Wife of the President, Mrs. Patience
Jonathan, has said she is not ready to feed her husband, President
Goodluck Jonathan, in prison.
The President’s wife spoke in Ado Ekiti, on Monday, during the rally of the women’s wing of the Peoples Democratic Party.
Making a reference to the All
Progressives Congress, she asked, “What did they forget in Aso Rock? If
you vote the PDP and Jonathan, it would be better for you. If you vote
the APC, you will go to prison. How can you jail somebody for 300 years?
I’m not ready to carry food to my husband inside prison oh!”
She openly admitted that the Office of the First Lady, which she occupies, is illegal.
She, however, said there was nothing wrong in a woman supporting her husband in office.
She said, “They said there is no Office
of the First Lady. Already, we know that there is no Office of the First
Lady but there is wife of the President.
“As (the) wife of the President, if you
are good, people will love you. You will have a Non-Governmental
Organisation through which you will touch people’s lives. That is why I
brought Women for Change Initiative.”
While she was talking, women – both old
and young – fought to have their share of the leftover of rice
distributed by Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, during the last
Christmas, packaged in small bags.
The women were still struggling over the
rice packaged in small bags when attention was diverted to another
struggle for buckets presented by Senator Gbemi Saraki in commemoration
of the October 16 inauguration of Fayose.
In the struggle, which almost resulted in a stampede, many of the women got injured.
Shoes, headgears, wigs and bags littered the floor while a woman was heard complaining to a friend that she lost her bangle.
Security men had a hectic time controlling the surging women who engaged in a brawl.
Mrs. Jonathan described APC as a poison, saying, “If you drink APC, you will die.”
Accusing the party of having to change
name several times, she said, “Since my father was born, they have been
around changing from one name to another. Very soon they would answer
Ebola. The name can’t change you; it is only performance that can change
you. If you like change it 100 times.
“Nigerian women shine your eyes, don’t go for analogue, go for digital. PDP is digital, APC is analogue.
Fayose at the event took a swipe at
former President Olusegun Obasanjo, saying his tacit support for the APC
presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), would get
him nowhere.
“After Jonathan, the North can have
their own eight years. Whether they like it or not, whether that our
baba, you know him, whether he tore his card or not, whether he ate the
card or not, Buhari is going nowhere,” he declared.
“Goodluck is our own. He is coming back.
I am carrying the mandate of a people who believe in me. If they do
elections here 20 times, I will win,” he boasted.
Mrs. Jonathan said it was time for the women to pay back her husband for appointing several women into positions of authority.
“This is the time to say thank you so
that he will do more. Those people when they were there, they said we
didn’t have brains. Jonathan came and lifted us from where we were lying
helplessly.”
She urged the women to collect their Permanent Voter Cards and vote massively for the president.
“PDP is not a party that tells lies.
Whatever we promise to do, we do. We are not a propagandist party. Ekiti
women, your mother is here and I will not tell you lies, but the truth.
“Nigerian women shine your eyes o! Vote
with what you have seen, who you already know and who has performed. If
anyone is telling you change, they are deceiving you.
“These were people that when they were
there before Goodluck Jonathan, they did not count you women as
anything. But today, PDP has wiped away our tears. Jonathan has wiped
off our tears. He has fulfilled his promise of giving women 35 per cent
participation. He gave 16 seats to women out of 42 slots in his cabinet.
He is a performer.”
Earlier, over 100 wives of Ekiti
monarchs welcomed the President’s wife to the palace of the Ewi of Ado
Ekiti, where seven of them prayed for her while she knelt down in their
midst.
Speaking through the wife of the Ewi,
Mrs. Abosede Adejugbe, the wives of the monarchs appealed to the
President’s wife to extend the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment
Programme to Ekiti State fully.
She assured her of total support in the coming general election.
The wife of the Ewi also called on six
other ‘oloris’ in addition to herself to pray for Mrs. Jonathan,
describing seven as a powerful number.
Source:Punch Newspaper.
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