Where is Dame Patience Jonathan?

Dame Patience Jonathan

Where is Dame Patience Jonathan? That is a question Aso Rock is yet to answer. Perhaps, her aides and the President’s aides must have prayed that no one would notice her absence. Nigerians may as well have if modern-day first ladies have not departed from the fine example set by some of their predecessors in office. Pray, who today remembers the face of any of former President Shehu Shagari’s wives.  And many oldies who witnessed their state wedding are not likely to remember what Victoria Gowon looks like.  Yet, her husband was in power for nine years. Ajoke Mohammed is another first lady that may have to be introduced in a gathering before many would connect the face with the late beloved General Murtala Ramat Muhammed.  They all belonged to a different era. That was the era when the President’s wife was content to just ensuring the home front was running smoothly. And for any nation’s leader, a poorly run home front can be his ruin.

Well, Maryam Babangida showed Nigerians how the first lady should ably assist the husband in running the nation. Her pet project, Better Life for Rural Women, was such a roaring success. It captured the imagination of women in the rural areas.  It is such a pity that those who came after her did not continue with the programme. Rather they went ahead to initiate their own. Mariam Abacha’s was Family Support Programme; Stella Obasanjo had The Child Care Trust; Turai Yar’Adua was behind the Women and Youth Empowerment Foundation; and the incumbent is enamoured with Women for Change Initiative and the 35 per cent Affirmative Action Campaign. She has used every available forum to advance this cause for women. In fact, it can be argued whether Dame Patience Jonathan does not deliver as many public speeches as her husband.

She is always in demand. So if she suddenly drops out of sight, Aso Rock is simply naïve to expect Nigerians to accept the terse explanation that she is gone abroad to rest. Methinks Dame would have preferred to take a well-deserved rest at the Obudu Cattle Ranch in Cross River State. At least that was what she told Nigerians after she spent a week there with her husband last year. And do not forget the seed of suspicion was already sown by an Internet site, which claimed the first lady left Nigeria in an air ambulance. And the Presidency has not countered that the report on that mode of transportation. What a way to fly to a holiday resort? If truly the nation’s first lady is abroad because of “food poisoning” or “ruptured appendix,” it is a tragic moment for this nation of 160 million people. When is our government going to walk the highfalutin talk about providing excellent health care for Nigerians? When will the nation’s hospitals be good enough to take care of both the privileged and the underprivileged, so that it would not be necessary for first ladies and their ilk to go every year on medical safari? This is the heart of the matter.

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