advertisement

Continued from Part 8

Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel (John Quinton)

Some men change their party for the sake of their principles; others their principles for the sake of their party (Winston Churchill)

One of the roles of the Presidency is to lead a political party. Having a President in office is usually a huge advantage to a party because it gives the party a mouthpiece and an advocate at the highest level (John C. Maxwell)

Temple Chima Ubochi [email protected] Bonn, Germany 2015 GENERAL ELECTIONS: FACTUAL ANALYSES AND MY ENDORSEMENT (9) (PICTORIAL) Keep your feet firmly planted on the ground as you reach for the stars (Jonathan Lockwood Huie)

When you jump for joy, beware that no one moves the ground from beneath your feet (Stanislaw Jerszy Lec)

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel (Maya Angelou)

Self-disciplined begins with the mastery of your thoughts. If you don't control what you think, you can't control what you do. Simply, self-discipline enables you to think first and act afterward (Napoleon Hill)

Continued from Part 8

President Jonathan's another major problem, and a potential hindrance to his re-election bid, is his wife, Dame Patience Jonathan. The ubiquitous First Lady has been igniting fire everywhere, and that might consume her husband's second term ambition. A case in point is the President's altercation with the Rivers State Governor, Amaechi, which led the latter to abandon PDP for APC. Now, apart from the northern states, Rivers is the only state in the south that might go up in flames after the upcoming gubernatorial election there, if care is not taken. The First Lady, being a daughter-of-the-soil, sees it as her right to anoint the new governor of the state, and she has taken it as a challenge of her life to accomplish it; and for her, nothing will stop her. Even before the elections are held, the state is now in a volatile political and unpredictable condition, as such that about five state High Courts, in Port Harcourt, Degema, Isiokpo, Omoku and Ahoada, have been coordinately firebombed by unknown persons.

Who's this Dame Patience Jonathan? Insinuation has it that she met her husband when he was an undergraduate student in UNIPORT, and did infact help him, financially, to get through his education. I think she was working then! Remember that Goodluck Jonathan came from a poor background, as he once told his story, how he was going to school without sandals. I learnt that the Patriarch Jonathan was a wooden boat maker. Then, when Goodluck Jonathan graduated and got a job, as a Lecturer, Dept. Of Biology, Rivers State College of Education, Port Harcourt, Patience also enrolled in the same institution to read biology and another subject. The point is that she was also one her husband's students then (he must have helped her to secure admission there). Note that it's not totally confirmed that they met prior to his graduation and appointment as a lecturer. But, fact is that they were both in the Rivers State College of Education; he, as a lecturer, and, she, as a student. Since then, they latched onto each other, and have weathered the stormy waters of life together, going through the rough patches of life as one.

President Jonathan as a lecturer, and, Dame Patience Jonathan, as a student (Rivers State college of Education, Port Harcourt) in the 1980s

Goodluck Jonathan is a good man with mild-mannered mien, and also, a faithful husband and a caring father. Despite the fact that he and his wife are worlds apart in terms of educational qualification, physical appearance, and antecedents, he has held onto his wife and won't let go, despite her excesses. You see, nature has a way of balancing things out; a tall man/woman is likely to marry a short woman/man; a fat man/women is likely to get hooked to a slim wife/husband; a handsome man is likely to be blindly pushed to an ugly wife or a beautiful woman is likely to jam an ugly husband (love is blind, isn't it?); an intelligent man/woman is likely to have a dunce as a wife/husband; a quiet man/woman is likely to have a "raging fire" as wife/husband; a covetous person is likely to get an unselfish person as partner; a talkative women is most likely to get a reserved person as a husband; a wayward wife is likely to get a faithful man as husband; and, in all, an "angel" is likely to have a "devil" as a companion. There are exceptions, but, the comparisons I made here are always the case. You have to make your own judgment here!

A handsome Goodluck Jonathan, as a boy!

You must have read the story of the handsome boy, Goodluck Jonathan, as narrated by a woman, where the President once lived as a boy. The woman told us how the President suffered as a boy, just like so many of us. The old woman said that "For those who grew up in Oguta, in Imo State, a few years before the Civil War, the name "Aguduma" would bring back memories. It was the qualification of a young boy, whose friends considered too handsome and therefore, nicknamed him "Aguduma," meaning "Handsome Goodluck." That boy, today, has become a man. He's not an ordinary man, but one, who has risen from, perhaps, as a nobody, to the pinnacle of Nigeria's leadership. That boy is today the President of Nigeria. That boy is President Goodluck Jonathan. The woman said that boy Goodluck Jonathan lived with his uncle in Oguta then, and that "Jonathan was always ill-treated by his uncle, who never bought him school books, sandals or other things he needed for school. She revealed that Jonathan was always the last, among the pupils who lived in the compound, to go to school daily, because of house chores he must complete every morning". Madam Emilia, as the woman is known, further revealed that "President Jonathan has always been a quiet and respectful person, who, even in the face of hardship inflicted on him by his uncle, refused to accept unsolicited gifts from people. She revealed that even when his uncle left him behind for home, the young Jonathan engaged himself in menial jobs to survive". According to her, "Goodluck is a very quiet and respectful person, even in the face of hardship inflicted on him by his uncle, who was popularly called Chief and we always felt sorry for him because of the way his uncle was treating him. They were then living in our boys' quarters. His uncle's son usually did nothing. It was Goodluck who did everything in the house, including cooking." Read more below!

