Human Rights Activist Condemns Patience Jonathan

Human rights activists have condemned the wife of President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience, for causing gridlock that inhibited movement at the nation’s capital, Abuja, on Thursday.

The first lady had organized a women event, involving about 10,000 females at the Federal Capital Territory.

In an interview with our correspondent, Lagos lawyer, Bamidele Aturu, said the action of Patience was “symptomatic of elite privatization” of the country.

He said, “This kind of action is one of the symptoms of the hijack of the country by the elite. As far as people like the President’s wife are concerned, the country belongs to them and they believe they can do whatever they want.

“That is a feudal mentality. Mind you, she is not the only one who does this kind of thing. The wives of governors of the various states are also guilty. It simply shows that the members of the ruling class are incapable of checking themselves.

“The President himself is civil but he has the responsibility of cautioning his wife. We are not in a feudal society, Nigeria is a republic. We should exhibit our republican status.”

Another human rights lawyer, Jiti Ogunye, told Saturday PUNCH that it was “simply sad” that despite numerous condemnations of the culture of bringing about a city’s lockdown by an executive’s spouse in the media, the ruling class has not been able to check itself.

Ogunye said it was grievous enough for the President to cause such massive restraint of human vehicular movement “not to speak of his spouse, who has no executive powers.”

The lawyer said, “First it was Lagos, then Port Harcourt. Now it is Abuja. Perhaps she is trying to generate a feudal character by grinding the major cities in the country to a halt whenever she visits.

“It is emblematic of the serious problem of governance. This is a problem Nigeria needs to be saved from because we are already experiencing a gridlock in the socio-political atmosphere in this country.”

Ogunye pointed out that it is necessary to start thinking seriously about a class action to restrain the President’s wife from causing obstruction to the day-to-day activities of Nigerians