Patience to return before September ending

Patience Jonathan is expected back in the country before the end of September ahead of Nigeria’s 52nd Independence anniversary.

Patience is said to be hospitalised at the Horst Schmidt Klinik in Wiesbaden, Germany.

While a section of the media said she underwent surgery for appendicitis, some others said she was being treated for food poisoning.

Amidst the conflicting reports however, her media aides insisted that she only travelled abroad to rest after the stress involved in the hosting of the African First Ladies’ Conference in Abuja.

They also insisted last week that they did not know when the President’s wife would return to Nigeria.

Her media aide, Ayo Osinlu, had told our correspondent. “She is not a regular public office holder who has a specific duration for vacation. Assuming that she has a specific duration for vacation, then we could have said the vacation will end on a particular day and she will return on a particular day.

“But as it is, she can decide to return anytime she feels she has rested enough.”

But investigation by our correspondent on Sunday showed that Patience would come back to the country before the grand finale of activities marking the celebration of this year’s Independence anniversary on October 1.

A source in the Office of the First Lady said the ailing wife of the President had a role to play in one of the programmes outlined for the celebration and had expressed her desire to personally play the role.

“It is only when madam does not return to Nigeria to personally handle the activity allotted to her office in the independence programme that you can now say that indeed, there is something wrong,” she said.

A look at the programme released by the Federal Government to commemorate this year’s Independence celebration showed that only the event reserved for Patience does not have a date attached to it.

The timetable of events showed that the celebration which started with a presidential retreat for civil society organisations last Thursday would continue on September 17 with the national honours award ceremony and anniversary lecture slated for September 17.

While a conference of secretaries of state Governments is slated for September 25 and 26, the timetable indicates that “a visit to hospitals and orphanages and activities for women, youths and children will follow suit in a date to be determined by the First Lady, Patience Jonathan.”