First Lady, Patience
Jonathan, on Sunday opened up on her controversial medical trip last year,
admitting for the first time she ailed terribly and was close to
dying.
Mrs. Jonathan, who spoke at a special thanksgiving service at the
Aso Rock Chapel where the first family worships, said she underwent multiple
surgical operations and at some point her doctors lost hope after she “passed
out for more than a week.”
“It was not an easy experience for me,” Mrs.
Jonathan told the congregation which included senior government officials. “I
actually died. I passed out for more than a week. My intestine and tummy were
opened.”
“I am not Lazarus but my experience was similar
to his. My doctors said all hope was lost. It was God himself in His infinite
mercy that said I will return to Nigeria. God woke me up after seven days,” she
narrated.
Mrs. Jonathan’s remarks at the church service, was the first
time the presidency would admit the First Lady was seriously sick as widely
speculated in 2012.
Mrs. Jonathan was on admission at the Horst Schmidt
Klinik in Germany for an undisclosed ailment although multiple reports suggested
she was treated for lungs and abdominal problems.
While the news
circulated, the presidency ensured an anxious public remained in the dark about
her condition, repeatedly insisting Mrs. Jonathan traveled for a “deserved
rest”.
The thanksgiving service was delayed for two months, after the
initial schedule was moved due to the helicopter crash deaths of former governor
of Kaduna state, Patrick Yakowa, and the former National Security Adviser,
Owoeye Azazi.
President Goodluck Jonathan, ministers and top government
functionaries attended the event on Sunday.
During a stirring session,
the First Lady narrated how she went through “hell” while in hospital and said
she has dedicated her life to serving the needy.
“It is the Lord’s doing
that I returned alive,” she said. “When God says yes, nobody can say no. People
are always afraid of operation (surgery). But in my own case, while my travail
lasted, I was begging for it after the third operation because I was going to
the theatre every day. It was God who saw me through. I did eight or nine
operations within one month.”
While she lay dying in Germany, friends and
associates who hoped she will not be making it back to Nigeria with life,
scrambled for her properties, selling those they could,” Mrs. Jonathan
said.
She accused some of those she trusted of leaking information to the
public that she had passed on.
“I know that some people somehow leaked
the information that I was dead. They are people that I trust and rely on. To
them, I was dead and I would never return to the country alive,” she said. “Some
of them even sold my things off. “I won’t say everything here.”
She said
she believed she had not completed her assignment on earth, which was why God
spared her.
“It was not an easy one. The day I came back, I said God I
have nothing to say, I offer myself to you. I will be doing things that will
touch the lives of the less privilege. God gave me a second chance because I
reached there. He knew I had not completed the assignments He gave me that was
why I was sent back,” the First Lady said.
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