|
Turai Yar'adua and the First Ladies club
By Reuben Abati
THE wife of
President Umaru Yar'Adua, Hajia Turai Yar'Adua has so far been a quiet
figure in the corridors of power. There have been reports before now,
about the First Lady travelling abroad with delegations of government
officials. Former Minister of Health, Adenike Grange, now sadly a guest
of the EFCC, was said to have been part of her delegation abroad in
March only to return and run into a storm which swept her out of
office. Before then, we had heard about the First Lady during the
wedding of her daughter, Zainab to the Governor of Kebbi State, Usman
Dakingari.
In September 2007, she was the guest of honour
at the commissioning of a Braille Centre in Akure, Ondo State, built by
the Handicapped Education Foundation (HANDEF), a non-governmental
organisation founded by Mrs. Olufunke Agagu, the First Lady of Ondo
State. In February 2008, she attended the African First Ladies Meeting
in Addis Ababa. In March, she gave a terse but useful speech on
International Women's Day. On March 24, she travelled to the United
States for a Cancer-related event. Because of her quiet mien, the
question had been variously asked: What manner of First Lady would
Turai Yar'Adua be? But now, it looks like Yar'Adua's First Lady is
about to step out of the shadows and hit the limelight with whatever
force is available to her position, if not office. Why do I say this?
May I draw attention to a seemingly innocent
but instructive incident which took place at the Presidential Villa,
Abuja on Wednesday, April 9. Mrs Yar'Adua had invited to the Villa for
a Consultative meeting, all former First Ladies. At the meeting, she
was said to have solicited the support of her predecessors-in-office,
for the fight against the problem of child and maternal mortality in
the country, and her position as the Chairperson of the African First
Ladies Peace Mission. Out of the 12 women that had preceded her in that
position, seven were in attendance: Chief Margaret Shonekan, Hajia
Mariam Abacha, Hajia Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Mrs. Ngozi Aguiyi-Ironsi,
Prof. Uche Azikiwe, Mrs. Victoria Gowon and Dr. Ajoke Murtala Mohammed.
Conspicuously missing was Mrs. Maryam Babangida
and Justice Fati Abubakar. Former Head of State, General Muhammadu
Buhari did not have a First Lady playing a major role in the public
arena. Same with former President Shehu Shagari. Mrs. Stella Obasanjo
is of blessed memory. What makes the meeting remarkable is that this
was not a private meeting, but a public meeting with a photo session.
The Vanguard on April 10, published a group photograph of what looks
like a First Ladies Club on its front page.
Mrs. Turai Yar'Adua is not new to the office of
First Lady. For eight years, she served in that capacity in Katsina
State when her husband was Governor of Katsina State. Those who are
close to her or who have been privileged to watch her closely have
remarked that behind the quiet mien, and the shawl that has become a
near-permanent feature of her sartorial make-up is a sharp and informed
mind. A product of Garama Primary School, Katsina, Government Secondary
School, Kankia and the Katsina College of Arts, Science and Technology
Zaria, Mrs. Yar'Adua obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Education, in 1983
from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. She got married to President
Umaru Yar'Adua in 1975 and the marriage is blessed with seven children
- 5 girls and 2 boys. In Mrs. Yar'Adua, we can presume that we are
dealing not with a beautiful face dressed up in frippery and surrounded
by power but a lady who has seen much and probably knows a lot.
In August 2007, Mrs. Yar'Adua had taken a bold
step by organising a two-day workshop for governors' wives and the
wives of the principal officers of the National Assembly on ethics and
decorum. In November, she also hosted the spouses of foreign
ambassadors in Nigeria. At this particular occasion, she drew attention
to her intended pet project, Women and Youths Empowerment Foundation
(WAYEF). It would appear through her catalogue of activities that Mrs.
Yar'adua has been feeling her way around the office, but just before
she launches WAYEF publicly and begins to consult the members of the
Association of First Ladies of Nigeria, a few words of advice may be
necessary.
Mrs. Turai Yar'Adua should tread carefully and
avoid the pitfall of scandals. Nowhere in the 1999 Constitution is a
public role prescribed for the wives of public officials, but it is
widely accepted that women in this privileged position can play a
supportive role to their husbands. What has happened however, in
Nigeria is that the position of First Lady is one of the most abused
privileges in recent history. It has been the fashion since Mrs. Maryam
Babangida's Better Life for Rural Women and Mrs. Maryam Abacha's Family
Support Project for every First Lady to introduce a pet project, all
under the excuse of supporting the government led by their spouses to
deliver good governance. The standard practice is to choose a narrow
theme and task and then build this up into a vast bureaucracy.
It became so bastardised that every wife of a
State Governor and wives of Local Government Chairmen also announced
pet projects. These were in reality, wasteful ventures, and special
purpose vehicles for defrauding the state. Public funds were illegally
invested in activities initiated by these alternative structures. The
First Ladies' projects often received better funding than statutory
agencies of government. And most of these women became shameless
power-brokers, holding court alongside their husbands, and of course,
sycophants in the corridors of power knew that the best way to gain
access was to be in the good books of the First Lady.
