The wife of the President, Mrs. Patience
Jonathan, has not been seen in public since Goodluck Jonathan was defeated in
the March 28 presidential election by General Muhammadu Buhari of the APC.
The President had last Tuesday conceded
defeat and called Buhari on the telephone when it became clear from the results
released by INEC that he had lost his re-election bid to the slogan of Change.
Dignitaries including serving and former
government officials had visited Jonathan to commend him for his maturity to
concede defeat and solid arise with him on his loss.
But since then, many Nigerians have not
seen the President’s wife.
One of the visitors to Aso Rock told Punch
that Mrs. Jonathan also received visitors inside the President’s official
residence same day.
“After meeting the President in the new
Banquet Hall located within the premised of his office, I also visited the
First Lady inside the President’s residence before leaving. She was in high
spirit when I met her,” the former government official said.
But she did not attend the Good Friday
service held inside the Aso Villa Chapel with her husband neither did she
attend the Easter Sunday service inside the same chapel.
Mrs. Jonathan and the President’s mother,
Eunice, had always been accompanying Jonathan to such services.
The last time she was seen in public was
penultimate Saturday when she and her husband voted at their polling unit in
Otuoke, Bayelsa State.
While many believed however that she must
have been too devastated by her husband’s electoral loss to appear in public so
soon, Punch’s investigation showed that she might have travelled out of
Nigeria.
A Presidency source who pleaded anonymity
said that Patience Jonathan travelled to the United Kingdom during the week to
sort out some domestic issues.
“She is in UK. She may use the opportunity
of the trip to visit her children,” the source said.
It will be recalled that Mrs. Jonathan had
during one of the presidential rallies she organised ahead of the poll claimed
that General Buhari would send she and her husband to jail if he was elected.
Photo Credits: BellaNaija
