Patience Jonathan to quit as African First Ladies President

President Goodluck Jonathan’s loss to Muhammadu Buhari in the March 28 presidential election has started taking its toll on his wife, Dame Patience.

Arrangements had been concluded for her to quit her position as the president of the African Ladies Peace Mission, two months before the expiration of her tenure. The mission is comprised of wives of presidents of all African countries.

Mrs Jonathan was elected the mission’s president at its seventh summit held in Abuja in July 2012 and her tenure would have expired in July 2015 when a new president would have been elected.  But because she will cease to be Nigeria’s president’s wife from May 29 when her husband will hand over power to the president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari , Mrs Jonathan had summoned an emergency summit of the mission for May 15 for the purpose of electing her successor. Continue..

According to a copy of the invitation to members dated April 6 and personally signed by the President’s wife, she explained that she summoned the emergency summit to ensure that there would not be leadership vacuum in the organisation as happened in 2010 when her predecessor left office without handing over.

She said her desire was to put in place a standard that would strengthen the organisation and ensure an effective mechanism to guarantee a seamless takeover for the incoming leadership.