Mrs Jonathan not ill, she’s only resting abroad -Presidency

There was confusion on Monday over the trip of President Goodluck Jonathan’s wife, Patience, to Germany.

An online portal, Saharareporters, had reported on Sunday that the wife of the President  was being treated for “food poisoning” which she contracted during a visit to Dubai, United Arab Emirate 11 days ago.

However, the Presidency, in its reaction on Monday, denied that Mrs Jonathan had been hospitalised for food poisoning.

Her  spokesman, Ayo Osinlu, confirmed that she had travelled out of the country but denied the rumoured illness. Osinlu said the President’s wife travelled out of the country to take a “moment’s rest”. He, however, did not disclose Mrs Jonathan’s whereabouts.

“If you look at her itinerary in August, you would be wondering how she was able to accomplish that. In the course of this week, she will be back home. But remember, it all depends on her plans,” he said.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati, who also spoke on the matter, dismissed Mrs Jonathan’s widely reported illness as a  rumour.

 Abati insisted that the story “was a rumour and there is nothing like that”.

In its report, Saharareporters had revealed that an air ambulance airlifted the President’s wife to Wisbanden in Germany for emergency medical attention. It added that Patience had been undergoing treatment  for about four days.

The United States-based Nigerian news portal quoted an unnamed source in the Presidency as saying that Mrs. Jonathan travelled to Dubai after the African First Ladies Summit in Abuja.

 It also quoted sources in the Presidency as saying  that the “emergency airlift departed for Wiesbaden, Germany” but could not confirm if “her treatment was being undertaken in that city.”

A national newspaper on Monday had reported that Mrs. Jonathan was being treated at a hospital called Horst Schmidt Klinik in Wiesbaden, Germany.

Horst Schmidt Klinik is where the late President Umaru Yar’Adua was hospitalised for kidney-related ailments. However, The PUNCH could not confirm on Monday if Mrs Jonathan was indeed in the hospital.

Meanwhile, an aide of the President, who pleaded anonymity, said on Monday that the President had ordered the first couple’s media aides to find a way to inform  Nigerians about his wife’s trip and health.

It was learnt that Jonathan handed over the directive following the concerns raised over his wife’s alleged  ailment.

He was said to have told his media team to liaise with his wife’s media team and agree on how to tell Nigerians what really transpired.

Following this directive,  Abati and Osinlu met. Osinlu later told The PUNCH  that they decided to speak on the issue “in order to save ourselves of the stress of responding to the widespread enquiries from our friends in the media one-by-one.”

He also said that the report that Patience was airlifted to a German hospital by an air ambulance was not true.

But he promised sending a statement which at the time of filing this report at 9pm, he had not sent.

Mrs Jonathan not ill, she’s only resting abroad -Presidency

There was confusion on Monday over the trip of President Goodluck Jonathan’s wife, Patience, to Germany.

An online portal, Saharareporters, had reported on Sunday that the wife of the President  was being treated for “food poisoning” which she contracted during a visit to Dubai, United Arab Emirate 11 days ago.

However, the Presidency, in its reaction on Monday, denied that Mrs Jonathan had been hospitalised for food poisoning.

Her  spokesman, Ayo Osinlu, confirmed that she had travelled out of the country but denied the rumoured illness. Osinlu said the President’s wife travelled out of the country to take a “moment’s rest”. He, however, did not disclose Mrs Jonathan’s whereabouts.

“If you look at her itinerary in August, you would be wondering how she was able to accomplish that. In the course of this week, she will be back home. But remember, it all depends on her plans,” he said.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati, who also spoke on the matter, dismissed Mrs Jonathan’s widely reported illness as a  rumour.

 Abati insisted that the story “was a rumour and there is nothing like that”.

In its report, Saharareporters had revealed that an air ambulance airlifted the President’s wife to Wisbanden in Germany for emergency medical attention. It added that Patience had been undergoing treatment  for about four days.

The United States-based Nigerian news portal quoted an unnamed source in the Presidency as saying that Mrs. Jonathan travelled to Dubai after the African First Ladies Summit in Abuja.

 It also quoted sources in the Presidency as saying  that the “emergency airlift departed for Wiesbaden, Germany” but could not confirm if “her treatment was being undertaken in that city.”

A national newspaper on Monday had reported that Mrs. Jonathan was being treated at a hospital called Horst Schmidt Klinik in Wiesbaden, Germany.

Horst Schmidt Klinik is where the late President Umaru Yar’Adua was hospitalised for kidney-related ailments. However, The PUNCH could not confirm on Monday if Mrs Jonathan was indeed in the hospital.

Meanwhile, an aide of the President, who pleaded anonymity, said on Monday that the President had ordered the first couple’s media aides to find a way to inform  Nigerians about his wife’s trip and health.

It was learnt that Jonathan handed over the directive following the concerns raised over his wife’s alleged  ailment.

He was said to have told his media team to liaise with his wife’s media team and agree on how to tell Nigerians what really transpired.

Following this directive,  Abati and Osinlu met. Osinlu later told The PUNCH  that they decided to speak on the issue “in order to save ourselves of the stress of responding to the widespread enquiries from our friends in the media one-by-one.”

He also said that the report that Patience was airlifted to a German hospital by an air ambulance was not true.

But he promised sending a statement which at the time of filing this report at 9pm, he had not sent.

