The health situation of Nigeria’s First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, has become critical, a situation that is further placing a lie on the recovery story which officials at the Villa had been bandying that she would even escort her better half, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, to address the United Nation’s General Assembly in New York City. Sources close to the Dame disclosed to TheROAD that the First Lady is losing her eye-sight and sometimes has difficulty recognizing things she might have heard of, seen or known from childhood.
Exactly a month ago, on the 29th of August when TheROAD broke the story that Dame Patiance left Nigeria for Wiesbaden Hospital in Germany, allegedly for treatment against food poisoning, in a hospital in Dubai where she claimed to have been poisoned argued that it had combed the entire area and found no one to have been poisoned during the entire period that Dame Patience ate in the area.
Our subsequent follow-up to the Dame’s illness revealed that apart from the food poison from which she had collapsed the First Lady was losing her memory and was not recognizing things, apart from the several strings of rumors that continue to surround her ailment, including those from some internet portals which appear to scream on a full expose on her diagnosis. For example, three sources familiar with Mrs. Jonathan’s health status, told SaharaReporters that the Nigerian president’s wife is beset by Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative syndrome.
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive disorder of the nervous system. A medical source described it as “a fairly common disorder that occasions degeneration of the nervous system.” The source added that the disease leads to “progressive impairment and disorder of movement.” An online medical site notes that Parkinson’s “is characterized by progressive loss of muscle control, which leads to trembling of the limbs and head while at rest, stiffness, slowness, and impaired balance. As symptoms worsen, it may become difficult to walk, talk, and complete simple tasks.
” The disclosure about the First Lady’s medical woes was first made by a source familiar with Mrs. Jonathan’s previous secret treatments in Spain and Italy. The source disclosed that Mrs. Jonathan had battled Parkinson’s for some years now. In addition, doctors had advised her to “do something urgent about her morbid body mass index (BMI),” said the source. She added that Mrs. Jonathan had indeed considered undergoing the kind of tummy tuck procedure that former Governor DiepreyeAlamieyeseigha once had.
Two other sources close to the Jonathans confirmed that the First Lady has been suffering from the Parkinson’s ailmment. One said the disease was largely responsible for her clumsiness, drawling speech and sluggishness at public events. He added that Mrs. Jonathan has been suffering from serious trembling in the left hand. “That’s why she always uses her right to hold the microphone when speaking at public events,” the source revealed. Mrs. Jonathan is also reportedly affected by stiffness of the limbs and trunk which affects her movement.
A news staffer at the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) told SaharaReporters that Mrs. Jonathan’s aides warned reporters covering her never to film her beyond her waist. “Her senior personal assistant told the crew covering her long ago: ‘Don’t ever film Madam’s waist. Show her face only.’ That’s been the code at NTA.” Two of our sources stated that Mrs. Jonathan had made efforts to slow the disease that had started to ravage her.
“She has been visiting a health farm in Italy on a regular basis since 2010,” one source revealed. “To alleviate her pain, she has been taking her medication religiously.” A friend of Mrs. Jonathan said that the First Lady’s health maladies include anxiety, occasional memory loss and disorientation. In addition, her blood pressure often rises to dangerous levels, forcing her to take a cocktail of anti-hypertensive drugs. Also, our sources said that some officials attached to the First Lady’s office described her as constantly depressed, and easily irritated, yet prone to anger as she snaps at people easily.
When TheROAD reported her departure from the NnamdiAzikiwe Airport last month she was virtually held from both sides and supported into the airplane. Our reporter observed that aides of the First Lady had to form a cordon around the aircraft to conceal her from the prying eyes of the public most of who were oblivious of the movement around the plane. Since she kept a permanent bed at Wiesbaden she had become more erratic.
“The First Lady can just get angry at the slightest provocation and rain abuses at anybody in sight,” he said. Two weeks into her medical sojourn all her aides were disarmed of their cell-phones so as to keep her condition under wraps. As happened during the health crisis of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, the Nigerian Presidency’s reaction to Mrs. Jonathan’s health condition is to be mum. When a senior aide of President Jonathan was contacted on the matter, he sharply said, “I’m not saying anything. And please don’t mention that you spoke to me.” Officials of the Presidency are under a virtual oath of secrecy on the issue of Mrs. Jonathan’s health crisis.
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