Patience Jonathan has been a good wife and mother, and has stood beside or "in front" of her husband through thick and thin. The First Lady always "wants to spread her wings and fly away, soaring so high", but, forgot that the ground below is so hard to crash on! Infact, as unconfirmed story has it, she made the President who he's today, because, the foundation of life is usually the most important and most enduring. But, the problem is that the woman, who might have made this citizen Goodluck Jonathan, might also be the one helping to destroy him politically. May God forbid that! What I am getting at here is that Patience Jonathan has been a reliable helper, and, at the same time, a burden to her husband. She's overtly greedy, utterly determined and ambitious. She has caused so much "headache" for Oga Jonathan, and will be the contributing factor, if her husband, the President, loses this election. Dame Patience Jonathan, our conspicuous First Lady, has set her husband and so many people on a collision course, and she was one of the reasons PDP lost so many of its former faithful to the opposition parties. Those, who should have been on Jonathan's side, helping him in his re-election bid, had jettisoned the PDP, and are now working against the President's re-election campaign. Patience is not the only reason why some people have deserted PDP, but, she contributed a lot to that.

The Punch of Monday, January 19, 2015, wrote that there was panic in the camp of the Peoples Democratic Party in Abuja on Sunday, January 18, as President Goodluck Jonathan met with the national leadership of the party behind closed doors. The Paper wrote that the panic was said to have come as a result of the gale of defection rocking the party across the country, and also the "lacklustre response PDP have been getting since the beginning of the ongoing presidential campaign." There, I read that the President and the party leaders were not comfortable with the support the opposition, All Progressives Congress, was getting across the country, especially from those leaving the ruling party. The Paper further noted that the Party examined the circumstances that led to the defection of some members of the party in Plateau State, led by a former Deputy Governor, Mrs. Pauline Tallen, and many others to the APC. Then an official, who attended the meeting, said: "You know that we have usually taken each presidential election as a done deal since 1999. But now, things have changed. With what we have seen so far from the tours of the southern part of country, we need to work harder to win."

Niyi Akinnaso just wrote that "the irony about Buhari's rising popularity is that the Peoples Democratic Party's contributions to it. The contributions derive from several related sources. The first is the perpetual factionalism within the PDP caused by the lack of internal democracy and the strangulation of the opportunities for members to realise their political ambition. As a result, controversy and disaffection often attended the election or selection of party officials, while those who aspired to higher office were often criminalised, suspended, or pushed out of the party. These developments led to a major split within the party and were responsible for the ouster and replacement of the party's chairman and national secretary. The split led to the formation of the New PDP, whose members eventually defected to the APC. Those defectors are now key players in the APC. To complicate matters for the PDP, its policy of consensus candidacy during the primaries turned out for many party members to be nothing but candidate imposition. This continues to anger many PDP aspirants throughout the country, leading quite a number to sabotage the party's efforts or to switch to the APC.

