Politics
Patience Jonathan’s Love For Power
English poet, essayist,
critic, 1793, Anna Barbauld it was who said that when we carry out eyes back through the long records of our history, we see wars of plunder, wars of conquest, wars of religion, wars of pride, wars of succession, wars of idle speculation, wars of unjust interference, and hardly among them is one war of necessary self-defence in any of our essential or very important interests. Williams Ewart Gladstone also was quoted as saying that we look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessing of peace.
This power of Love, which breeds peace, was exactly what was expected of Dame Patience Jonathan, the wife of President Goodluck Jonathan, than the obverse we have been reading in many media outfits especially since 2010 when she visited Okrika and scolded Rivers Governor Chibuike Amaechi as if he was her school pupil, because of waterfront which Amaechi wanted to demolish and restructure, but our big madam said no.
The newest in the humiliating memu of some activities of Mrs Jonathan against Amaechi, was that which appeared with the caption in the newspapers: “Jonathan’s wife aborts APC leaders’ visit to Rivers”. This type of thing does not make some of us who hold women in high esteem happy and peaceful , regarding what Coretta Scott King had told us thus: “I am convinced that the women of the world, united without any regard for national or racial dimension, can become a most powerful force for international peace and brotherhood”. Does this statement about “international peace and brotherhood” concern Mrs Jonathan?
Women are life giver and promoter of peace, but the women who made many thousands of Governor Amaechi’s supporters, who hurricaned the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, on 5th November, to cheer up leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who were visiting the state, to go home disillusioned, is far from the women said to be “life giver and promoter of peace”.
The first woman to enter U.S. House of Representatives in 1917, but lost her seat in congress when she voted against entry in WWI, was Jeanette Rankin, (1880-1973). As if Rankin had Mrs Jonathan at heart, she had said” “You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake”.
And, “the work of educating the world to peace is the women’s job, because men have a natural fear of being classed as cowards if they oppose war”. But is Mrs Jonathan not voting for wars with the way she is going about the politics of this country under her husband’s presidency?
In this case, men in the APC leadership opposed the ‘war’, by shifting their arrival time to the Port Harcourt airport, because Madam Jonathan was returning to Abuja after the burial of her mother, Mrs Oba, in Port Harcourt. We should be ashamed when some of our women want to prove wrong, Olive schreiner, a south African writer-feminist, 1911, as she said: “No tinsel of trumpets and flags will ultimately seduce women into the insanity of recklessly destroying life, or gild the willful taking of life with any other name than that of murder, whether it be the slaughter of the million or of one by one”.
Leo Tolstoy writes in “War and Peace” that “Nothing is so necessary for a young man as the company of intelligent women.” But are Nigerians sure if we are not missing one woman among “the company of intelligent women”, in Nigeria?
Aside politics and whoever that was perceived to be opposing Mr. President; in earnest, general Mohammadu Buhari (rtd.) and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who were billed to visit the Rivers State from the APC, were not just party folks, but among Nigerians leaders and stakeholders and they deserve respect as at when due. So, for Amaechi’s supporters to have been reportedly stopped at the airport roundabout on the ‘orders’ of Mrs Jonathan, was not only insulting but reminds one of what Leo Tolstoy writes in the book: “The whole world is divided for me into two parts: one is she, and there is all happiness, hope, light; the other is where she is not and there is dejection and darkness…”
Even as Mrs Jonathan may be harbouring animosities for Governor Amaechi, from news reports of his humane behaviour at the burial of the mother-in-law of President Jonathan, where Amaechi was said to have traumatized his opponents who had made frenzied efforts to do politics against him with the funeral, showed that he (Amaechi) had forgotten whatever it was that Nigerians thought was between Mrs Jonathan and him. This is how a leader should behave and not be walking with troubles everywhere as we have not stopped to experience around “her Royal Majesty”.
At the interment service of Mrs. Oba held at Okrika National Secondary School, those present said that Governor Amaechi sang and danced more than others in crowd. Chai! “This attracted thunderous ovation from surprised members of the congregation”, said a source. Whereas Mrs Jonathan’s ‘order’ was later at the airport causing what in the eyes of Leo Tolstoy sees as, “We are asleep until we fall in Love!”
Amaechi was also reported to have earlier gone to the airport, Omagwa, to welcome President Jonathan to Rivers State for the burial of his mother-in-law amongst all odds, thereby showcasing Leo Tolstoy’s comment: “Man cannot possess anything as long as he fears death.
But to him who does not fear it, everything belongs. If there was no suffering, man would not know his limits, would not know him.”
