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.
The Senate yesterday urged President Bola Tinubu to remove the Registrar-General of the Corporate Affairs Commission, Hussaini Magaji, over what lawmakers described as a persistent refusal to appear before its Committee on Finance.
The resolution followed a motion raised by Senator Orji Uzor Kalu during a session where members of the President’s economic team were present for engagement with the committee.
Tension rose at the commencement of the meeting when agency heads were introduced and senators observed the absence of the CAC Registrar-General, who had been invited to account for the commission’s activities, particularly on revenue matters.
Moving the motion, Kalu expressed anger over what he termed repeated disregard for legislative oversight, accusing the CAC boss of consistently avoiding invitations to appear before the committee.
He said, “Since I came to the Senate, this CAC man has always given excuses that he is in the Villa or going to London. He is not above the law. This man is not coming to the Senate. Look at the ministers of finance and budget. They are both here. We summoned them and they came.
“But this man thinks he’s bigger than the Senate. We’re not going to take that rubbish again. He had refused on so many occasions to honour our invitation to appear before this committee. We have issues with the reconciliation of the revenue of CAC.
“I move a motion that the man should be reported to Mr President and ask for immediate removal because we cannot continue with him. Is that what we’re doing here? He should come and give us an account of what he had done.”
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Sani Musa, corroborated the concerns, pointing to unresolved discrepancies in the reconciliation of the commission’s revenues.
He noted that despite several invitations, the registrar-general had failed to show up to address the issues raised by senators.
“The registrar-general of the Corporate Affairs Commission has refused on so many occasions to honour the calls, invitations or summons of this most important committee.
“There are only about three committees that are in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Committee of Finance is one of those committees. Sections 88, and 89 have given us these powers.
“And as registrar-general, we have issues with the reconciliation of their revenue. Anytime he is invited, he will give us one reason or another, and he will send junior officers to come and talk to the Senate. That cannot be accepted,” he said.
In a further show of frustration, Senator Adams Oshiomhole proposed that the Senate escalate the matter by withholding approval of the CAC’s 2026 budget pending the registrar-general’s personal appearance before the committee.
Oshiomhole also suggested that the commission be restrained from spending its internally generated revenue without prior approval of the national assembly.
“This senate should decline to appropriate anything in the 2026 budget until we are satisfied that he has accounted for previous money and spending properly.
“And should he spend money that is not appropriated, he should be heading to Kuje prison,” Oshiomhole said.
The motion urging the President to remove the CAC Registrar-General was subsequently put to a voice vote and adopted.
The development underscores renewed assertiveness by the Senate in exercising its constitutional oversight functions, particularly over revenue-generating agencies.
The Corporate Affairs Commission, which regulates companies and business registrations in Nigeria, is a key contributor to non-oil revenue, making accountability and transparency central to its operations.
President Bola Tinubu has appealed to the leadership of the 10th Senate to amend the constitution to provide a legal framework for the establishment of State Police to tackle insecurity nationwide.
President Tinubu made the appeal during an interfaith breakfast with senators at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, yesterday.
The president said that the creation of State Police has become urgent to address Nigeria’s evolving security challenges, strengthen grassroots policing, and enhance states’ capacity to respond swiftly to threats within their jurisdictions.
He noted that a decentralised policing structure would complement existing federal security architecture and promote intelligence-led, community-focused law enforcement.
“We are facing terrorism, banditry, and insurgency. But we will never fail to make a right response to this cause. What I will ask for tonight is for you (Senators) to start thinking how best to amend the constitution to incorporate the State Police for us to secure our country, take over our forests from marauders, and free our children from fear,” he said.
The president commended the cordial relationship between the Executive and the Senate, saying that unity is needed to defeat terrorism and banditry in the country.
“It is a good thing that we are working in harmony, we are looking forward to a country that evolves, a country that takes care of its citizens and protects all.
Tinubu thanked the Senate for its unflinching support towards achieving various economic reforms of his administration, especially the fuel subsidy removal and tax reform policy.
