Today, one
important figure that might find it almost impossible to walk the streets of
Lagos unaided is ironically the lady, who's supposed to be the mother figure in
the country, the nation's First Lady, Patience Jonathan.
The grouse of most
Lagosians against the First Lady is the fact that anytime she visits, she
leaves behind traces of pains and agonies, even days after her visit.
Investigations
reveled that since the beginning of the year, the First Lady had, on more than
three occasions, practically shut down business activities in the state as very
important economical centres are forced to shut down as roads leading to such
places are closed or diverted just because of an individual, who has no role to
play in either the economic or political life of the nation.
A business mogul
on the Island recently latched out that even the man saddled with the
responsibility of governing the state, Babatunde Fashola (SAN), in all the
years he has spent in office, has not for one minute disturbed vehicular
movement.
“This woman thinks
Lagosians are jobless, gone are those eras of the military that people lined
the streets to wave at the wives of their leaders, you remember the eras of
glamorous first ladies such as Victoria Gowon and Maryam Babangida, nobody has
the time now. Can you imagine what the woman (Patience) caused me on April 12;
she came to Lagos and was on Victoria Island on what they claimed to be a thank
you visit to the South-South Women for voting in her husband.
“You can see from
this that she is jobless, even Turai Yar'Adua, at the peak of her husband's
reign, never did the kind of things this woman is doing. The whole of the
Island was almost shut down till she finished what she came for. Lagos had
never witnessed the kind of traffic she and her hangers on caused that day as
it spread to almost all parts of the state.
“The same scenario
was also to play out on June 3, when the First Lady and her retinue of friends
reportedly flew into Lagos in a presidential jet just to attend a naming
ceremony.
“What was supposed
to be a private affair was turned into a state affair. That Sunday that the
Dana Plane crashed, she was in Lagos, I think she flew in on Saturday and was
at Oriental Hotel, Lekki, Lagos for the naming and dedication ceremony of one
of the aides of her husband, the president. It beats one's imagination the kind
of stampede she caused on this axis. That day, worshippers, who hold their
service in this hotel, were practically shut out, likewise lodgers in the
5-star hotel and their guests,” he said.
Also coming on the heels of the ill-fated
crash and the executive nuisance the presence of the First Lady caused in a
Lagos, a social media blog alleged that the crash was caused by the ill-timed
movement of the First Lady, which necessitated the shut down of the airspace
that day for about two hours just to ensure the safety of the president's wife
and as a result of this, the plane that had declared a 'mayday' was unable to
land.
The office of the First Lady however, quickly
countered this claim by asserting that Patience was nowhere near the airport as
at the time of the unfortunate incident.
A source however,
said “notwithstanding this denial, if the First Lady had not been walking and
gallivanting on the edge of a cliff, she wouldn't have been in the mess in the
first instance.”