The temperaments of those that
have played the role of First Ladies since the return to civil rule in 1999
till date have been markedly different. Since
the time of Maryam Babangida, the late wife of the former military President
Ibrahim Babangida, Nigeria has always had First Ladies who complemented their
husbands. Though the position –– First Lady –– is not officially recognised and
their activities are not publicly-funded, all those who occupied that position
before now succeeded in carving a niche for themselves, by initiating either
a charity organisation or pet project to uplift vulnerable groups in the
society. Nigeria’s daily, The Nation’s Deputy
Political Editor RAYMOND MORDI looks at the style of the First Ladies from
Obasanjo to Buhari.
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| Late Stella Obasanjo |
Stella
Obasanjo
Stella Obasanjo (November
14, 1945 to October 23, 2005) was the First Lady from 1999 until her death in
2005. Prior to her emergence in 1999, all the governors wives and the wife of
number two citizens had no other pet projects apart from the one
instituted by the wife of the Head of State. The
story changed when Mrs. Obasanjo became the
First Lady in 1999. She told the governors’ wives and the wife of the
vice president in clear terms that the problems of the society were so enormous
and it would be unfair for her to impose a particular project on all the states
as was done under the military era.
She, therefore,
urged them to identify any problem that was peculiar to each
state and set out ways of assisting the
needy in those regards, thereby decentralising the pet
project. She identified with the plight of the handicapped and their mothers
through her Child Care Trust (CCT).
A private, non-profit,
non-governmental organisation, CCT, was established a few months after her
husband assumed office as President to bring succour to physically
challenged children. Mrs. Obasanjo’s guiding philosophy, many believe,
was that children are special gifts from God and they need to be appreciated
and loved, no matter their physical or mental circumstances.
The late Stella Obasanjo
came into the limelight during the campaign to release her husband, who was
then charged with treason and jailed by the late Gen Sani Abacha’s junta. She
took the campaign for his release to the United Nations (UN) in New York. She
was later at the forefront of Obasanjo’s bid to win the presidential election.
She travelled with him all over Nigeria, mobilising support among womens’
organisations and the grassroots.
Born in Warri, Delta
State, the late Mrs. Obasanjo was the eldest of the seven children of the
first indigenous chairman of Unilever Nigeria, Dr Christopher Abebe. She read
English at the Obafemi Awolowo University from 1967 to 1969. Later, she
enrolled at the Pitman Institute in London, where she trained as a secretary.
She married Obasanjo in
1976, shortly before he became the military head of state. Stella was not the
First Lady during Obasanjo’s first coming. Obasanjo had other wives. But, by
the time Obasanjo returned as the civilian President in 1999, Stella was the
one in the public eye, following the role she played when her husband was in
detention. During that period, she was very influential.
Her death in October 2005
shocked Nigerians. Mrs. Obasanjo, who passed away 22 days to her 60th birthday,
had gone to Spain for a cosmetic surgery operation commonly known as “tummy
tuck”, but never returned to Nigeria.
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| Turai Yar'adua |
Turai
Yar’Adua
If any First Lady wielded
enormous influence in governance in recent times, Hajia Turai Yar’Adua, the
wife of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua was. Dame Patience Jonathan, the wife
of the outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan, is another. Turai Yar’Adua served
as the First Lady from 2007 until the death of her husband on May 5, 2010.
Turai was the power behind Yar’Adua — in the home, when he was governor and
when he became president. Mrs. Yar’Adua’s has a quiet mien and from her
appearance alone, one would be hard pressed to imagine her capable of the
political manipulations and intrigues that were credited to her in the heydays
of the Yar’Adua era. The power structure within the Presidency allowed her to
call the shots from behind the scene. She wielded considerable power, way above
what one would expect of a mere consort to a governor.
In the Villa, Turai was
perceived to be fully in-charge of many of the decisions behind the scene. She
was her husband’s closest adviser and during the period he was incapacitated
and unable to perform his official duties, she is said to be fully in charge.
The late Yar’Adua travelled overseas for medical treatment without handing over
to Goodluck Jonathan who was Yar’Adua’s deputy. The late President’s close
associates maintained that he could perform his official duties on sick bed,
from anywhere in the world. She was said to be the head of the cabal that ran
the affairs of the country before the National Assembly was compelled to invoke
the ‘Doctrine of Necessity’ and made Jonathan the Acting President.
An incident of many years
ago perhaps best dramatises the power that Turai has always wielded in the
president’s life and work. A story was told of how, prior to the 1991
governorship elections, a group of Umaru Yar’Adua loyalists visited the
influential late Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. Their objective was to persuade the
retired general to help ensure that his younger brother became the Katsina
State Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate. It would have been a simple task
for the elder Yar’Adua who was the de factoleader of the party.
But the older Yar’Adua
would not support his brother. In fact, he was reported to have given tacit
support to his brother’s opponent, Saidu Barda, candidate of the National
Republican Convention (NRC). When SDP stalwarts went to the retired general to
appeal to him to change his mind he reportedly asked them whom they wanted to
put in Katsina Government House, Umaru or Turai, his wife?
Easily recognisable by her
shawl and make-up, she got married to the late president in 1975. She
attended Government Secondary School, Kankia, in present day Katsina State, and
Katsina College of Arts, Science and Technology. For a while she worked as a
teacher before retiring and becoming a full time housewife.
Turai Yar’Adua’s pet
project revolves around cancer eradication, but apparently, she was more
interested in running the affairs of state. The difference between Hajia Turai
and Dame Patience is that Hajia Turai was seen, but not heard. This is unlike
Dame Patience, also known as Mama Peace, who behaved like an elected political
office holder.
