TO quicken the recovery of the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, officials of Horst Schmidt Klinik, the German Hospital where she is receiving medication, yesterday, barred visitors and some top Nigerian officials, who went to see her from, doing so.
An official of the hospital said that some top Nigerian officials, including diplomats were barred from seeing Mrs Jonathan to enable her have deserved rest to quicken her recovery.
The official also confirmed that the President’s wife had earlier been treated for food poisoning back home before being brought to Horst Schmidt Klinik early last week after the management of the hospital had been contacted and briefed on her deteriorating health condition.
Confirming that the First Lady was getting better, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, declared that the hospital management would ensure that she was fully fit before she would be allowed to go back to Nigeria.
This is coming as Petroleum Resources Minister, Mrs. Dieziani Alison-Madueke, denied reports that she had been hospitalised in a London hospital with “a potentially serious” condition.
Meanwhile, there were indications, yesterday, that the Presidency might be forced to admit the nature of illness afflicting Dame Jonathan.
Findings indicated that the Presidency was under pressure to own up to the fact that the President’s wife was sick and had been admitted for treatment in a German hospital.
A competent source said that the Presidency might be compelled to release the ‘true position’ of Mrs. Jonathan’s health condition to put the records straight and end the deluge of fabricated stories trailing her health condition and whereabouts.
* Dame Patience Jonathan
Presidency worried
It was learnt that the Presidency was worried over the heat generated by the First Lady’s sickness and the poor handling of the information.
It was gathered that a cabal in the Presidency had been blamed for the furore over the woman’s health and whereabouts, having confused her handlers to ignore well-informed advice not to conceal her health condition.
Close associates of the President, it was learnt, had warned against the backlash of trying to cover up the woman’s health condition on the grounds that it was not an offence to be sick.
But it was understood that those that convinced the President that they could manage the information, kicked against the advice of the associates and opted to keep it a secret and it misfired when the information leaked before the operation could be carried out.
According to the source, the Presidency did not want to be caught in the same web of crisis that enveloped the Villa when late President Umaru Yar’Adua was almost dead but was being portrayed by close aides as being very active and playing golf.
The source said: “We have made it clear to those who want to hide everything that Dame Jonathan has not committed any offence by being sick since she is a human being. That is why there may be a change of attitude and Dame’s whereabouts and type of sickness made clear by her handlers.
“We do not want a repeat of the Yar’Adua episode this time around.”
Another source close to the first family confirmed that Mrs. Jonathan had a medical condition which necessitated her trip abroad, adding that she had since been operated upon.
Contrary to insinuations that she went for abdominoplasty, a surgical procedure for tightening the abdominal muscles, popularly referred to as tummy tuck, the source hinted that Mrs. Jonathan did not go for such an operation.
The source said that she was not a cosmetic-conscious person and could not have contemplated such a procedure, although he did not disclose the nature of ailment for which she was operated upon.
“Obviously, there is nothing to be worried about her condition. She has gone through the operation and she is fine,” said the source, who refused to say when the First Lady would return to the country.
Disappearance
Mrs. Jonathan, a Permanent Secretary in Bayelsa State, disappeared from public scene shortly after hosting the African First Ladies Peace Summit in Abuja, raising concerns in many quarters.
While an online news portal has maintained that she underwent surgery in Germany after first falling ill in Dubai, others speculate that she had food poisoning and had been admitted in Italy.
Despite the claims and counter-claims over Mrs. Jonathan’s condition, her spokesman, Mr. Ayo Osinlu, insisted that Mrs Jonathan travelled out of the country to take a “moment’s rest.”
It was not, however, possible to get confirmation on the woman’s condition from the Presidential Spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati or his Public Affairs counterpart, Dr. Doyin Okupe, as calls to their phones were not responded to.
Alison-Madueke
Relatedly, Petroleum Resources Minister, Mrs. Dieziani Alison-Madueke, yesterday, denied another unconfirmed reports which broke on the internet, that she had been hospitalised in a London hospital with “a potentially serious” condition.
Another online source quoted the minister as saying, “Contrary to recently published articles concerning my health, I haven’t been hospitalised in London. Both my family and I are well.”
She did not, however, give her current location.
Anoteh online media, yesterday, quoted an unnamed medical source as saying that “the minister’s diagnosis was for a condition related to abnormal cell development in her body.
“The doctor declined to disclose if the diagnosis was a form of cancer, but said Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s condition “assumed a dire dimension recently.”
The medical source and another source close to the minister’s family told online media that prior to her recent hospitalisation, Mrs. Alison-Madueke had made monthly medical trips to the UK.”
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