Proposed N4b First Ladies’ Mission House

The Federal Capital Territory’s N253 billion Appropriation Bill for the 2013 fiscal year recently debated by the Nigerian Senate is another controversy that will, for quite a while to come, be in the public arena. The budget has some provocative elements, four of which are: the N7.5 billion earmarked for the construction of the Abuja city gate; N5 billion for the rehabilitation of prostitutes; N150 million for the renovation of the vice-president’s guest house in Asokoro, Abuja, and the allocation of N4 billion for the construction of an office for the First Lady.

Among the four, the last is the most nauseating and it, once again, throws up the issue of the relevance or otherwise of the office of the First Lady in Nigeria.

We condemn this allocation in its entirety because, in these hard times, it shows lack of sensitivity to wish to spend a whopping N4 billion on an office not recognised in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is also scandalous when one considers how the Federal Government, in its own appropriation bill, allocated N1 billion for each federal university! So to budget N4 billion for the First Lady’s office (perhaps an eye service to her husband), to us, smacks of misplaced priority, on the path of the FCT authorities.

It we take a cue from the West, especially the United States of America, which Nigeria likes to ape, the office of the First Lady, traditionally filled by the wife of that country, is nothing more than a media creation. It has no constitutional basis. In the past, wives of the US presidents wanted either to be addressed as “Lady”, “Mrs. President” or “Mrs. Presidentress”. In fact, the wife of George Washington was called “Lady Washington.” It was the wife of President James Madison (1909-2007), Dolley, who, during her funeral eulogy delivered by President Zachary Taylor in 1949, was first referred to as “First Lady.”

After this, it became widely used at social circles and it was popularised by the media. On 3 November 1963, William Howard Russell, an Irish reporter for the London Times, made a diary entry, referring to Mary Todd Lincoln (wife of Abraham Lincoln) as “the First Lady in the Land.” And in 1877, when journalist Mary C. Ames was reporting on the inauguration of President Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881), she called his wife, Lucy, “the First Lady of the Land.”

Since then, the office has, according to historians, remained nothing but social, “She is the hostess of the White House, organizes and attends official ceremonies and functions of state either along with, or in place of, the president.”

However, they tried and still do engage in humanitarian services. Dolley Madison assisted orphans; Jacqueline Kennedy, redecorated and restored the White House; Lady Bird Johnson pioneered environmental protection and beautification; Pat Nixon, encouraged volunteerism; Betty Ford, women’s rights; Rosalynn Carter aided those with mental disabilities; Nancy Reagan founded the Just Say No drug awareness campaign and Barbara Bush promoted literacy. Moreover, Hillary Rodham Clinton sought to reform the healthcare system in the U.S.; Laura Bush supported women’s’ rights groups and encouraged childhood literacy and Michelle Obama is tackling childhood obesity.

What do we have in Nigeria? The First Lady, Patience Jonathan, is jumping from one controversy into another. Even her pet project is in crisis. For example, The Lady Chauffeur Training Scheme, LCTS, under her pet project, Women for Change Development Initiative, has not achieved its objective. It was in partnership with the National Directorate for Employment, NDE, meant to train 200 women in FCT, as cab drivers. But because there was no fund, the empowerment programme has not taken off.

If Nigeria is bent on keeping to the tradition of First Lady, we submit that public funds should not be allocated to it. Let the occupant use her goodwill to raise funds from the public, even companies doing business in Nigeria and multi national agencies.

She must be encouraged to engage in activities that will etch her name in the memory of Nigerians, not this kind of eye service allocation that would end up being diverted into private coffers at the expense of the vast majority of poverty stricken Nigerians.