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| Patience Jonathan |
Patience
Jonathan
As First Lady, Dame
Patience Jonathan obviously wielded enormous influence in and out of political
circles. With her project, “Women for Change Initiative”, she was seeking to
make Life better for women in the country and totally restore the dignity of
womanhood. She lent her voice to the implementation of the 35 per cent
affirmative action for women in President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration,
thus advocating more women in governance.
She had struggled
relentlessly to awaken and empower the Nigerian woman through numerous summits,
enlightenment and sensitisation campaigns. It is also to her credit that women
were recognised as important stakeholders in the recently conducted general
elections and were effectively mobilised for the polls.
Dame Patience is believed
to be a pillar of sorts for her. She was actively involved in the electoral
campaigns, crisscrossing all parts of the country and wooing the electorate to
her husband’s side. She has remained very visible as First Lady.
She launched her Women for
Change Initiative, shortly after her husband became President in May 2011. The
initiative was aimed at promoting women’s participation in the political sphere,
amongst other things. It was one of the promises the Jonathan administration
can proud other say it accomplished. There were about 13 women in Jonathan’s
Federal Executive council representing about 32 per cent of the 42 member
Cabinet, with many others heading sensitive institutions.
But, her meddlesomeness
and overbearing influence were equally part of the reasons her husband lost the
March 28 presidential elections. She interfered in the affairs of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) in many states and created problems for her husband and
the ruling party. For instance, she was said to be responsible for the problem
between Jonathan and the outgoing Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers
State and the crisis within the Bayelsa State chapter of the PDP. She also
inflamed passions with the kind of words she used against the All Progressives
Congress (APC) standard bearer Muhammadu Buhari during the campaigns. The hate
campaign she and Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti championed did not help
matters for Jonathan.
Mrs. Jonathan’s secret
hospitalisation in Germany, following a severe bout of food poisoning, drew a
lot of criticisms for the Jonathan administration. She was also involved in the
controversy the over 200 girls abducted from Chibok by Boko Haram. She drew the
ire of civil society when one of the leaders of the “Bring Back Our Girls”
movement was arrested after meeting the First Lady at the presidential villa.
Mrs Jonathan was said to have accused the activists of fabricating the
abduction story to give the government a bad name.
Many Nigerians derived
comic reliefs from jokes built around her alleged grammatical blunders. People
made jokes from everything she said or did. Indeed, Dame Patience is regularly
mimicked by comedians for her boisterous public appearances, as well as
political and financial scandals. Despite all these, Mrs. Jonathan is
never afraid to say her mind.
She was born in
Port-Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on October 25, 1957. In 1989,
she obtained the National Certificate of Education (NCE) in Mathematics and
Biology from Rivers State College of Arts and Science, Port Harcourt. She then
proceeded to the University of Port Harcourt, where she studied Biology and
Psychology.
Mrs. Jonathan started her
career as a teacher at the Stella Maris College, Port Harcourt and Sports
Institute Isake. She then moved to the banking sector in 1997, where she
established the first community bank in Port Harcourt called the Akpo Community
Bank. She served as Marketing Manager of Imiete Community Bank. She returned to
the classroom briefly again as a teacher. Eventually she was transferred to the
Bayelsa State Ministry of Education, where she served until May 29, 1999 when
her husband became the deputy governor of the state.
On July 12, 2012, she was
appointed as permanent secretary in Bayelsa State by Governor Seriake Dickson,
who was helped to his governorship position by her husband. The appointment
generated national outrage and ridicule, considering the fact that she had been
on leave from the civil service for over 13 years, since her husband became
deputy governor in 1999.
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| Aisha Buhari...(Pix courtesy Bella Naija) |
Aisha Buhari
Hajiya Aisha Buhari was
largely an unknown name to many Nigerians until the 2015 presidential election
campaigns. Unlike previous times where she did not openly support her husband’s
aspirations to become president, she traversed the length and breadth of
country this time around to garner support for Buhari’s presidential
aspirations under the umbrella of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which eventually
paid off. In the process, Mrs. Buhari stepped out of the shadows into national
limelight.
She has quickly learnt the
art of politicking, as she was the arrowhead of the campaign of the APC women’s
wing. From donating relieve materials to internally displaced persons (IDPs),
to mobilising the women folk to support her husband and even speaking about her
plans as First Lady, Mrs Buhari has indeed stepped into her new role.
Though the wife of
incoming President is just assuming the role of the First Lady, she has
promised Nigerians a different style, from what was witnessed under her
predecessor. Already, she has given indications about what to expect from her.
For instance, she said during the electioneering campaigns that she would
prefer to be called the wife of the President, rather than the First Lady.
Mrs. Buhari believes that
since the position of ‘First Lady’ is not recognised by the constitution, there
would be no point in her going about parading herself as the First Lady. She is
of the view that not being addressed as the First Lady, however, would not stop
her from performing her duties and role as the wife of the president of
Nigeria. “The wife of the president has some traditional roles, like receiving
guests, visiting orphanages, helping the less-privileged people,” she noted,
adding that she would also lead the fight for the right of women and
malnourished children and other socio-economic ills such as infant mortality
rate, kidnapping and girl-child trafficking.
Mrs. Buhari was born into
the family of Nigeria’s first Minister of Defence, Alhaji Muhammadu Ribadu in
Adamawa State. She clocked 44 years at the peak of political campaigns in
February, having been born February 17, 1971. She got married to Buhari on
December 2, 1989.
A graduate of Public
Administration from the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, she
subsequently trained in beauty therapy and she is an alumnus of the Carlton
Institute of London and the Academy Esthetique Beauty, Institute of France,
Dubai. Mrs. Buhari is currently a graduate student of International Affairs and
Strategic Planning. A devout Moslem, she and her husband are blessed with five
children.
-Culled from The Nation Newspaper
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