Invariably, every project led by a First Lady
organised a public launching where money would be raised and donations
were received. At such events, public funds were recklessly donated to
the First Lady. One First Lady was said to have advised that all
cheques should be written in her name! Equally worrisome was the
life-style of the First Ladies. They travelled, even within the state,
in siren-bearing convoys, chasing other Nigerians off the streets; of
course they used government vehicles and were provided with as much
security as the President or the Governor. Traditionally, they are
addressed as "Your Excellency", and at state functions, they are ranked
in the order of protocol, as if they were the military administrator or
the elected Governor or President.
So loud, so embarrassing was the First Lady
phenomenon that when President Olusegun Obasanjo assumed office in
1999, he had promised that there would be no office of First Lady. But
Mrs. Stella Obasanjo soon asserted herself, and confronted Nigerians
with a First Ladyship that was exceeded in glamour only by the
legendary example of Mrs. Maryam Babangida and in the exercise of
authority, perhaps by Mrs. Maryam Abacha. Mrs. Obasanjo soon launched
her own pet project, the Child Trust Fund but let us not speak ill of
the dead.
I admit that there have been instances when a
First Lady could really exude dignity and restraint, and when a pet
project by a First Lady could add value. Out of the seven former First
Ladies that honoured Mrs. Yar'Adua's invitation, six will pass the
first leg of this test - Chief Margaret Shonekan, Hajia Tafawa Balewa,
Mrs. Aguiyi-Ironsi, Prof. Uche Azikiwe (was she really Zik's First
Lady?), Mrs. Victoria Gowon and Mrs. Ajoke Mohammed. But what kind of
advice can Mrs. Maryam Abacha possibly give Mrs. Yar'Adua? In terms of
projects, I recall with satisfaction and without meaning to be partial,
Mrs. Eki Igbinedion's campaign against prostitution and child
trafficking as First Lady of Edo State (1999-2007), Mrs. Remi Tinubu's
New Era Foundation in Lagos State during the same period, and Mrs. Titi
Abubakar's Women Trafficking and Child Labour Eradication Foundation
(WOTCLEF). Eki Igbinedion even wrote personal essays in the press to
push her arguments. Mrs. Tinubu was passion personified and her New Era
Foundation was truly a productive and useful initiative. Mrs. Titi
Abubakar, although "a Second Lady" in the Presidency, made much impact
with WOTCLEF. It is up to Mrs. Yar'Adua to decide the kind of First
Lady she wants to be.
She has a choice between the power-mongering,
Presidential jet-flying, tummy tucking crowd, and the urbane, dignified
and supportive wife who is conscious of the limits of power. She has
chosen to focus on maternal and infant mortality. This is a useful area
of intervention. Nigeria has one of the highest rates of maternal
morbidity, maternal mortality and pre-natal mortality in the world, a
reflection of the prostrate state of our health sector and the
constriction, by poverty and official incompetence, of access to
quality and affordable healthcare. What we face in the health sector,
as in other aspects of national life, is an emergency of clearly tragic
proportions. Mrs. Yar'Adua can do a lot, in the area of advocacy for
government intervention and the enlightenment of mothers and
communities about the risks of maternal morbidity and infant mortality,
and how to prevent needless deaths. At the moment, infant mortality in
Nigeria is about 95.52 deaths per 1,000 live births; maternal mortality
is 15,000 per 100,000 births annually.
Mrs. Turai Yar'Adua must resist the temptation
to transform from a quiet First Lady, to a loud, unnecessarily
self-assertive, closet politician. She must watch the company she keeps
and the counsel she accepts. Now that she has announced to the whole
world that she is seeking support, it would not just be the former
First Ladies who would be forthcoming with advice, she can also expect
a crowd of professional consultants providing ideas and pushing
proposals on "How she can be the best First Lady in Nigerian History',
or "How her Pet Project can raise funds". Too many people would love to
be seen around her, or to be seen to be in her good books and soon,
some hacks will offer to do her biography. Whatever happens, she should
not accept donations or monetary gifts from government agencies. There
must be no public launching of her pet project, no travels in the
Presidential jet either except when she is in the company of her
husband. Mrs. Yar'Adua should not seek government contracts, or act as
facilitator for contractors. Other First Ladies, including her own
colleagues between 1999 and 2007 were government contractors on the
side. One First Lady took the catering and furniture contract during
the 8th All African Games and messed it up!
And let her keep an eye on her children,
please. Presidential sons and daughters have given us more than enough
trouble in this land! And Madam, please stop travelling around with
government officials. President Yar'Adua has promised Nigerians a
prudent and responsible government. Mrs. Yar'Adua must be seen to be
toeing the same path. She can be sure that Nigerians, ever so sensitive
about the First Lady syndrome, will be watching every step she takes.
|
Authors 
Posted by Robot| 11.04.2008 08:42