A presidential jet is scheduled to
fly out of Abuja tonight to bring home Nigeria's ailing First Lady, Mrs.
Patience Jonathan.
Presidency
sources told SaharaReporters today that Mrs. Jonathan will return to the
country as early as tomorrow if everything works as planned.
Mrs.
Jonathan was secretly flown out of Abuja nearly six weeks ago, at the end of
August, after she developed complications from a cosmetic procedure she had
undertaken in Dubai.
Upon
returning to Nigeria from Dubai, she was flown out to Germany in an air
ambulance following an emergency which was initially diagnosed as "food
poisoning." Several investigations by SaharaReporters however
revealed that her medical condition was more complicated and precarious.
Among others, in the early stages she lost her power of speech for four days.
In an effort to cover up her health condition, the presidency has, during Mrs. Jonathan’s hospitalization, engaged in a game of hide-and-seek with the media, at first claiming that the First Lady was only resting after a hectic schedule of hosting the African First Ladies Forum.
In an effort to cover up her health condition, the presidency has, during Mrs. Jonathan’s hospitalization, engaged in a game of hide-and-seek with the media, at first claiming that the First Lady was only resting after a hectic schedule of hosting the African First Ladies Forum.
Although
several reports have pinpointed the nature of Mrs. Jonathan’s condition since
then, the President and his aides have chosen to hide it from the public
despite spending several millions of dollars in public funds on her treatment.
Last
week, the president's office made available to the public a grainy,
three-second video clip that said showed that Mrs. Jonathan was "hale and
hearty." Neither the date nor the location of the video was
identified, but Mr. Jonathan 's spokesperson said the president had embarked on
a secret trip to his wife accompanied by the Presidential villa's vicar and two
of the president's kids.