Patience Jonathan forcefully takes over Parastatal as she squanders N5billion on her pet project.
Nigeria is a very interesting place with the current crop of people in power more interesting than the next.
At a time when the morale is low, security is a mess, infrastructure is pretty much non existent, education has been turned on its head and more suffering is imminent in the form of fuel subsidy removal; our dear first lady has sent an entire parastatal packing in order to give way to her “pet project.”
The Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, set up by Gazette in 2007 was pretty much “disbanded” when on Wednesday, three-quarters of the office complex was re-allocated to the “African First Lady Peace Initiative” a non Governmental Organization of the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan.
The ejection order, displaced four Directors, the whole of the accounts department and more than half of the Institute’s researchers.
Apparently, the Director-General of the Institute, Dr. Joseph H.P Golwa was summoned to the Presidential Villa, Aso Rock, Abuja and given matching orders to evacuate two-thirds of the Institute’s staff from its operational base.
Shortly after the Aso Rock meeting, it was gathered that some officials of the office of the First Lady visited the Central Area office of the Institute in the company of a man suspected to be the contractor in charge of rehabilitating the Institute’s building to the First lady’s tastes. Staff of the Institute were given 24 hours to remove their belongings.
The contractor, it was gathered, was told to create a separate gate, reception and other conveniences for the First Lady for a contract sum of N5 billion.
It is pertinent to bear in mind that not only is the office of the First Lady not known to the First and Second Amended 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria but 5billion Naira contract was not captured in this year’s budget.
I guess after the “office” of the First lady was unofficially created and glamorized by the Late Maryam Babangida, successive first ladies have almost fallen over themselves to outdo their predecessors.
This is the Nigeria we live in.