Patience Jonathan is "too much", that Oga Jonathan can't control her in anything. What can a quiet man do, when, in order for him "to drink water in his house and hang the cup", he overlooks some of Madam's excesses? If you say that, "if it's me, I would have done it differently", but, if it was really you, what can you do? Just pray that a bad thing shouldn't find you, because, if it does, there's nothing different anyone can do. Madam Jonathan craves power and authority, as such that she insisted in putting only PDP governors in all the states of Nigeria. She thought it could be so easy, just like that. That was why she was fighting so many incumbent governors, on the verge of leaving office after the expiration of their respective terms, insisting that it's her right and desire, as Oga Madam, to nomination most of the PDP's gubernatorial candidates in their respective states, thereby incurring the wrath of so many PDP bigwigs, and forcing many, who couldn't stomach her over-arching and imposing attitude, out of PDP to other parties. State governors loathe her, and none wants to see her come closer or to meddle in the affairs of their respective states. The First Lady is fighting Governor Henry Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, because, she wants her godson to replace the governor, when his first tenure expires in 2016, even when the governor, himself, is planning to re-contest. Again and again and again, a group of militants, under the aegis of Mangrove Boys of Bayelsa, have reiterated their warning to the First Lady, to steer clear of the presidential campaign rally in Bayelsa State. Thank God that the President over-ruled his wife during his campaign stop in Yenogoa on Friday, Feb. 6, 2015, by saying: "Those who are against governor Dickson should know that they are invariably against me and are working against my re-election as President. Some people are coming to feed you with all sort of lies about the governor and I want to tell you that you must work with the governor". 247ureports of October 26, 2014, wrote that "Indications emerged on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2014, in Abuja, that the ambition of President Goodluck Jonathan, to seek re-election in the 2015 general election, may after all be stalled by his wife, Patience. Already, some elders and governors in the Peoples Democratic Party have warned that if the dictatorial tendencies of the First Lady continue, the President would end up disappointed". Huhuonline of 29 October 2014 wrote that "The First Lady, Mrs. Jonathan, is reportedly being admonished by powerful political men, in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) especially, for her heightened political profile and overuse of her influence on political-related decisions. Her husband, President Jonathan, is reportedly being threatened to confront Mrs. Jonathan in her role as a woman or risk protest votes from the powers that be in the PDP. She is being seen as meddling in the affairs and selection of candidates and interfering in higher-up political matters. She has been known to have the free liberty to summon government leaders, such as ministers, military chiefs, and dignitary men of PDP at will to the presidency. She has reportedly been known to have the freedom to call for a meeting and rained slights and tears on State officials, and parents of some of the missing Chibok schoolgirls, shouting at them on national television. She is reportedly acting in this manner without seeking the permission of her husband. She was even bold enough to recently tender her resignation as a Permanent Secretary in Bayelsa State Civil Service, without telling her husband". Read more below.

Madam's too demanding and arrogant; forgetting that the constitution grants no role for the First Lady, other than symbolic assignments such doing charity works and visiting the less privileged ones, giving out affectionate care and social support. Like Michelle Obama, a first lady should be seen but seldom heard, unless when the situation requires otherwise; a first lady is supposed to be beside the President, or even behind, and not in front or ahead of the President, unless when it involves a private occasion or situation. The First Lady shouldn't be the "Oga on Top". Even the role a First Lady is supposed to be playing, suffers at the hands of Dame Patience Jonathan, as she cuts corners always. The Sun of Friday, November 14, 2014, wrote that from Yenogoa, the Bayelsa State capital, came a report that the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, distributed expired rice to Bayelsa women. The First Lady visited the state on Thursday, November 13, 2014, to distribute empowerment materials to women (Several bags of rice repackaged in bags branded with Mr. Jonathan's photos, sewing machines, hair dryers, and tricycles also known as "Keke NAPEP" and cheques ) while urging them to vote en-masse for her husband, Goodluck Jonathan. However, news reports alleged that the rice distributed by the First Lady were expired ones.

Whenever Dame Jonathan visits any city, the chaos she creates used to more than that of her husband, the President. This woman causes heavy traffic gridlock, paralyzes social and commercial activities everywhere she goes. When she flies in into Lagos or Port Harcourt, the air space over there is usually shut down forcefully. There was an allegation, I repeat, an allegation, that one of the recent air crashes in Lagos was caused by the visit of the First Lady, because, the air space over Lagos was shut down, the pilot of that plane was told, by the Control Tower at Muritala Mohammed Airport, to continue hovering, circling Lagos, and that the pilot did for almost two hours, depleting the plane's fuel in that process. At a point, the pilot had to warn the Control Tower that he must land or else the plane would crash. When the pilot was finally granted the permission to land, the fuel had finished and couldn't take the plane to the run-way, as it crashed about five kilometers away.

In the photo above, one sees President Goodluck Jonathan and wife arriving in New York, in 2011, where he addressed the 66th General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) then! The first lady dashed out of the plane first and started greeting the delegates waiting for them, while the President was struggling with the steps. That was a breach of protocol. The President is supposed to greet the people on the tarmac first before the first lady. What happened here is a clear case of the cart going before the horse. Like I wrote some years ago, the President should try to rein in some of the first lady's excesses, if she can be "tamed"! My people used to say that "when a wife leaves the house so early, in the morning, before her husband; the evil waiting for her husband on the road will take her instead (nwanyi maka diya n'uzöö, ihe cheere diya ewere ya n'ama").

While receiving the Nollywood Actors in Abuja on December 23, 2014, President Goodluck Jonathan reportedly advocated the creation of a list of Hall of Shame in Nigeria, where names of criminals in Nigeria will be displayed for all to see. Hear him: "I heard you saying that you are planning a 'Hall of Fame.' I think we should start thinking of having a hall of shame, where the names of criminals would be written. This will serve as a deterrent to those who may want to indulge in criminal activities, as they would not want to soil their family names," The President's suggestion is good, but, I think that one of those who merited a place there is his wife. The First Lady has broken the records here, when it comes to the First Ladies' Section in this "Hall of Shame", and has taken the first position in there. Infact, she is not contesting this position with any other person. Because, of all other previous Nigerian First Ladies, none is like Dame Patience Jonathan, even Turai, who was almost like her, couldn't catch up with Madam Jonathan.

