African First Ladies Summit leadership: Patience Jonathan denies blocking Buhari’s wife

First Lady Mrs Patience Jonathan has denied allegations of plotting to prevent wife of the President-elect, Aisha Buhari from replacing her as President of the African First Ladies Peace Mission (AFLPM). Mrs Jonathan had in April sent out a letter of invitation to other first Ladies calling for the 8th AFLPM summit to be held in Abuja on May 15th where they will discuss on how to facilitate a smooth and formal hand over to the new Executive Committee that will pilot the affairs of the Peace Mission for the next two years, a move some people found to be against Mrs Buhari assuming her position after May 29th when her husband will have been sworn in.




In a statement released by her media aide, Mr. Ayo Adewuyi, Mrs Jonathan said there was an understanding in the Mission that the summit will hold on the 15th of May, 2015 if Pres. Jonathan loses the 2015 Presidential election. The statement after the cut

"Our attention has been drawn to various newspapers and social media reports alleging that Nigeria hosting of 8th Summit of the African First Ladies Peace Mission Summit on May 15, 2015 is a grand design by the First Lady, Dame (Dr) Patience Faka Jonathan to either “rig out” or “deny” the in-coming First Lady, Hajia Aisha Buhari the opportunity to assume the Presidency and host the said summit in the absence of the incumbent. We would have ignored this barrage of uncharitable fallacies, but for the fact that the mischief makers have not relented in their efforts to deceive the unsuspecting members of the public with lies and half truth, hence this clarification to set the record straight. 

It would be recalled that Nigeria’s Hajia Turai Yar’Adua was elected President of the African First Ladies Peace Mission during the 6th Summit in February 2008 in Congo Brazzaville for a term of two years. Her tenure ought to have come to an end in 2010 when she should have organized a Summit to elect a successor and hand over accordingly. The unfortunate incident that led to her sudden exit from office is well known and need not be mentioned here. 

This inability of the former President to officially hand over created a leadership vacuum in the African First Ladies Peace Mission for some time until Her Excellency, Dame Patience Jonathan was prevailed upon by her colleagues, the African First Ladies to convene the Summit in July 2012 at which she was subsequently  elected President to serve for two years. For the avoidance of doubt, according to its internal regulation, the tenure of office of President of African First Ladies Peace Mission is for a period of two years only. This therefore implies that the tenure of office of the incumbent President ought to have ended in 2014, when a fresh election should have held for a new Executive"the statement read.

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