Although he has been in the saddle for about 6 years, he has not been leading the country alone. By virtue of being very close to the President, there are men and women who have been wielding huge influence on his Presidency.
It is therefore no gain saying that Jonathan did not lose this election alone.
These people calling the shots from their various comfort zones are also losers in their own right. Who are these President’s men and women?
1. Mrs. Patience Jonathan
Mrs. Patience Jonathan is the wife of the President. Like wives of Presidents before her, she runs the Office of the First Lady with glamour despite the fact that the office is not recognised in the nation’s constitution. So powerful is the woman who prefers to be called Mama Peace that she was also elected the President of the African First Ladies Mission, a body of wives of Presidents across the continent. She also founded a non-governmental organisation, Women for Change, which has the mandate of empowering women nationwide.
The influence she wields cannot be measured. Her hands seem to be on everything. She is believed to be the unseen hand behind the travail of a former Bayelsa State Governor, Timipre Sylva, which denied him a second term ticket. The former governor was made uncomfortable in the Peoples Democratic Party until he left to join the All Progressives congress.
They replaced Sylva with Governor Seriake Dickson. The current governor tried hard to please the President’s wife to the extent that she was made a Permanent Secretary in the state. The honeymoon, however, did not last. Dickson also ran into troubled water with the woman who is said to have pencilled down the Special Assistant to the President on Domestic Matters, Dr. Wariponmowei Dudafa, as the next governor. She has since resigned her appointment from the state job.
It is also a known fact the problem between the President and Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State which forced the governor out of the PDP started with a disagreement he had with Mrs. Jonathan over the demolition of some houses in Okrika, the ancestral home of the President’s wife.
To get something in this government, you must be in the good books of Mrs. Jonathan. That is why government officials and their spouses bow and tremble before her.
2. Diezani Alison-Madueke
Alison-Madueke is the Minister of Petroleum Resources. To say that she is one of the most influential ministers in Jonathan’s cabinet is an understatement. She is very powerful. She is one of the few ministers who are driven straight into the forecourt of the President’s office through the Service Chiefs’ Gate. Others always walk a distance of about 300metres from where their official cars are parked to the President’s office.
The minister was recently elected the first female President of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Three weeks after, she was also appointed the first female President of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum.
So powerful is she that she dragged the House of Representatives to court to stop the House from probing her for allegedly spending N10bn on the charter and maintenance of a jet for unofficial purposes. The Presidency remained quiet over the issue.
Alison-Madueke is no doubt a super minister in Jonathan’s cabinet.
3. Senator Pius Anyim
Anyim is the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. By virtue of his position, he is a big man (not about his stature) in the cabinet. He coordinates the activities of ministers.
Because of his closeness to the President, the former President of the Senate wields huge influence. He was accused of providing cover for the former Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Stella Oduah, when she was facing fire over the two bulletproof BMW cars bought for her. To avoid journalists, Oduah was on many occasions driven out of the Presidential Villa after weekly Federal Executive Council meetings in Anyim’s official car.
He is also alleged to have a hand in the crisis rocking the state chapter of the PDP in his home state, Ebonyi. The state governor, Martin Elechi, had claimed that Anyim was the brain behind the impeachment process initiated against him by some members of the state House of Assembly.
His camp was accused of foisting the state Deputy Governor, Dave Umahi, on the people as the PDP governorship candidate in the April 11 governorship election at a time when Elechi was rooting for a former Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu. The situation has forced many PDP stakeholders in the state to be working for the Labour Party.
4. Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Okonjo-Iweala is the Minister of Finance. Jonathan elevated her slightly below the Vice-President when he named her the Coordinating Minister for the Economy.
During a typical FEC meeting, ministers mill around the woman because of the kind of influence she wields in the cabinet. They consult her before presenting any memo to the council since they would need money to finance them.
Many Nigerians call Okonjo-Iweala the nation’s de facto Prime Minister.
5. Governor Godswill Akpabio
Akpabio is the Akwa Ibom State Governor. He is also the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum. Without any fear of contradiction, he can be said to be the closest governor to the President.
The governor supports Jonathan to a fault. The PDP Governors’ Forum that he chairs was formed to solely drum support for Jonathan in the face of continued friction between the Presidency and the Rotimi Amaechi-led Nigeria Governors’ Forum.
He is also one of the governors who formed the parallel NGF being led by Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State. In supporting Jonathan vehemently, however, Akpabio had unknowingly been enlisting more enemies for the President."
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