Speaking to journalists yesterday in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital on her aspiration, Adesanya-Davis said she had consulted widely before making her intention known.

“I am aspiring to be the next president of Nigeria. I am out to put laughter of joy on the mouth of all. I have discussed this with the former presidential candidate, Sarah Jubril, who incidentally is from Kwara State. Her reaction was that ‘if a miracle like this will ever happen, we have paid the price in Kwara State and it is going to happen in the state.’‘

She said the decision to make the nomination forms free for women aspirants had boosted her interest.

“2015 was when I first thought about being a presidential aspirant. This is for the main reason that I was born October 15th and I got married at October 15th. That time I said with President Goodluck Jonathan in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), I was going to be his running mate. I was sending text messages to him. I told him to let Vice President Namadi Sambo step down for him to be successful but he did not listen to me.

“But delay is not denial. That is why I am staging a come-back. I have done some consultations. The first person to put a call through was Patience Jonathan. I told her that I am picking the presidential form this time around and she endorsed my decision.

Adesanya-Davis who is an evangelical pastor used the occasion to urge Nigerians to be patient with President Muhammadu Buhari, adding that the panacea to the current challenges in the country is in the hands of women.

“I will advise Nigerians to calm down for President Muhammadu Buhari. Also the man too is not sleeping. He is not resting. Age too is not on his side. We did all the mathematics and we saw it and opted for it. So that he had to travel for 100 days to take care of his health is not his fault. It is age and we said we believe in him.’‘

“Buhari’s governance had to take positive reminiscences to Goodluck Jonathan. An old man cannot combine minister for petroleum ministry with the presidency and it will work. We need them to work hard and get the technocrats to do their jobs again,” she said.

While declaring her ambitions as a presidential candidate, Adesanya-Davis added that she is yet to get a political party to endorse her candidature.

“However, we are still keeping the party under which place we will aspire under close wraps. Later on will be announcing that through the press. We don’t have a platform yet. We are just saying that officially, this is a presidential aspirant for 2019 and later we will take it to the next level.’‘

Reaction to the announcement on social media was mildly enthusiastic.

Professor Mercy Funmilayo Adesanya-Davies is a Nigerian politician, educationist, author, linguist and Bishop of Agape Bible Church, Rivers State, Nigeria. A native of Ira Town, Kwara State, Adesanya-Davies is a recipient of the UN –POLAC World Peace Ambassadorial Award.

Olufunmilayo is a Professor of Divinity (Honoris Causa) of the Northwestern Christian University, Florida. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Linguistics and Communication Studies.

Adesanya-Davies officially joined politics as an ardent member of the ACCORD Party in Kwara State. She has remained there for years, until she joined PDP.

According to her, she has a good relationship with ex President Goodluck Jonathan. She is quoted as saying Goodluck Jonathan refused to dump his running mate Namadi Sambo in her stead, despite several several text messages to his number.

AfricaNews

It was the early 1990s when President Robert Mugabe’s eye fell upon one of his shy young typists.

She would become his wife, a ferociously ambitious politician and, more than two decades later, a contributor to the downfall of her 93-year-old husband.

President Mugabe is trying to cling to power after the military took over this week in response to his purge of vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa, 75, a liberation war fighter and Grace’s sworn enemy.

Mnangagwa’s aides even accused her of trying to poison him with ice cream from her dairy farm this year. She denies this.

Grace, now 52 and under house arrest in Harare, had been calling for Mnangagwa’s removal for weeks as the two fought an increasingly bitter winner-takes-all contest to succeed the man who has led Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980.

It wasn’t the first time Grace had wielded influence over her husband. When it appeared former vice president Joice Majuru was in line to succeed Mugabe in 2014, he fired her following public rallies at which Grace derided Majuru.

This time she appears to have gone too far.

The purge of Mnangagwa and many of his comrades irked the military, who had no intention of allowing Grace and her youthful Generation 40 (G40) faction of the ruling ZANU-PF to take over the political reins.

Deeply unpopular among much of the Zimbabwean public due to her alleged corruption and volatile temper, Grace does not have the liberation credentials the military believe are required to be a Zimbabwean ruler.

The lavish lifestyle that earned her the nickname “Gucci Grace” and the political ambition that almost propelled her to the presidency were not evident when she met her future husband.

“He just started talking to me, asking me about my life,” she told a South African journalist in 2013. “I didn’t know it was leading somewhere. I was quite a shy person, very shy.”

At the time, they were both married. President Mugabe’s wife, Sally, was desperately ill and died in 1992. Grace and Robert were married in 1996 and have three children.

“DIS-GRACE”

At first Grace stayed out of politics and was better known for her spending habits, including buying mansions in South Africa, rare diamond jewellery, and Rolls-Royce limousines for her playboy sons.

Then there are the repeated allegations of violence.

In Singapore in 2009, photographer Richard Jones says Grace flew into a rage when he tried to take her picture. She ordered her bodyguards to hold his arms back while she punched him repeatedly in the face. Grace denies the assault.

In August this year, Grace was accused of beating a young South African model who was partying with her sons.

According to Gabriella Engels, Grace burst into a hotel room where she was talking with friends and whipped her with an electric cable as bodyguards looked on.

Grace says she acted in self-defence after Engels tried to stab her with a knife.

The reports of lavish spending and explosive temper earned her the title “Dis-Grace” back home in Zimbabwe, where an economic crisis had left most of the 16 million population mired in poverty and unemployment.

Zimbabweans also question Grace’s credentials. Eyebrows were raised in 2014 when she gained a PhD in three months. Her thesis, on the changing role of the family, has never been published.

This hasn’t stopped her trying to reach the political summit.

When Majuru was removed, Grace became head of the ZANU-PF Women’s League, giving her a seat at the party’s top table.

She used her political platform to take on Mnangagwa and his allies and made a push to succeed her frail husband.

“They say I want to be president. Why not? Am I not a Zimbabwean?” Grace said at a recent rally.

REUTERS