President Jonathan once lived in Oguta where he attended St. Paul’s Anglican Church Primary School.He was nicknamed ‘Aguduma” by his peers in primary school.Madam Emilia Ajie, from Ogbaru area of Anambra State, who happened to be his land lady at that time at the Kalabari Beach, in Oguta 11, has now revealed quite a lot about him to Sun Newspaper.Back then, Goodluck who lived with his uncle, popularly called Chief was always ill-treated.According to her, his uncle never bought him school books, sandals or other things he needed for school.She further said that Jonathan was always the last, among the pupils who lived in the compound, to go to school daily because of house chores he must complete every morning.
“Goodluck is a very quite and respectful person, even in the face of hardship inflicted on him by his uncle, who was popularly called Chief and we always felt sorry for him because of the way his uncle was treating him. They were then living in our boys’ quarters. His uncle’s son usually did nothing. It was Goodluck, who did everything in the house, including cooking.At the end of the civil war, in 1970, Goodluck’s uncle, left with his wife, who was from Izombe, for their hometown, he had left behind his son and Goodluck because they were still in school and had promised to come back for them. But after his son finished his primary school, Chief sent for him and left Goodluck behind,”A frightening accident he had:“one day, while Goodluck was still living in our compound, he had gone to pluck mango with other young boys, but fell from the tree and as I was returning from the market I heard children shouting that ‘Aguduma’ had fallen off the mango tree and I quickly rushed to scene and used my head-tie to bind his fractured right hand.My husband’s brother, popularly known as Ajasco, who was returning from the farm, had carried him (Jonathan), with the assistance of other children and took him to a popular traditional bonesetter in the neigbourhood, called Nwanyiogu from Mgidi but married to Kalabari man.And while he was receiving treatment for his injured hand, we were always bringing him food because both his uncle and the son had gone back to their hometown. He left Oguta in 1972 and I have not set eyes on him again nor heard anything about him. I only got to know that Jonathan had become the president of Nigeria when I saw, in 2011 an Almanac bearing his photograph “Look at Goodluck!”