“If you come to fame not understanding who you are, it will define who you are” – Oprah Winfrey.
With the above wise saying by American Television personality, I recall that exactly a year ago on this day, July 12, the Bayelsa State Governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson, announced the appointment of the First Lady –
Jonathan – as one of the seventeen new Permanent Secretaries in the state civil service to the astonishment of not a few Nigerians.
To justify her appointment, the government argued that the First Lady worked in the civil service of Rivers State before transferring her services to Bayelsa State when her husband became Deputy Governor of the state in 1999.
The government further posited that during her
stint in the Bayelsa State Civil Service, Mrs. Jonathan rose through the
ranks and was promoted into the directorate cadre as a level 15 officer
in 2005. But by far the most plausible justification for the
President’s wife’s appointment was the recourse to the constitutional
power conferred on the state governor in section 203 sub-section 2c.
The
purpose of this write-up is not to over-flog the issue but to take
stock of ‘Her Excellency’s’ one year in office as a Perm Sec.
Based
on my understanding, the Civil Service is hierarchical in nature with
Permanent Secretaries reporting to Ministers (Commissioners, in the case
of states), who in turn report to the President (state governors). Has
the First Lady reported to anyone in the last one year? This is aside
the fact that she was not even assigned a portfolio in the first place.
If
the governor in his wisdom deemed her fit to be elevated to the rank of
a Perm Sec., why didn’t he deem it fit to assign her a portfolio or is
that also a matter of state secrecy? If the First Lady has not reported
for duty once since her appointment, has she been sanctioned according
to civil service rules (by the way, what happened to Abdulrasheed
Maina?) or is she running her invisible office from the seat of power in
Aso Rock?
While justififying her acceptance of the promotion to
the office of a Permanent Secretary in the civil service, Mrs. Jonathan
was quoted as saying, “When it suits them, they will say we don’t have
office. Remember when I went to Lagos for peace advocacy, the Governor
of Lagos State said that my husband should call me to order since my
office is not in the constitution and that I have no office. Why now
won’t I pursue my career that I am sure of?”
Really? In light of
the above statement, one would have thought that Mrs. Jonathan would hit
the ground running and leave the comfort of the Presidential Villa in
Abuja for the mentally tasking and highly demanding job of Permanent
Secretary in Bayelsa but alas, our dear ‘Mother of the Nation’ was
speaking tongue-in-cheek as she prefers her more unconstitutional, yet
powerful office of First Lady.
If she is not busy blocking most of
the roads in Port Harcourt, Lagos and Asaba, she is either in Abuja
trying to lobby billions for her African First Ladies Peace Mission
(AFLPM) project or subtly leading campaigns for her husband’s rumoured
second term bid.
But
in all these show of absurdities, it is interesting to point out that
at least, some women still have decorum, respect for the rule of law and
would rather slowly but steadily climb the ladder of success based on
hard work and dedication to duty not by political fiat or virtue of
their powerful positions.
In this regard, Justice Fati Lami
Abubakar readily comes to mind and stands in my opinion, heads and
shoulders high above any of her predecessors and successors in office as
First Lady. She was unassuming and rarely seen in public between
1998-1999 when her husband, General Abdulsalami Abubakar was Head of
State, but that did not diminish her role as an efficient pillar of
support and epitome of womanhood.
Justice Fati did not allow her
temporary stint as First Lady to stand in the way of her career and this
much was succinctly captured by the Liberian Orbit (May 28, 2001) which
described her as “an erudite African female lawyer that had become
First Lady of one of the most influential countries in the international
system and did not fold her professional career into succulent
retirement.”
Can this much be said of the present First Lady, who
much is not known of her career as a civil servant but suddenly is
catapulted to the enviable position of Permanent Secretary not because
she is the most qualified but by virtue of her husband’s position?
While
Justice Fati continued working 13-years after been Nigeria’s First Lady
and only recently took oath of office as the first female Chief Judge
of Niger state, one in a list of firsts (she is the first female lawyer,
Solicitor General and Attorney General of Niger State respectively),
Mrs. Jonathan’s busy racking-up the accolades and grabbing all in her
path and I wonder, will she be such a force to reckon with let’s say,
three-years after she must have forgotten what power tastes like? Will
her name echo the sounds of greatness or will she just go the way of
most of her predecessors, who faded into oblivion once the reins of
power were no longer theirs to control?
After her husband’s tenure
as President, which effectively brings her own tenure as First Lady to
an end, will Dame Patience go back to the Bayelsa State civil service to
work as a Permanent Secretary under a Commissioner and take
instructions without bringing her larger than life attitude to bear?
The
First Lady should realize that nothing lasts forever; that the power
she wields now and the respect that comes with it will surely fade one
day and with it comes the stark reality – that there is no joy and inner
peace of mind in success that was not earned.
Therefore, Dame
Patience should as a matter of honour and posterity, relinquish her
undeserved post of Permanent Secretary till such a time that she can be
physically present behind her desk to carry out the functions of that
office or better yet, revert to her pre-2005 directorate cadre (level
15) as claimed and work her way to the top.
After all, nobody asked her to sacrifice her career on the altar of political exigencies.
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