A Brief History of First Ladies
The concept of First Lady
and the aura of officialdom that it carries was invented in the United States
of America where the spouse of the sitting President or a lady relative in the
case of an unmarried or widowed President served as the hostess of the White
House.
Whilst there is no
constitutional provision for the First Lady, there are elements of protocol and
dignities conferred on her by reason of the position her husband holds.
Lisa M. Burns in
her book First Ladies and the Fourth Estate: Press Framing of Presidential
Wives (2008) suggests the following themes in First Ladyship in the United
States of America as public woman (1900–1929); as political celebrity
(1932–1961); as political activist (1964–1977); and as political interloper
(1980–2001).
A Vulgarity of First Ladies
The same idea seems
to have taken hold around the world with cliques of regional First Ladies
gathering for all sorts of projects spanning one, some or all of those themes
and more.
Nowhere has this
role become even more prominent to include another theme of political
aggrandisement and abuse than in Nigeria.
Sadly, the more
recent First Ladies in Nigeria have left the graces and comportment one would have expected of them to become vain as exemplified sadly in the death by
misadventure of Mrs Stella Obasanjo after a botched cosmetic surgery procedure,
greed as depicted in the Wikileaks exposés of Mrs Turai Yar’Adua and Mrs or
rather Dame Patience Jonathan appears to combine vanity, greed and a lack of
moderation that leaves one astounded beyond words.
A Truth Commission Bites
Whilst it is
difficult not to catch a whiff of vendetta against the previous governor of
Ogun State, the establishment of the Ogun State Truth Commission under the
chairmanship of Hon. Justice Pius O. Aderemi JSC (Rtd.) has brought some focus
that should hopefully start the discourse about the role of First Ladies in
Nigeria, having recommended the prosecution of the wife of the erstwhile
governor of Ogun State.
Justice Pius
Aderemi as a former justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria I will presume is
of the legal mind to properly assess these roles and even offer recommendations
on how these roles should be undertaken.
Take Notice
A number of key
statements in his recommendations are important to note and develop.
“The proven
excesses of Mrs. Olufunke Daniel arose from the widespread abuse of spouses of
Governors and Presidents when there is no legal basis for the office of First
Lady in Nigeria. The State and Federal Governments should evolve an
administrative mechanism that ensures that wives of Governors and Presidents
carry out what they perceive to be their duties unobtrusively.”
“It is the view of
the Commission that the victim established a prima facie case of criminal
offence against Mrs. Olufunke Daniel,” Justice Aderemi said. “Mrs. Olufunke
Daniel undoubtedly held herself out as a Public Officer by moving to the
Petitioner’s house with armed police escorts and ordering the policemen to beat
Mr. Odunaya.”
These two
paragraphs are without doubt very lucid in the arguments that form the basis
for putting the so-called First Ladies of any sitting official or even First
Gentlemen, First Spouses or First Partners in their places.
The inference drawn
here is that certain wives of Governors and Presidents have been given to both
excess and abuse while answerable to no one, even though the immunity from
prosecution their spouses have does not apply to them.
As We Stand
However the key
points I want to make from these two paragraphs are the following.
- There is no legal basis for the office of any First Lady in Nigeria.
- An administrative mechanism that ensures that wives of Governors and Presidents carry out what they perceive to be their duties unobtrusively is need, more like a Code of Conduct and Ethics.
- The wife of a Governor or President can be criminally liable and is not above the law if anyone might need to seek redress for their actions.
- The wife of a Governor or President is not a Public Office, whilst they might have protective detail by reason of their status they do not have authority to use such detail to exact the law or forment activities that should be delegated and commanded by law enforcement officers.
- Now for reasons of protocol, the First Lady with her spouse present should be accorded the status, respect and dignities commensurate with her spouse when accompanying him.
Diplomacy and Courtesies
There is however
nothing in the Order of Precedence Act that identifies a Nigerian First Lady of
any description in her own right, no wives of any public officials are
accorded any relevance in the absence of their husbands.
The fact that the
wife of a Public Official is NOT a Public Official just by reason of marriage
means they are not covered by the Order of Precedence.
Husbands may
however confer rights of representation to non-official functions on their
wives to stand in their stead and officiate thereby but not in the substantive
office of their spouses.
Any dignities,
graces, courtesies and respect accorded the wife of a public official is by
reason of the respect given to her husband, that respect does not automatically
endow a right or status of superiority on the wife when her husband is absent.
Proscribe this anomaly
However, crude this
may sound, the excesses and abuses of First Ladies in Nigeria now requires we
roll back the red carpets, dispense with the nauseating obsequiousness and tone
down on the unnecessary genuflection and fawning.
They should return
to being hostesses of the Presidential villas and Governor’s houses to be sometimes
invited to cut the tape at garden bazaars. The entourages and corteges of the
sycophantic apparatchiks clogging up our streets to the inconvenience of the
many should stop forthwith.
In fact, we should
only see or hear of the those First ladies when their husbands are out and
about, this whole charade has become nuisance that even the utterly uncultured
can no more abide.
Away with the Marie
Antoinettes of our age.
References
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