Earlier this year, the first lady of Nigeria, Dame Patience Jonathan at a lavish dinner, recounted tales of her resurrection in a German hospital even when reports of her illness had been vehemently denied by her media team who claimed that she was only resting. Listening to her claims of being a modern day Lazarus, I knew that there would be many more stories relating her to characters in the Bible but one was still unprepared for the reference by Rivers State lawmaker, Evans Bipi to the first lady as his “Jesus Christ” since all Biblical accounts describe Jesus in the masculine gender.
One would have expected that the Hon. Bipi, the illegally appointed Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly (more suitably described as a wrestling locker room) would have enough knowledge of the scripture to describe his benefactor by the names of one of the numerous great women in the Bible but it seemed that none would suffice to describe the woman who had “saved the world” than to ascribe divinity to her. Thus one could not sincerely blame the (dis)Honourable legislator whose world probably meant little in terms of influence and importance before the “salvation” of a political position was wrought in his life by the First lady or what other reason could someone have to claim another human being as his own Jesus Christ.
Such an unguarded statement like this and many more uttered by members of the ruling class in Nigeria’s landscape makes one wonder at the quality of leadership we have in this country who constantly showcase their intelligence (or is it lack of intelligence?) with the quality of statements they utter from time to time.
At this point one must truthfully say that there was surprise or indignation felt when the First lady referred to the Governor of the state as her son even when they are not as much a decade apart in age. After all, if she is Jesus to some people, being Amaechi’s mother puts the Governor in a very exalted position as the son of Jesus and who wouldn’t want to be the son of the divine one.
One’s hope is that, one day, unguarded statements from witless sycophants and patronising condescending statements such as mentioned earlier would no longer be part of Nigeria’s polity but until then I welcome you to meet Dame Patience Jonathan, mother of many and Jesus to some.