President Jonathan seems not to be politically sophisticated yet, despite the fact that he has been president for about 6 years. I wonder how he allows his aides or political party to deceive him into committing one blunder or another. Obasanjo has engaged him in a war of attrition for quite some time now that he lost his cool mien recently when he responded to the recent tantrums thrown at him by Obasanjo, warning that elder statesmen must refrain from talking like "Motor Park touts." Obasanjo had accused Jonathan of underperforming, and had told market women, who visited him on Monday January 5, that Jonathan's administration depleted the nation's foreign reserves he left behind when he handed over. President Jonathan then said, referring to Obasanjo: "Some people call themselves statesmen but they are not, they are just ordinary politicians. To be a statesman is not because you have occupied a big office before, but the question is what are you bringing to bear? Are you building this country or are you a part of people who tell lies to destroy the country? Are you part of the people who create enmity and make people who ordinarily would have been living together to fight themselves? Are you planning to set the country ablaze because you did not get that particular thing you want? At the appropriate time, Nigerians will know all of us, even though I know most of you know us, but the younger ones do not know. Some people are hiding under some clogs, some big names and creating a lot of problems in this country, making provocative statements that may set this country ablaze and you tell me you are a senior citizen? You are not and you can never be. You are ordinary motor park tout. If you are a senior citizen, you will act like one. It is not because of the offices we occupy; it is by divine grace and providence that some of us occupy these offices". Then, as a chameleon he is, Obasanjo sneaked into Aso Rock during the wedding ceremony of President Jonathan's adopted daughter. That's typical Obasanjo's cowardly character of taking his opponents unawares (Obasanjo danced with the wife of Chuba Okadigbo in the evening, and the next morning, he was impeached as the Senate President; Obasanjo ate pounded yam and egusi soup with Audu Ogbe and the next day, Ogbe was removed as PDP's Chairman). President Jonathan and his wife thought that Obasanjo's presence that day was a mark of truce, but, were dead wrong. Obasanjo deceitfully bowed for (to) the president instead of the other way round. The President then, in his vote of thanks at the service, specially recognized Obasanjo's presence, saying: "let me appreciate our father, President Olusegun Obasanjo, for being here with us. Thank you for coming." Then, thinking that all has become well again, President Jonathan arranged to visit Obasanjo at his home in Abeokuta. Having ensnarled the president to his den, Obasanjo then went on to tongue lash the President for everything he did and for everything he failed to do, and bluntly told the President that he will never support his re-election bid. I think that was a blunder for the President to believe that Obasanjo can be trusted, having known his antecedents all these years. The President really fooled himself by walking into Obasanjo's trap. That wasn't presidential at all!

Chief Olusegun Obasanjo at President Jonathan daughter's wedding.

President Jonathan should know that there's a saying that "The most difficult phase of life is not when no one understands you, it is when you don't understand yourself". The President should be more focused, and should re-energize his campaign, these remaining few days, no matter what the other side says, as Nigerians wants to hear what he has done so far and why they should re-hire him again. The President should turn every situation to his advantage as David Brinkley (1920 - 2003) wrote that "A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him". The President is not such a failure story; he should use every means available to let Nigerians know what he has done despite the challenges and opposition against his rule. My concern here is that time is running out for him to prove he deserves a second term!

Read more:

Bayelsa 2016 Election: Jonathan Endorses Governor Dickson For Re-election

https://247ureports.com/bayelsa-2016-election-jonathan-endorses-governor-dickson-for-re-election/

2015: How First Lady's Ambition Is Threatening Chances Of Jonathan

https://247ureports.com/?p=57533

Rage over Patience Jonathan's endorsement of candidates

https://www.punchng.com/politics/rage-over-patience-jonathans-endorsement-of-candidates/

We'll disgrace Patience Jonathan at Bayelsa rally'

https://247ureports.com/pdp-presidential-rally-dont-come-to-bayelsa-angry-youths-tell-dame-patience-jonathan/

Ex-Landlady Unmasks President Jonathan's Childhood Days in Oguta

https://firstafricanews.ng/index.php?dbs=openlist&s=13371

https://theunion.com.ng/obasanjos-grandstanding/

To be continued!

TIT BITS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmAhThLJuTk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POkQXeTv7-4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X26lppYNLh4&list=RDX26lppYNLh4#t=1

THE THANX IS ALL YOURS!!!

Continued from Part 8