Indications emerged last night
that the ailing first lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, will be spending this
year’s October I Independence anniversary in a German hospital, following the
refusal of the hospital management to discharge her as she is still recuperating
from an alleged surgery.
The development marks a turning point in the health status of
Mrs. Jonathan on the grounds that this is the first time that any Nigerian
first lady would not be taking part in the independence anniversary
celebrations since 1960.
The situation also indicates that Mrs. Jonathan would spend the
independence anniversary outside the country and would not be beside her
husband, President Goodluck Jonathan, during the pomp and circumstance that
usually characterise the important ceremony.
LEADERSHIP SUNDAY also learnt that the Horst Schmidt Klinik in
Wiesbaden, Germany, where Mrs. Jonathan is being treated has refused to
discharge her as it claims that her health condition is not stable.
But the action is contrary to feelers from the Presidency that
Mrs. Jonathan may soon arrive in the country.
The heath status of the First Lady has been shrouded in secrecy
as no official from the presidency including the spokespersons of Jonathan, Dr.
Reuben Abati and Dr. Doyin Okupe, are willing to comment on the matter.
The first lady has been away from the country for the past 37
days and reportedly underwent successful surgery from appendicitis. She was
also said to have suffered from food poisoning before the alleged admission
into the German hospital.
Fresh investigations by LEADERSHIP SUNDAY indicated that the
presidency has been making frantic efforts at the hospital, seeking the
possibility of Mrs. Jonathan’s discharge on Friday, September
28, to enable her partake in the October 1st Independence
celebration.
The media had last week reported that Jonathan might have
visited his wife in the hospital on Sunday, September 23, 2012 on his way
to the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
But a consultant in the German hospital told our correspondent
on telephone that the president was actually in the German hospital on Sunday
to see his wife.
The consultant, who declined to go into the details of
Jonathan’s visit, said that the president, who got to the hospital in the
afternoon, spent more than three hours with his ailing wife.
She said, “Her husband (President Jonathan) was here on
Sunday and he spent well over three hours with her before he departed but I
cannot really say where he was going to when he left here.”
She added that the president made several efforts to see
if his wife could be discharged to enable her to either follow her to New York
for the General Assembly or partake in the Independence Day anniversary.
Further investigation revealed that Jonathan also met with the
security officials that were staying with his wife and told them not to give
any information about her to anybody.
The president reportedly expressed his anger and disappointment
over the ways that information got leaked to journalists and threatened to fire
all the security agents and the special aides with his wife if further
information was leaked to Nigerian journalists.
This latest development has confirmed an earlier investigation
by LEADERSHIP where the hospital management said that it would not
discharge the ailing first lady for now as a result of her unstable health
condition.
The presidency had earlier maintained that the ailing Mrs
Jonathan was only in Germany to rest until LEADERSHIP broke the news after
speaking with a spokesperson of Horst Schmidt Klinik in Wiesbaden, Germany,
that confirmed that the first lady was truly on admission in the hospital,
receiving treatment after being operated for ruptured appendicitis which was as
a result of food poisoning.
Doctors attending to the first lady at the hospital reportedly
certified her fit but advised that there was the need for her to rest for some
couple of days to regain her strength.
The doctors were also said to have counselled against long hours
travelling by the air, saying that the development was capable of affecting her
quick recovery. A trip from Germany to Nigeria by air normally takes an average
of six hours.
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