of his boss and make his assets declaration public.  It took several nerve-wracking weeks of trying to dodge the responsibility, but he finally released the document, which showed the former university lecturer was worth an absolutely unbelievable N295 million.  He had only been the Governor for 17 months, and this means he had been growing richer at the rate of close to N17 million per month.  Naturally, wink-wink, he did not include his wife in his declaration.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Jonathan…

In its report of last April’s election, the New York based Council on Foreign Relations observed that Patience Jonathan was generally regarded as the “greediest person in Bayelsa State” and a woman of great cruelty. Last June, the Niger Development Monitoring and Corporate Watch (NIDDEMCOW), a local non-governmental organization, asked the EFCC to publish its report on Mrs. Jonathan.

The EFCC has not.  This is not particularly strange; the Commission is not in the habit of issuing such reports.  But nothing has been heard from the Commission since the flurry of activities of August and September last year.  That coincides with the period before Mr. Jonathan emerged Yar’Adua’s running mate.

Apparently, even scandals of that magnitude are no obstacle in Nigeria.  Mr. Jonathan got the vice-presidency, and the only man he is answerable to is about to put into his hands, theoretically for the Niger Delta, all the diamonds and gold a man could want.

And his wife?  Patience Jonathan apparently hates that kind of snail pace to fortune.  Indicted by the EFCC in only eight months as First Lady on a charge of laundering a few Naira bills, she moved to dollar bills in the millions the following month.  That same month, the EFCC report to the Senate called her by name.

Again, this does not seem to matter in Nigeria: weeks later, in October, the Owu Kingdom, President Obasanjo's people, honored the Jonathans with chieftaincy titles.  In that culture, Obasanjo is the Balogun of Owu; Mr. Jonathan became the Obateru.

If Mrs. Jonathan must was thrilled on that day, she must be over the moon today.  An EFCC indictment, and yet she can get on any of our presidential jets at any time and drink champagne at State functions.

And how much taller she must be, these days as she stands on the authority of the vice-presidency!  From such heights, not only do you dwarf an EFCC, are invisible.  What a country!

What I really fail to understand is: If Mrs. Jonathan can so effectively laugh at the so-called war on corruption, does that not make her the First Lady?  On what basis does she perform her functions – the recommendations of the EFCC?  Why has Mrs. Jonathan assumed the status of untouchable, or is she truly the nation’s most powerful woman?

WOW

At N150 per dollar, $13.5 M will be:

[size=15pt]$13.5 x 150 = N2,025,000,000[/size] plus the N104 Million. What is she doing with these money?

jabbok:

At N150 per dollar, $13.5 M will be:

[size=15pt]$13.5 x 150 = N2,025,000,000[/size] plus the N104 Million. What is she doing with these money?

that's the way of nigerian politicians (and their family) for you.

in black n white

as it happened @ Patience's rice sharing gallore

THIS is why we are not moving forward.

What long term positive impact will a bag of rice have on the absolute poverty and poor standard of living that majority of the population are

subjected to. the money would have been better spent on creating more jobs and providing/improving basic amenities. . . . .talk about misplaced priority and lack

of long term focus.

I have read severally on this Nairaland that food is the priority of people - buy food and distribute to the poor - so many topics says these. But now, people have twisted their mouth to the other side and they are using it to sing a new song - food is not the issue - hmm - people.

Stop been parochial beaf
If the number been purported is anything to go by then well over 10 billion naira has gone down the drain. Have you ever considered that such an amount is the budget of most states for half a year? Maybe we should stop budgeting and planning for health, education,roads, etc and just start using such allocations to buy rice and distribute. Imagine your state govnor receives your allocation for October (which for most states is about 2 billion) and decides to buy rice and distribute at the stadium. Haba! why is this difficult to comprehend? Are some of these persons really that daft or just playing the devil's advocate?

I think this should surely pass for the dumbest idea ever!

12 billion spent on distributing rice?

how does that even create long term value?. . .so what then happens when folks finish their rice?. . .people should really learn from the proverbial "teach a man to fish, don't give him one"

This could have been a sweet news if the said rice was purchased from local and industrialized farmers.

the only winning party here is Brazillian economy!

GEJ sure lost it on this!

www.nairaland.com/attachments/328007_collapsed_woman_jpgd36f449992eccbe8f02ed454f6dfbe44


up patience !! see as guys done hammer for independence

the guys guarding their premium Brazilian rice

.

.