These are indeed days of anomie in Nigeria. A horde of raucous persons who mask under the guise of see-me patriotism and self-righteous pontification now mount every available podium of public discourse to run down the Federal Government.

Knowing the characteristics of this horde, one is not surprised that they have descended upon the person and integrity of Her Excellency, Dame (Dr.) Patience Goodluck Jonathan. Her sin this time was the proposal by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) to fund the African First Ladies Peace Mission (AFLPM) building in Abuja. The charges trumped upon the First Lady are same, as usual: The Office of the First Lady is unconstitutional; the African First Ladies Peace Mission (AFLPM) is a non-governmental organization; the budget is profligate, among other numerous charges laid by every Dick and Harry among them that have access to the free but sponsored media.

The idea of this piece is not to respond to all the charges laid by this horde, but to put the project and its intention in clear perspective to the ordinary Nigerians whose gullible minds these hordes are scavenging upon, just to deceive.

The very first impression one gets upon glancing over the crafty headlines of their commentaries is that the First Lady’s office is building a house for Her Excellency, Dame (Dr.) Patience Goodluck Jonathan, which of course is not the case. Those who are tolerant enough to read through their drift will come to understand that they are saying the FCTA is building a house for the First Lady, which also is not the case. The project in question is the Secretariat of the African First Ladies Peace Mission (AFLPM) to be domiciled in Abuja, our Federal Capital, which the name of Her Excellency, Dame (Dr.) Patience Goodluck Jonathan, will not be mentioned in any of its deeds, apart from the fact that the project was her dream, borne out of her passion for a peaceful Africa and based on the mandate given Nigeria at the 6th Summit of the African First Ladies Peace Mission held in Congo Brazzaville in 2008 when Hajia Turai Yar’Adua (and not Dame Patience Jonathan) was the President of the continental body. Her Excellency, Dame (Dr.) Patience Goodluck Jonathan, actually completed the term began by Hajia Turai in 2010 after the sad demise of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in office. Her Excellency, Dame (Dr.) Patience Goodluck Jonathan, was elected to Chair the continental body at the Summit held in Abuja in 2012

To bring back the memory of the detractors, the African First Ladies Peace Mission was created in 1996 to promote peace and harmony in the African continent after the Beijing Conference on Women and its subsequent Declaration in Zimbabwe during the Organization of African Unity (OAU), now African Union (AU). I also feel compelled to remind the public that all the African First Ladies had at their conference some two years back, resolved unanimously, to make Abuja the seat of the permanent Secretariat of the Peace Mission whose importance is highlighted by the spate of crises ravaging different parts of Africa.

It is indeed a shame and ironic that the construction of the continental Secretariat of such a pivotal organ of the AU like the African First Ladies Peace Mission has been made a subject of ill-motivated debates and evil politics as we are witnessing in Nigeria today.

The question that begs an answer is: Why have critics resorted to spreading needless and inciting speculations about a major project which has the potential to touch the lives of hundreds of millions of youths and women in Africa – Nigeria inclusive? What is the motive of these sponsored activists? Are they still doing the dirty job for their political desperados and for what reasons?

Another issue of great concern to me is how the reckless peddlers have decided to turn their rancor toward the person of the Honourable Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Bala Mohammed. Their schema is simple – they view the Minister as key to the actualization of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s Transformation Agenda in the nation’s capital as well as a perceptive loyalist of President Jonathan. I hear that these critics of advancement are perpetrating this mischief because of 2015 electoral variation, in which case they perceive the FCT Minister as a formidable obstacle to the realization of their unsighted ambitions.

I believe unambiguously:

*That Act No. 6 of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (formerly Decree No. 6) which created the Federal Capital Territory and the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) vests the FCT Administration with the statutory function of designing and constructing public buildings on behalf of the Federal Government for use by all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA’s) as well as other National and International organizations for the benefit of the public;

*That the planned African First Ladies Peace Mission House is not a property belonging to Dame Patience Goodluck Jonathan;

*That planned African First Ladies Peace Mission House is the Secretariat of the African First Ladies Peace Mission of the African Union (AU);

*That it is in the overall interest of the Nigerian people that the FCTA has embarked on the construction of the African First Ladies Peace Mission Secretariat in Abuja, as this will provide employment for Nigerians who will work as staff of these office;

*The past Federal Capital Territory Administration had built edifices such as the National Hospital for Women and Children (now National Hospital) and the Women Center, both of which were championed by former First Ladies; and that these buildings are today still being used and enjoyed by the public.

Finally, I want to use this medium to call on the FCT Minister to completely ignore and disregard all distractions as posed by those who are bent on seeing the FCT administration fail. They are rented activists who wish Nigeria below par. They are rebels who hide under sentence structure and blank oratory. They are enemies of progress whose desire of causing pandemonium in our Country is out in the open. Unfortunately, they have failed while Nigeria will move smoothly under your mature resolution to transform Nigeria.

•Adewole, a Public Affairs Analyst, writes from Abuja.

•Photo: First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan.

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