Amaechi has shown that he has the understanding as could be seen at the burial. But Madam Jonathan has to listen to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s comment: “Peace cannot be achieved though violence, it can only be attained through understanding.” Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat, Pray, Love” advises us that, “we don’t realize that, somewhere within us all, there does exist a supreme self who is eternally at peace.” And, Amaechi is at peace with Mrs Jonathan and self!
In “Letters to a Young Poet” Rainer Maria Rilke counsels us to, “Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart…. Live in the question.”
Governor Amaechi has proved Thomas Jefferson right by being himself in the face of daunting many made challenges. Jefferson had said: “Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.” Governor Amaechi has shown to us what is also written in “Warrior Wisdom: Ageless Wisdom for the Modern Warrior” by Bohdi Sanders.
It reads: “Never respond to an angry person with a fiery comeback, even if he deserves it… Don’t allow his anger to become your anger.”
Let Mrs Jonathan not see Presidency as the whole world, but should reason this that came from Virginia Woolf who hailed from England (1882-1941), and was also a woman like her.
Woolf said: “If you insist upon fighting to protect me, or ‘our’ country, let it be understood, soberly and rationally between us, that you are fighting to gratify a sex Instinct which I cannot share; to procure benefits which I have not shared and probably will not share; but not to gratify my instincts, or protect either myself or my country. For, the outside will say, in fact, as a woman, I have no country. As a woman I want no country. As a women, my country is the whole world…”
Fereshten Gol-Mohammadi from Iran in 1983 directs people like Mrs Jonathan with this line: “If war boosts the economy of the industrial nations that own the war supplies, it smashes the economy of the nations that consume them.” Does Madam Jonathan know that there are younger ones looking up to her as their role model? Regrettably, Julinda Abu Nasr, Lebanon, 1980s, believed, “if a child grows up with the idea of violence, that you get what you can be force, what kind of world will this be?”
Odimegwu Onwumere, Poet/Writer, resides in Rivers State.
Odimegwu Onwumere
Dame Patience Jonathan (middle), with her husband (left) and PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, during a public function in Abuja, recently.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, December 31, 2025, and signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Obiora Ifoh, the party said it had taken note of Mr Obi’s defection alongside some of his supporters, as well as what it called a “lacklustre speech” delivered by the former Anambra State governor at the defection event.
“We wondered what new he intends to sell to Nigerians,” the party said, adding that it was not surprised by the move, having “since September 2024, parted ways with Peter Obi and some of his blind supporters in the National Assembly.”
According to the statement, the faction said it had patiently awaited Mr Obi’s exit, describing it as a blessing.
“The party is finally liberated by this defection and as party leaders, we count it as a blessing,” the party said.
The faction further disclosed that it had previously urged Mr Obi and his supporters to leave if they were unable to work with the party leadership.
It claimed that several lawmakers had been suspended for anti-party activities and that similar action would have been taken against Mr Obi but for the intervention of “some well-meaning Nigerians.”
It also blamed its internal crisis on Mr Obi and Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, accusing them of sponsoring what it described as an insurrection against the Julius Abure-led leadership.
“The crisis we had in the Labour Party was caused by Peter Obi and the Abia State governor, Alex Otti,” the statement alleged, adding that it was surprising Dr Otti had not followed Mr Obi out of the party despite his suspension.
Reacting to Mr Obi’s defection event in Enugu, the faction claimed the gathering was largely boycotted by prominent political and traditional institutions in the South East, insisting that those present were “political spent forces who cannot win in their wards should there be an election today.”
It warned that this development signalled the failure of any future Mr Obi presidential or vice-presidential ambition, claiming he had “clearly lost the charm that had endeared him to the people prior to 2023.”
The faction also accused Mr Obi of misleading the South East during the 2023 elections, alleging that the region suffers political marginalisation under President Bola Tinubu’s administration as a result.
“He must be told that the South East lost out completely in President Ahmed Tinubu’s government because they trusted and believed in him in 2023,” the statement said, alleging disparities in ministerial appointments and infrastructure allocation to the zone.
The Abure-Led LP apologised to Nigerians for its decision in the last election.
“We gave Nigerians a candidate we thought was good for the nation in 2023, but time has since proved that we made the greatest political mistake. We plead for forgiveness from Nigerians,” the party said.
It urged Nigerians to watch out for a rebranded Labour Party, promising to present “the best prospect” capable of returning Nigeria to what it described as its “glorious days.”
steadily toward unity, justice, and shared prosperity”, he said.
Speaking to journalists on Wednesday at his country home in Ikere-Ekiti, Dr Oluyede said the development came as a shock, stressing that INEC supervised and monitored the PDP governorship primary that produced him as the party’s candidate.
