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.
Culled from Sahara Reporters
