Dame Patience, Our President’s Darling Wife- An Opinion By Reuben Abati In 2010

Reuben Abati before his price was paid wrote a column on Guardian condemning the recklessness of unelected Dame Patience Jonathan Thursday, 27th Aug 2010

"DEMOCRACY is readily associated with freedom: the freedom to be free in many respects and increasingly in Nigeria, many of our compatriots, particularly persons in positions of privilege and authority confuse this with the right to be disagreeable. The sober truth is that democracy is about rights and responsibilities, a democratic dispensation therefore cannot be a licence for disagreeable conduct as a norm; just as the possession of power in any form does not guarantee the right to be reckless or to ignore the etiquette required of office holders. Anyone in the corridors of power, either by chance or right, or appointment, is expected to behave decorously.

Amaechi is my Son, says Dame Patience Jonathan

Amidst a rash of reactions over the festering political crisis in Rivers State, the First Lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan,  Wednesday gave an insight into why the state has been on the boil in recent time.

According to her, the crisis in the state, took a turn for the worse following the wresting of the structure of the state chapter of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from loyalists of the  governor, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi, began four years ago.

SIMON KOLAWOLE: We’d Soon Start Drinking Our Oil

Simon Kolawole Live!: By Simon Kolawole, Email: simon.kolawole@thisdaylive.com

Did you watch the thugs in the Rivers State House of Assembly last Tuesday? I later learnt that they were, in fact, legislators. A group of five, led by Babakaya Bipialaka, had ridiculously tried to remove the Speaker, Otelemaba Amachree, with a fake mace. Bipialaka is an opponent of the state governor, Chibuike Amaechi, while Amachree is pro-Amaechi. Shortly after Bipialaka was “elected” Speaker, a group of 27 pro-Amaechi lawmakers entered the chamber. In the videoed fracas, Amaechi’s loyalist, Chidi Lloyd, grabbed the fake mace and began to use it as a weapon of mass destruction. He later narrated how he was eventually given the beating of his life. In the “movie”, Amaechi’s security aides also contributed some useful punches and whiplashes to the show of shame. And so on and so forth.

Patience is a Mere Domestic Appendage-Soyinka

The wife of President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience, has been accused of getting away with murder in the country and of being used as a political tool, with the tacit support of her husband.

Making this allegation Thursday during an international press conference on the state of the nation, Nigeria’s Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, who alongside human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), pointedly identified the first lady as being neck deep in the political crisis in Rivers State, added that her “seizure of Port Harcourt for 11 days with full security apparatus in tow, indicated that there is something about that madam herself.”

Presidency Blames Amaechi over Rivers Fracas

Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Ahmed Gulak

As debates and comments continue to trail the fisticuffs that ensued between pro and anti-Amaechi factions in the Rivers State House of Assembly, the presidency has laid the blame of the whole saga squarely on the state governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.

Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Ahmed Gulak, made this known while commenting  on the Rivers State crisis to journalists in Abuja Friday.