....AND DAME WEPT....

What a week it has been for Nigeria and Nigerians.  The past week should have been called ‘the week the world stood still for Nigeria’. But how I wish the world stopped for something positive. How I wish the reason the world stopped for Nigeria was that one of our scientists discovered the cure for cancer. Or that one of our universities finally claimed the top spot for world’s best universities. Oh, how I wish we gained full global attention for something else other than terrorism. But nay, not so. We had to garner international media attention because some godless beasts hell bent on destroying our democracy decided to kidnap some helpless school girls. 

In the midst of all the media brouhaha, I stumbled upon a certain ‘Diariz God’ video trending on twitter and other social media platforms. The first time I watched the video, I refused to believe it. And no, it had nothing to do with the grammar of Nigeria’s First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan. It also has nothing to do with the ‘chai, there is God o’ voodoo chant. My disbelief was more like the, ‘wtf-yougottabekiddingme-whothehellgavehertherighttodothat’ kind. 

I couldn’t believe the show Dame put on.  I couldn’t believe that Dame chose to put on a poorly scripted and directed show while our girls stayed missing. When families of the abducted Chibok girls and the nation at large are pained, Dame chose to call in the press and shed what I best describe as crocodile tears on National television.

And therein lies my annoyance and the whole point of my writing. Dame is JUST a wife of the president. She is NOT elected into any office. Only the president and other duly elected public officers count. Their wives are not part of governance.  She THEREFORE HAS NO RIGHT WHATSOEVER to be engaging in governance.

She had No right to engage in  interrogation of the principal of Chibok Secondary School like some defence lawyer. She had No CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT to summon officials of WAEC, parents of the abducted Chibok girls, ministers and others to a meeting. What bloody meeting? In what capacity? By virtue of her marital status as the president’s wife? Maybe she didn't get the memo that being the wife of the president doesn’t give her the right to summon government officials to advertised shows meetings.

A friend admonished me for condemning Dame’s theatrics. According to her, she is a mother and like every mother she is concerned. I will tell you what I told my friend. I asked her to shut the hell up. Concern my black a**!

Where was her concern when the president hopped on the presidential jet and jetted off to Kano for a political engagement barely 24 hours after the first Nyanya bomb blast? Where was this concern the first time news filtered in that over 200 school girls had been kidnapped from their school and it took her husband, President Jonathan, 12 DAYS to issue a statement about it? In fact, where was this concern when she first denied that the girls were even kidnapped? 

If not for the power of the social media and the fact that the international community has stepped into the case, would she be weeping? Did it suddenly occur to her that the blood being shared shed is not good?  Or that there is God? If she wanted to show concern, there were better ways of doing that. Unfortunately, throwing up her hands and wailing like a banshee isn’t one of them.

Dame’s weeping, rather than help the critical situation on ground, only succeeded in dramatizing an already worsening situation. Her theatrics succeeded in ridiculing the nation and trivialising the seriousness of the abduction of our girls.

Like every truly concerned Nigerian, I join my voice with those of the world over to demand that they #BringBackOurGirls.

XoXo

NAWTIprof.