. Shuttles between Spain, Germany
. Considers treatment in US hospital
Nigeria’s First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan is sick again.
According to report by SaharaReporters, the first lady is shuttling between
Spain and Germany in search of treatment. Quoting a source, the online news
portal said Dame Jonathan was also contemplating receiving medical treatment
from a US hospital.
According to information, the current health challenges have
accounted for her absence from several official events in Abuja and her home
state of Bayelsa State over the last few days. Her absence was especially felt
during the Good Friday service held in Aso Rock Villa Chapel which had in
attendance her husband, President Goodluck Jonathan.
No explanation was offered
for the absence. She was said to have, a few days ago, made a quiet exit from
Abuja en route to France where she was to allegedly receive some unspecified
award. However, a source within the Presidency said Mrs. Jonathan’s trip to
France was a ploy to enable her to shop for new doctors in Europe for her
deteriorating health.
A source disclosed that she left France for Spain. The same
source disclosed that the First Lady was considering being moved to a US
hospital. However, a source in the US who is close to the First Family told
SaharaReporters that he has “not heard from the first lady regarding her trip
to the US.”
Ayo Osinlu, spokesman of the First Lady, has however said Mrs.
Jonathan’s trip to Europe was in order to care for an ailing elderly woman who
helped to raise her. He failed to disclose the specific European nation where
Mrs. Jonathan’s foster mother is hospitalized.
During Mrs. Jonathan’s first extended medical sojourn in
Germany, Mr. Osinlu was said to have misled journalists by declaring that the
First Lady was merely vacationing abroad after what he described as a series of
grueling official functions, including the hosting of a conference of African
First Ladies.
Apart from being absent at the Friday church service at the
presidential villa , she was also missing at another key event where her Africa
First Ladies Peace Mission donated relief material to the war-torn country of
Mali. An aide of the First Lady reported that a minister, Ms. Jumoke Akinjide,
represented Mrs. Jonathan at the event where relief material was donated to
Mali.
During the church service at the Presidential Villa, President
Jonathan was flanked by his elderly mother, Eunice Jonathan, as well as
Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke and Ndudi Elumelu, a member of the
House of Representatives who was allegedly indicted for corruption in the power
sector projects.
One of the last times Mrs. Jonathan was seen in public was on
her return from an official visit to Cote d’Ivoire on March 2, 2013. She later
made a brief visit to Lagos where she attended a dinner organized for Nollywood
stars. Afterwards, she was sighted in Paris where she received the “Global
Women Leader for Peace Award 2013.” Since receiving the award on March 17, the
First Lady has not been seen in any official photos released from the
Presidency.
Her trip to Paris coincided with her husband’s official visit to
Equatorial Guinea. Mr. Jonathan was accompanied on that official visit by two
female ministers, Stella Oduah of Aviation and the Petroleum minister.
A source in Abuja said Mrs. Jonathan had not been seen in public
for close to a week and half, including during a breakfast meeting with the
members of the House of Representatives led by Leo Ogor on March 21, 2013.
Sunday Mirror’s efforts to reach Osinlu for his reaction to the story were
futile as calls made to his mobile phone were not answered.
After initial denial when she returned to the country last
October 17 after about seven weeks medical trip abroad, Dame Patience opened up
on Sunday, February 17, this year, on her admission at a German hospital last
year, saying that she was actually dead while in hospital, but God brought her
back to life.
The disclosure at a thanksgiving service held at the Aso Villa
Chapel was contrary to her earlier claim that she did not undergo any surgery
or tummy tuck at Horst Schmidt Klinic in Wiesbaden, Germany, when she was away
from the country last year August.
On her arrival into the country, Dame Patience at the Nnamdi
Azikiwe International Airport had denied that she went to Germany for medical
treatment, saying that, “I read in the media where they said I was in the
hospital. God Almighty knows I have never been to that hospital. I don’t even
know the hospital they mentioned.
“I have to explain what God has done for me. I don’t have any
terminal illness. I did not go for cosmetic surgery or tummy tuck. My husband
loves me as I am and I am pleased with how God created me,” she had said at the
airport on her arrival. But at the thanksgiving service at Aso Villa Chapel
four months after, the First Lady said that her tummy and intestines were
actually opened and she underwent multiple surgeries.
She told the congregation at the service which was attended by
her husband and other top government officials that her corpse would have been
brought back to the country.
“I remember when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was the President of
the country; I was close to his late wife, Stella. We worshipped together in
this chapel, Dame Patience said “It was a painful moment for me that time when
she died and her corpse was brought here.
“That was how my corpse would have been brought here. It was not
an easy experience for me. I actually died; I passed out for more than one
week. My intestine and tummy were opened.
“People are always afraid of operation (surgery) but in my own
case, while my travail lasted, I was begging for it (surgery) after the third
operation because I was going to the theatre every day.
“It was God who saw me through. I did eight or nine operations
within one month. It was not an easy one”, the First Lady had said then.
Source: National Mirror
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