In this piece, OLALEKAN ADETAYO and eniola
akinkuotu write on the influential personalities
that will be largely affected by President
Goodluck Jonathan’s exit

That President Goodluck Jonathan lost the March
28 presidential election is no longer news.
Although he has been in the saddle for about six
years, he has not been leading the country alone.
By virtue of being very close to the President,
there are men and women who have been wielding
huge influence on his Presidency.

It is therefore no gainsaying that Jonathan did
not lose this election alone. These people calling
the shots from their various comfort zones are
also losers in their own right. Who are these
President’s men and women?

Mrs. Patience Jonathan
Mrs. Patience Jonathan is the wife of the
President. Like wives of Presidents before her,
she runs the Office of the First Lady with glamour
despite the fact that the office is not recognised
in the nation’s constitution. So powerful is the
woman who prefers to be called Mama Peace that
she was also elected the President of the African
First Ladies Mission, a body of wives of Presidents
across the continent. She also founded a non-
governmental organisation, Women for Change,
which has the mandate of empowering women
nationwide.

The influence she wields cannot be measured. Her
hands seem to be on everything. She is believed
to be the unseen hand behind the travail of a
former Bayelsa State Governor, Timipre Sylva,
which denied him a second term ticket. The former
governor was made uncomfortable in the Peoples
Democratic Party until he left to join the All
Progressives congress.
They replaced Sylva with Governor Seriake
Dickson. The current governor tried hard to
please the President’s wife to the extent that
she was made a Permanent Secretary in the
state. The honeymoon, however, did not last.
Dickson also ran into troubled water with the
woman who is said to have pencilled down the
Special Assistant to the President on Domestic
Matters, Dr. Wariponmowei Dudafa, as the next
governor. She has since resigned her appointment
from the state job.
It is also a known fact the problem between the
President and Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers
State which forced the governor out of the PDP
started with a disagreement he had with Mrs.
Jonathan over the demolition of some houses in
Okrika, the ancestral home of the President’s
wife.
To get something in this government, you must be
in the good books of Mrs. Jonathan. That is why
government officials and their spouses bow and
tremble before her.

Senator Pius Anyim
Okonjo-Iweala, Anyim
Anyim is the Secretary to the Government of the
Federation. By virtue of his position, he is a big
man (not about his stature) in the cabinet. He
coordinates the activities of ministers.
Because of his closeness to the President, the
former President of the Senate wields huge
influence. He was accused of providing cover for
the former Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Stella
Oduah, when she was facing fire over the two
bulletproof BMW cars bought for her. To avoid
journalists, Oduah was on many occasions driven
out of the Presidential Villa after weekly Federal
Executive Council meetings in Anyim’s official
car.
He is also alleged to have a hand in the crisis
rocking the state chapter of the PDP in his home
state, Ebonyi. The state governor, Martin Elechi,
had claimed that Anyim was the brain behind the
impeachment process initiated against him by
some members of the state House of Assembly.
His camp was accused of foisting the state Deputy
Governor, Dave Umahi, on the people as the PDP
governorship candidate in the April 11
governorship election at a time when Elechi was
rooting for a former Minister of Health, Prof.
Onyebuchi Chukwu. The situation has forced many
PDP stakeholders in the state to be working for
the Labour Party.

Diezani Alison-Madueke
Alison-Madueke is the Minister of Petroleum
Resources. To say that she is one of the most
influential ministers in Jonathan’s cabinet is an
understatement. She is very powerful. She is one
of the few ministers who are driven straight into
the forecourt of the President’s office through
the Service Chiefs’ Gate. Others always walk a
distance of about 300metres from where their
official cars are parked to the President’s office.
The minister was recently elected the first
female President of the Organisation of
Petroleum Exporting Countries. Three weeks
after, she was also appointed the first female
President of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum.
So powerful is she that she dragged the House of
Representatives to court to stop the House from
probing her for allegedly spending N10bn on the
charter and maintenance of a jet for unofficial
purposes. The Presidency remained quiet over the
issue.
Alison-Madueke is no doubt a super minister in
Jonathan’s cabinet.

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Okonjo-Iweala is the Minister of Finance.
Jonathan elevated her slightly below the Vice-
President when he named her the Coordinating
Minister for the Economy.
During a typical FEC meeting, ministers mill
around the woman because of the kind of
influence she wields in the cabinet. They consult
her before presenting any memo to the council
since they would need money to finance them.
Many Nigerians call Okonjo-Iweala the nation’s
de facto Prime Minister.

