Is this a joke? Patience Jonathan appointed Permanent Secretary in Bayelsa
- Details
- Category: POLITICS
- Published on Thursday, 12 July 2012 07:41
- Written by Ogbufefi Blogs
I really don't know how to feel at the appointment of Patience Jonathan, who is from Okrika, Rivers State, as Permanent Secretary in Bayelsa State. When I first heard the news, I actually thought it was another joke by some online blogger, similar to the joke played by one prankster website when he wrote that Reuben Abati has
explained that President Jonathan could not say Amen to a prayer against corruption in an Asso Vila chapel because our constitution prescribed the number of Amen the president could say to a prayer, and the president had exhausted his quote of Amens!
But this one is True!
The First Lady, Wednesday added another notch to her profile by being the first wife of a sitting president to be appointed into the high echelon of the civil service order, while yet serving as the nation’s First Lady.
She was appointed a Permanent Secretary by the Seriake Dickson-led government of Bayelsa State.
The senior special assistant to the governor on media affairs, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, confirmed the appointment of Mrs. Jonathan Wednesday, saying that the governor, in doing so, only exercised his powers as enshrined in the laws of the state.
Iworiso-Markson explained that the First Lady was a teacher in the state’s civil service and has been on leave of absence since 1999 when her husband became the deputy governor of the state.
Jonathan, a native of Okrika in Rivers State, had served in the Rivers and Bayelsa states civil services before her husband’s election as deputy governor. Yours sincerely wonders whether she had been due for appointment as permanent secretary before her husband’s first election.
The announcement made on the state broadcasting station, Radio Bayelsa, and signed by the Head of Service, Mrs. Gloria Izonfor, stressed that the constitutional power conferred on Dickson, in section 203 sub section 2c, Dame Jonathan and 17 others were elevated to the position of permanent secretary in the state civil service.
As if to pre-empt queries and unfair remarks that may trail the appointment, the governor’s spokesman argued that Mrs Jonathan would have risen to the status of a permanent secretary, if she did not punctuate her career growth by taking a leave of absence to join her husband in his political service, first to Bayelsa State and then to the entire nation.
Listening to the Dame in her typical Waffi pidgin English, you cannot even tell that the wife of the President has a National Certificate of Education in Mathematics/Biology, which she obtained in 1989 from the Rivers State College of Education. YES, She also has a degree in Biology and Psychology (Education) from the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The announcement surely took yours sincerely by surprise. I have not quite associated the nation’s First Lady, a career civil servant.
Indeed, until she became the wife of the then Vice-President, Goodluck Jonathan, not much was known or heard of the First Lady.
As the wife of the governor of Bayelsa State, and thus the First Lady of the state, Mrs Jonathan operated more under the shadow of her husband, and so was not exactly visible. But all that is in the past.
Now, she is an engaging national personality, what with her idiosyncrasies which have defined her in the minds of many Nigerians.
Well, what can I say...
Governor Seriake Dickson, SYCOPHANT is thy name!!!
This joke of a governor probably thinks this is the best way to repay a favour...remember President Goodluck Jonathan muscled out the former Bayelsa Governor, Timipre Sylva and muscled in Dickson.
Nigeria IS FAST becoming A HUGE JOKE which no sane person should take seriously.
However, in this season boko haram/Fulani herdsmen atrocities in Plateau state, Oil subsidy mind boggling corruption, and President Jonathan's seeming helplessness, we should thank Governor Seriake Dickson for providing this side distraction to make us laugh and forget our sorrows.