“I have a lot of credit for bold reforms. Without your collaboration and inspiration, those reforms would not be possible. We are reformists together. What we gave up and what we stopped is monumental corruption in the subsidy system. We don’t want to participate in monumental corruption and arbitrage foreign exchange.
You don’t have to chase me for dollars; you could see what Nigeria is today. You should be proud, and I am glad you are. What we are enjoying is a stable economy, and prosperity is beckoning us. We need to work hard, and this attendance means a lot to me,” the president said.
President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, commended the president for hosting the leadership of the Senate to the Interfaith breaking of fast.
He commended President Tinubu for providing the visionary leadership the nation needs at this critical time, stating that the administration’s bold reforms have now brought more revenue to governors at the sub-national level for the development of critical infrastructure.
The Senate President prayed for the administration, and for the nation’s peace and prosperity.
Alhaji Mohammed Kasim, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has won the Gwagwalada Area Council chairmanship election in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Philip Akpeni, the Returning Officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), announced the results on Sunday morning.
Alhaji Kasim polled 22,165 votes to defeat Alhaji Yahaya Shehu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who polled 17,788 votes.
Alhaji Biko Umar of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) scored 1, 687 to come in third place.
“I am the returning officer for the 2026 FCT Area Council, Gwagwalada chairmanship held on Feb. 21, 2026,” Akpeni said.
“That Mohammed Kasim of PDP, having certified the requirements of the law, is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected.”
In the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Hon. Christopher Maikalangu, the APC candidate, was declared the winner of the chairmanship poll with 40,295 votes.
Andrew Abue, the Collation Officer for AMAC, said Hon. Maikalangu, who is the incumbent AMAC chairman, was returned elected having scored the highest number of votes cast.
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) came second with 12,109 votes, while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) polled 3,398 votes.
According to Abue, the total number of valid votes in the chairmanship poll was 62,861, while the total votes cast stood at 65,197.
He added that the number of registered voters in AMAC was 837,338, while the total number of accredited voters was 65,676.
Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Mr. Joshua Ishaku of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the Bwari Area Council Chairmanship election.
Announcing the result on Sunday in Bwari, the Returning Officer for the election, Prof. Mohammed Nurudeen, stated that Ishaku polled a total of 18,466 votes to emerge victorious in the February 21, 2026 poll.
“I am the Returning Officer for the 2026 FCT Area Council, Bwari chairmanship held on Feb. 21, 2026. That Joshua Ishaku, having satisfied the requirements of the law, is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected,” Nurudeen said.
According to the results declared, the candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) secured 4,254 votes, while the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) polled 3,515 votes to place second and third respectively.
The declaration adds to the series of results emerging from the 2026 FCT Area Council elections, as political parties assess their performance ahead of future contests.
INEC UPLOADS 2,602 OF 2,822 FCT CHAIRMANSHIP RESULTS ON IReV
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had uploaded 2,602 out of the 2,822 expected polling unit results from Saturday’s chairmanship elections in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as at 5:55am on Sunday, data retrieved from its Result Viewing Portal (IReV) showed.
According to The Tide source, the figure represents an overall upload rate of about 92.2 per cent across the six area councils of the territory.
A council-by-council breakdown indicates that Municipal Area Council recorded the highest number of submissions in absolute terms, with 1,309 of 1,401 polling unit results uploaded, representing 93.43 per cent.
In Gwagwalada Area Council, 330 of the expected 338 polling unit results had been uploaded, representing 97.63 per cent — the highest upload rate among the six councils.
In Bwari Area Council, INEC uploaded 463 of 485 polling unit results, translating to 95.46 per cent.
In Abaji Area Council, 129 of 135 polling unit results had been uploaded as at 5:55am, representing 95.56 per cent.
In Kwali Area Council, 164 of the expected 201 polling unit results were available on the portal, representing 81.59 per cent.
In Kuje Area Council, 207 of 262 polling unit results had been uploaded, representing 79.01 per cent — the lowest rate among the six councils as at the time of review.
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