Despite her return to Nigeria in pomp and circumstance about one month ago, First Lady Patience Jonathan is still sick.
Shortly after the public relations exercise that attended her return,
she retired into a medically-induced bed rest that has her kept her
away from the public, unable to attend to official duties.
On October 26th Mrs. Jonathan appeared with her husband and the Ondo
State governor, Olusegun Mimiko and his wife to cut her 55th birthday
cake in the presidential villa, since then she has disappeared from the
public.
A presidency source stated that Mrs. Jonathan’s doctors in Germany have also continued to visit and watch her recovery.
When Mrs. Jonathan returned from a prolonged medical trip to Germany
in October she spoke effusively about being given a second chance, but
denied having been in a hospital.
The publicity given her return was designed to end all forms of
speculation about her true condition because the presidency had badly
miscalculated by not revealing her actual medical status to the country.
Since her return, Mrs. Jonathan has not been able to accompany her
husband on any official trips in or outside of Nigeria, including visits
to her home state of Rivers, or that of Mr. Jonathan, Bayelsa.
In addition to all this, she has not attended to her duties in
Bayelsa as Permanent Secretary, a position she seized with grand fanfare
months before she left the country on an extended trip she said was not
for hospital treatment purposes.
It is unclear how long Mrs. Jonathan’s bed-rest will continue as she
remains inaccessible to the public, or how her absence is impacting her
official duties in both Abuja and Bayelsa.
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