According to him, INEC officials documented the process, completed all required forms, and even affirmed his candidacy in court through sworn affidavits arising from cases linked to the primary election.
He maintained that no court order or injunction currently restrains INEC from listing his name as the PDP candidate, arguing that the electoral body lacks the constitutional power to determine who emerges as a party’s nominee.
Dr Oluyede described such decisions as the exclusive responsibility of political parties, not the electoral umpire.
While playing down panic over the released list, Dr Oluyede noted that electoral processes often involve reviews and corrections.
He disclosed that he had commenced wide consultations, including engagements with PDP leadership and formal correspondence with INEC, to seek clarification on the omission and determine the next line of action.
The PDP candidate assured his supporters across Ekiti State that he would appear on the ballot, expressing confidence that the situation would be resolved in his favour.
He described attempts to exclude candidates from elections as dangerous and undemocratic, warning that such tactics undermine the people’s right to freely choose their leaders.
Dr Oluyede called on the people of Ekiti to reject any form of disenfranchisement, insisting that elections should be contests of ideas, records, and acceptance by the electorate rather than exclusionary maneuvers.
He also declared that the PDP in Ekiti had resolved its past internal crises and was now united, focused, and ready to win the forthcoming governorship election.
He urged party members and supporters to remain calm and focused, expressing optimism that, with divine grace and the will of the people, the PDP would emerge victorious at the polls.
Mr Obi spoke while formally declaring for the African Democratic Congress (ADC) at a well-attended event in Enugu on Wednesday, where he outlined what he described as a fresh roadmap for rescuing the country from its socio-economic challenges.
Addressing party members, supporters and other stakeholders, the former governor stressed that leadership must be driven by integrity and accountability, warning against the culture of double standards in public office.
“We cannot continue to deceive our people. Leadership is about telling the truth and leading by example. You cannot promise one thing in public and do another in private. That is not leadership, and that is not the change Nigeria needs”, Mr Obi said.
He maintained that genuine national rebirth would only be possible if entrenched wrongs were corrected, adding that governance must be guided by competence, discipline and a clear sense of purpose.
Mr Obi also underscored the need for fresh thinking in the nation’s political space, urging political actors to move away from recycled ideas that have failed to deliver sustainable development.
“We must come with new ideas,” he said, adding that “Nigeria’s problems are not mysterious; what has been lacking is the courage and competence to address them differently. We need a new approach that puts people first and focuses on production, not consumption.”
Calling for a broad based political collaboration, Mr Obi appealed to parties and stakeholders across ideological divides to work together in the national interest.
“This country is bigger than any party or individual. All parties must come together to change the present trend. What matters is not the platform, but the future of Nigeria and the wellbeing of its citizens”, he declared.
Looking ahead to the 2027 general elections, Mr Obi challenged aspirants seeking elective offices to ensure transparency in their credentials, warning that the era of falsified certificates was drawing to a close.
“Anyone contesting for any position in 2027 must come with genuine certificates. All the machinery is now in place to verify what is genuine and what is not. Integrity must start from the very foundation of leadership”, he stated.
Drawing lessons from international development models, Mr Obi cited Rwanda and Indonesia as examples of countries that rose from difficult beginnings to become thriving economies through disciplined leadership and sound policies.
“These countries were once behind us,” he noted, adding that “Today, they are moving ahead because they chose competent leadership, clear vision and policies that support local production and human capital development.”
He also criticised the economic policies of the present administration, particularly the continued importation of food items that can be produced locally, describing such practices as inimical to national development.
“You cannot grow an economy by killing local production. Importing food that we can produce in Nigeria destroys jobs, weakens our farmers and drains our foreign exchange. A serious country must produce what it consumes”, he argued.
The event featured renewed calls from ADC supporters for sustained engagement and mobilisation, as Mr Obi reiterated his belief that Nigeria remains redeemable if led with honesty, competence and a commitment to shared national progress.
In his remarks, the National Chairman of the ADC, Senator David Mark, expressed confidence in the emerging coalition, assuring Nigerians that the party would deliver good governance at all levels of administration if entrusted with power.
The gathering also witnessed the defection of several prominent politicians from different political parties across the South-East and beyond.
The motion endorsing the defection was moved by a former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Emeka Ihedioha, and seconded by former economic adviser to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, Prof. Osita Ogbu.
Goodwill messages from notable political figures, including Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, Mrs. Aisha Yesufu, Chief Sam Egwu, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, Chief Achike Udenwa, Mr Onyema Ugochukwu and Senator Gilbert Nnaji among others, further underscored the growing momentum within the ADC.