Governor Godswill Akpabio
Akpabio is the Akwa Ibom State Governor. He is
also the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum.
Without any fear of contradiction, he can be said
to be the closest governor to the President.
The governor supports Jonathan to a fault. The
PDP Governors’ Forum that he chairs was formed
to solely drum support for Jonathan in the face of
continued friction between the Presidency and
the Rotimi Amaechi-led Nigeria Governors’
Forum.
He is also one of the governors who formed the
parallel NGF being led by Governor Jonah Jang of
Plateau State. In supporting Jonathan
vehemently, however, Akpabio had unknowingly
been enlisting more enemies for the President.
Chief Edwin Clark
Clark is not a government official but he wields
the influence that is more than what a
government official can do. He sees and carries
himself like the President’s father.
The residence of the First Republic Minister of
Information is like Mecca. Those in search of
government jobs or contracts visit him regularly
while government officials who want to remain in
the President’s good book also lay siege to Clark’s
house.
He is one of those who held the belief that
Jonathan must be re-elected or we should all
forget about what is called Nigeria.
Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu
Mu’azu is the National Chairman of the PDP.
Popularly called “the game changer,” Muazu took
over the office when the PDP governors moved
against the then chairman, Alhaji Bamanga
Tukur.
By virtue of that position, the former governor of
Bauchi State is very influential in and outside the
government. He has inputs in many of
government’s decisions.
With his party losing control of the Federal
Government as well as its waning popularity in
Bauchi, Mu’azu may be idle politically for the next
four years.
Tompolo
For former Niger Delta militant, Government
Ekpemupolo, otherwise known as Tompolo, power
will not remain the same after May 29 when
Buhari takes over government.
In 2009, he was declared the most wanted man in
Nigeria by the Joint Task Force for allegedly
killing 11 soldiers but his story has since changed
following the amnesty he received from President
Umaru Yar’Adua and his closeness to Jonathan.
So powerful is the ex-militant that not only did
he ensure that his younger brother was made a
local government chairman in Delta State, he
reportedly nominated the current Director-
General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration
and Safety Agency, Ziadeke Akpobolokemi.
NIMASA awarded a N15bn contract to Global West
Vessel Specialist Limited, a firm widely believed to
be owned by Tompolo, to supply 20 vessels for the
use of the nation’s military authorities to secure
the waterways.
So powerful he is that he even stopped the
President from going to Delta State to inaugurate
the Export Processing Zone following a
misunderstanding with Itsekiri leaders. He
reportedly influenced Jonathan to sack a Minister
of Transport, Yusuf Suleiman, following a
disagreement.
With Jonathan’s imminent exit from Aso Rock,
Tompolo’s influence will definitely decline.
Senator David Mark
Although he has made history by becoming the
first senator to win a fifth term, Mark’s
influence will wane in the 8th National Assembly.
Mark, who is also the nation’s longest serving
Senate president, cannot retain his seat since
the All Progressives Congress now controls the
Upper Chamber of the National Assembly. At best,
Mark can be made the minority leader.
Mark made life easy for Jonathan throughout the
President’s tenure and defended the President
even to a fault. He came under fire recently when
he reportedly manipulated the screening process
that ensured Senator Musiliu Obanikoro − who was
accused of rigging the Ekiti State governorship
election − was confirmed a minister.
Besides getting Obanikoro confirmed, Mark has
never blocked any of Jonathan’s ministerial
nominations.
Last year, he convinced his colleagues not to pass
a vote of no confidence in Jonathan over the
President’s failure to curb insecurity. In
November last year, he foiled a move by some
senators to impeach Jonathan.
In return, Jonathan gave him several benefits
including the nomination of some ministers in his
cabinet.
Jonathan’s defeat and the waning power of the
PDP in the senate has certainly relegated Mark to
the background.
Chief Tony Anenih
Anenih is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees
of the PDP. He took over from former President
Olusegun Obasanjo who resigned from office
because of some anomalies he noticed in the
running of the party.
The former Minister of Works who hails from the
South-South, the same geopolitical zone with the
President, has never hidden his support for
Jonathan.
Long ago, it was Anenih who first said it publicly
that the President should be given an offer of
first refusal as far as the party’s presidential
candidacy is concerned.
He wields no small influence in the Presidency.

http://www.punchng.com/news/power-brokers-wholl-lose-influence-after-may-29/

Stop taking panadol for people s headache

nzeobi:
Stop taking panadol for people s headache

stop being orubebestic

Onyi42:


stop being orubebestic

You are just a rable rouser

nzeobi:

You are just a rable rouser

please you have problems with your public conduct….. sleep boy

Good to not all these idiots will no longer control our nation. Thank God.

Now that PDP is no longer in govt, what will happen to Diezani Alison-Madueke's positions as the President of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and that ofthe Gas Exporting
Countries Forum?

Does these positions have anything to do with bn in power in one's country?

Like they say, there is time for everything. The aforementioned people's time have come and is going. Its a cycle. Others have come and gone as well so no biggie.