Amaechi was right for taking Patience to ICC — Kuti

vanguardngr.com

THE head of Ransome Kuti’s dynasty and founder of the Nigerian Network of Non-Governmental Organizations, NNNGO, Ms. Yemisi Ransome Kuti, has said that Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State was right in taking the first lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan to the International Criminal Court of Justice, ICC, for making unguarded utterances during her campaign tours in the country.

Kuti, at the launching of The Women’s Situation Room for 2015 general elections in Abuja, said, yesterday, that the governor was right, if he decided to take the first lady to the ICC for making some utterances to incite people for violence, when she ought to have acted in the opposite as the mother of the nation, adding that the First lady had not represented the country well in some of her recent utterances.

She said, “I think, Amaechi was right, if he is taking her to court, fine, he should do so. The utterances of Mrs. Jonathan have not represented our country well. I am afraid, a lot of things she said has cast a bad light on women as a whole. Women are known to be more constrained in their approach and in our statements because we look at so many sides before we utter statements. But the language of diplomacy ought not be found in the purview of women alone; when one is in public office, he or she should not be speaking as an individual because he has a responsibility to speak with some level of constraints, discipline, ensuring that he is in that position to create peace within the people; that why his statements should not be the one that upset or breed acrimony.

“As a mother of the nation because of her position, she has a greater responsibility than any other woman to ensure that her statements are geared towards bringing peace, justice and creating more love among her people than to create division. That is why I think Amaechi was right in taking her to ICC.”