Is Patience Jonathan a ghost worker? – NNP Investigation

Posted by admin Bayelsa, First Ladies, Headlines, Raw Politics, State News Friday, July 13th, 2012

By New Nigerian Politics Staff Reporter

Information reaching New Nigerian Politics from Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, has confirmed that the former First Lady of that state and current First Lady of Nigeria, Dame Patience Jonathan, had been employed in the State civil service since her husband assumed the deputy governorship in 1999 and had been drawing salary since then.

A source in Creek Haven, the seat of government in Yenagoa who contacted New Nigerian Politics under the condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job stated that the First Lady though had worked for the state civil service had not attained the level of a permanent secretary which is the pinnacle of the civil service in Bayelsa and all the states in the federation.

The source continued and stated, “The First Lady has been working theoretically for the state but she has not been physically present for the past several years and most of us thought she had taken an extended leave of absence in the interest of probity. So it is not surprising that most people were shocked at the announcement.”

Further investigation conducted by New Nigerian Politics revealed that Mrs. Jonathan who holds a HND and a bachelor of science degree in Biology from the University of Port-Harcourt was a director in the Rivers State Ministry of Education before her civil service file was transferred to Bayelsa State civil service and that was the last position she held before her husband entered politics and she voluntarily suspended her career.

During the administration of the last governor, Timipre Sylva, who ran into rough waters with his well publicized row with the president, the First Lady refused to submit to a bio-metric exercise designed to weed out ghost workers and her remuneration along with those of thousands of ghost workers uncovered during the exercise was suspended before it was resumed in mysterious circumstances. The current governor, Seriake Dickson, a godson of President Jonathan is said to be paying a political debt by the strange appointment of a serving First Lady to a state perm sec position that has drawn wide condemnations from many quarters of society.

A New Nigerian Politics investigation further revealed that many in Bayelsa, the home state of President Jonathan are resentful that the First Lady, an Okrika native from neighboring Rivers State, would assume such high position at the expense of native sons and daughters who have given all to the state in good and in bad times. “Where is justice in all of this?” asked a one of the civil servants who spoke to New Nigerian Politics from the state Ministry of Education in Yenagoa.

A high ranking civil servant in the same ministry who declined to give his name stated to New Nigerian Politics that the appointment is simply cosmestic and designed to set the First Lady up for a cushioned retirement. “She will not be here physically working like the rest of us. But when she retires, she will be pocketing a perm sec’s pension, that is what this is all about” he noted.

The source regretted that the First Lady had not put in the work required to be a perm sec and there lies the problem with the appointment. Said he, “most civil servants work for thirty years without getting to a perm sec position, yet the First Lady was appointed perm sec after a thirteen-year absence. So you can see this is all about politics and not merit.”

A call to the First Lady’s spokeman, Ayo Osinlu, did not go through and someone who answered the phone at Creek Haven declined to comment on the issue deferring all questions to Creek Haven media personnel all of whom he stated had left for the day.wp_posts