By Wole Soyinka
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Patience
Faka Jonathan, First Lady of Nigeria
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I
had thought to leave this subject strictly to the discretionary powers of the
nation’s women’s organisations, as I did not wish to be obliged to counter the
convenient accusations that we, the male chauvinist oppressors of womanhood in
society, have merely seized upon a legitimate initiative of “public-spirited”
women elite to frustrate female advocacy.
However,
as scandal surmounts scandal, it is more than likely that a mere “chicken feed”
like N4bn will become subsumed in public consciousness, overawed by
egregious affronts such as the recent presidential pardons.
The national
attention span – in the face of corruption especially – suffers from overload,
and there are those who know it, manipulate and profit from it! It is within
this tried and tested tradition that I view a recent government “clarification”
on the African First Ladies Mission mansion, offered through the office of the
Minister of Foreign Affairs. I refer to a reportage on page 63 of ThisDay,
March 18, and in other media on March 19.
The minister offers the following
explanation for the “controversial” budgetary allocation, and I do quote: “The
African First Ladies Peace Mission is similar to any other similar regional or
international organisation, it is NOT an NGO. (emphasis mine). It is an African
Union-led initiative, it does not belong to any individual, it belongs to the
African Union.
“The
minister recalled that the mission has been in existence since the time of Mrs.
Mariam Abacha… He added that the First Ladies in 2008 requested Nigeria to
provide a permanent secretariat for the mission after an intense lobby by Libya
to host the secretariat and bankroll its activities…”
The
minister goes on to paint a very laudable picture of the purpose of the First
Ladies Peace Mission, rounding off with the battle-cry: “Nigeria
would continue to (carry out) its international obligations. (Bravo!)
When the secretariat is completed in Abuja….”
With
those two last items, I regret to say that the minister lost me. Alarm bells
rang jangled frantically on reading those words: “When the secretariat is
completed in Abuja…” Are we dealing here with a fait
accompli, which means we are all simply whistling in the wind?
Then,
there is the claim that goes: “African Union-led”. The nation deserves to know
the chapter and verse under which the African First Ladies initiative was
adopted, let alone led, by the African Union.
Next:
Since when did the private interests of the of rulers’ wives become an
“international obligation”? Even if Sani Abacha’s First Lady presumed to
act for Nigeria, how does this commit a democratic government to the
presumptuousness of the mere spousal appendage of the head of a member state?
Again:
This time, simply as a matter of curiosity, since I have never heard of a
Muammar Gaddafi’s First Lady — who did the lobbying on behalf of Libya?
Gaddafi’s rubber stamp Parliament, the Jamahiriya? Or, his permanently
invisible counterpart to Nigeria’s then spousal squatter in Aso Rock? May
I ask what legality, in national or international law, the whims and caprices
of rulers’ wives exercise upon governments?
Finally,
I wish to quote the following entry from the Nigerian media. It was entered
during the roforofo fight between one immediate past ‘Lady’, the Spousal
Abuser of President Umaru Yar’Adua, and her current successor. They came to
blows – well, metaphorically speaking – over the luscious slab of real estate
on which the current Madame had chosen to erect her own monument to Nigeria’s chronic
First Ladyism. I invite you to study closely the “clarification” by the then
minister for the Federal Capital Territory.
He
does not cite Africa Union’s resolution or any such international obligation.
He does not cite the imperatives of Nigeria’s moral obligations. He does not
even mention Nigeria’s dubious leadership – “Giant of Africa” — sentiment — to
which we are expected to genuflect, no matter how gratuitous the context.
No,
his intervention narrates most unambiguously the role of sycophantic public
servants in the inducement and servicing of spousal egos. Here is the relevant
admission, and – do note – revealed as a matter of pride, not of embarrassment
or shamefaced, unavoidable disclosure.
“When
I became minister, I brought the idea for the building of the secretariat as a
legacy the former First Lady would leave behind. I consulted the former
president and advised him on the project after she became leader of the African
First Ladies Mission. I told him that the NGO — emphasis mine — needed a
secretariat to build an edifice just like the Women Centre built by the late
Maryam Babangida and the National Hospital built by Mariam Abacha.”
“He
(Yar’Adua) agreed and told me to look for a land. When I eventually found the
land, I prepared a Certificate of Occupancy and the structural design of the
proposed secretariat before I reported back to him. He appreciated the effort
and directed me to meet her with the proposal.
“After
a discussion, she accepted the idea and set up a committee comprised of the FCT
and Foreign Affairs officials, Mariam Abacha, the late Murtala Muhammed’s wife
and Patience.”
There
you have it in a nutshell. Mariam Abacha’s ‘project’ was a hospital. Sadder
still, we have it from the horse’s mouth that First Ladies are entitled to set
up committees made up of public servants – Ministry of Federal Capital
Territory, Foreign Affairs, etc. – heaven knows how many fell over one
another to serve on that committee.
The
cult of First Ladyism rose to obscene heights under the former Maximum Ruler,
Ibrahim Babangida, yet it was under the watch of that very General that a
female Permanent Secretary, ordered by the then Maximum Spouse to report to her
office for an assignment, told her, quite politely, “Madam, I only take orders
from my minister”. She then returned to her office to write out her resignation
letter. That was then!
Today,
the obverse obtains. The role which even ministers have played in elevating the
culture of grovelling sycophancy to the status of governance virtue has contributed
in no small measure to the abuse of constitutional provisions and irresponsible
budgetary attributions.
Instead of remaining a dark, embarrassing secret,
it is confidently aired on international media such as the Voice of America,
turning this nation into a space of ridicule and self-inflicted disdain. It is
not all sycophancy however, it is – projects! Projects with minimal overseeing
and accounting, gravy trains with adept practitioners at the controls!
It
is time we confronted squarely those unctuous, self-righteous attributions such
as “the legacy that the First Lady would leave behind”. Who says a First
Lady has to leave a legacy behind?” Was she elected by the people? Is she
constitutionally a public official?
Does she have an obligation to render
account of her “stewardship”? I have taken the trouble to study the Federal
Capital Territory Act, and not one paragraph, not one sentence specifies that
the FCT minister’s functions include saddling First Ladies with the
responsibility of “bequeathing a legacy.”
To
summarise: Here then are two contrasting expositions – that of the
Minister of the FCT, and that of the Minister for Foreign Affairs. The FCT
Minister even claimed that this Mission is an NGO; the Minster for Foreign
Affairs insists that it is not, that it is an “international obligation”!
Please, spell it out more clearly. Since when? Under what protocols,
resolutions or whatever? And, of what international organisation?
President
Goodluck Jonathan must be stoutly applauded for declaring that he cannot grant
amnesty to ghosts. Let me add also that you cannot make budgetary allocations
to ghosts. Like ghost workers through whose invisible entrails billions have
vanished into Nigerian burial grounds, First Ladies are nothing but constitutional
ghosts, and that means that their “pet projects”, wherever they lay claims on
national budgeting – individually or collectively, and however lofty sounding —
are nothing but spectral emanations, already Dead on Arrival.
Lest
I am misunderstood: First Ladies have the same right as all citizens to “leave
a legacy behind”. They must however work hard to source their funds where the
rest of the world does – in the private domain, not dig their hands into public
funds on which crying needs, far too numerous and deserving to mention, have
prior and – most important — legitimate and constitutional claims.
Too
bad, Bill Gates has decided to keep away from Nigeria, owing to the latest
incontinence of power – Madame should have tried “touching” Mr. Gates for
some small change. Then she would have learnt that hard working millionaires
are painfully discriminating about what causes they espouse.
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