"Boko Haram Is on the Run in Maiduguri," Says JTF Spokesman, Lt. Col. Sagir Musa

JTF spokesperson for the NortheastLt. Col Musa Sagir

The spokesman for the Joint Task Force (JTF) fighting to contain the Boko Haram insurgence has assured Nigerians that his force will soon defeat Boko Haram. In an exclusive interview with SaharaTV’s Omoyele Sowore, Lt. Colonel Sagir Musa said, “Here in Maiduguri, members of Boko Haram are on the run. They are on the run.”
Lt. Colonel Musa spoke about the JTF intelligence and operations capabilities. He stated, “Much is being done and we are getting closer unto to them. We are arresting while they confront we engage them furiously. It is now that we are, in terms of intelligence, deficient.”
In an operation in Maduguri last week, the JTF claimed to have killed twenty members of Boko Haram. See the full story here: http://bit.ly/Pxfgxs. In response, Boko Haram has said that the people killed were actually innocent civilians.
Lt. Colonel Musa refuted the claims made Boko Haram that JTF were killing innocent civilians and not their members. He said, “Here were people that confronted us. Confrontation in the sense that, they were shooting at us.” When pressed about how can the Nigerian believe the JTF statements, Lt. Colonel Musa responded, “I think you have to believe an institution that has integrity, the Nigerian army.”
He also spoke about a possible ongoing dialogue between the Nigerian government and Boko Haram. Lt. Colonel Musa stated that the JTF was ready to act should negotiations break down. He added, however that he deeply hopes and prays that they will succeed.

President Jonathan’s Spokesman, Reuben Abati, Further Sidelined

Reuben Abati

Presidency  sources, one of them close to Reuben Abati, a special adviser on media affairs to President Goodluck Jonathan, have told SaharaReporters that Mr. Abati has been sidelined recently and openly shares his apprehensions about being fired anytime.
One source, a confidante of the president, told SaharaReporters that Mr. Abati’s fears are well-founded. “Mr. President is only waiting to be sure that Dr. Abati does not pose any threat to his second term ambition before sacking him,” said the source.
Last Friday, Mr. Abati spoke with State House correspondents on the chronic fuel crisis that has engulfed Abuja, the nation’s capital. But a few hours after the briefing, the embattled presidential spokesman realized that what he told the media conflicted with the views expressed by two of Nigeria’s powerful ministers, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Finance and Diezani Allison-Maduekwe, the Minister of Petroleum. Both ministers are currently at loggerheads over illegal and inflated payments to fuel importers.
Shortly after realizing the faux pas, Mr. Abati made frantic efforts to contact reporters and implore them to ignore his views on the fuel crisis. One reporter told SaharaReporters that Mr. Abati pleaded that the security of his job could be threatened unless they stood down his briefing.
SaharaReporters learnt that some of the reporters asked Mr. Abati to call their editors since their reports had been filed several hours before his call came, and since they were in no position to instruct their superiors to drop stories.
A senior journalist with a Lagos-based newspaper who is close to Mr. Abati told SaharaReporters that the presidential spokesman “has not been enjoying a smooth relationship with members of President Jonathan’s kitchen cabinet since the appointment of Dr. Doyin Okupe as Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs.” Mr. Okupe has since assumed the role of the president’s attack dog.
Presidential office sources said First Lady Patience Jonathan had expected that Mr. Abati would be a robust attacker of the president’s opponents, and that she was furious that the former chair of the editorial board of The Guardian decided to stand aloof as opposition parties and newspaper critics went to town against both Mr. Jonathan and his wife. Mr. Okupe was brought in at the insistence of Mrs. Jonathan who felt that Mr. Abati had failed to stand up to many forces who assailed the First Lady for recklessly spending public funds to acquire funds for a meeting of First Ladies of African nations.
“The First Lady complained several times that she had received verbal bashing from the media without Dr. Abati coming to her rescue,” said one source.
A reporter who covers the Presidency told SaharaReporters that, in an effort to minimize the risk of saying something that might rile the president’s inner circle, a rattled Mr. Abati recently responded to inquiries about the fuel crisis that has grounded Abuja by directing the reporter to Mr. Okupe.
“Dr. Okupe did not disappoint, as he quickly issued a statement, appealing to Nigerians to continue to stick with the government as the fuel crisis is resolved.”
A source in the Presidency disclosed that one of the recent signs that Mr. Abati’s days are numbered is the planned appointment of Ken Wiwa, Jr., the son of hanged writer and environmental agitator Ken Saro-Wiwa, to a newly established office of “senior special assistant on civil society and international media.” The post puts Mr. Wiwa on the same level as Mr. Abati, and gives him primary responsibility for managing the president’s international image and contacts with foreign reporters.
Before now, Mr. Wiwa as well as Bolaji Adebiyi worked under Mr. Abati’s management. “With Ken’s elevation, it will be clear that Dr. Abati’s role in the Villa is as good as useless,” said a source who is close to the president. He said that Mr. Okupe has taken charge of the domestic sphere and that Mr. Wiwa would assume control of foreign media relations for President Jonathan, leaving Mr. Abati in a sinecure.
We asked a close friend of Mr. Abati’s whether the presidential spokesman would resign in order to avoid the humiliation of being fired. The source ruled out that option. “Dr. Abati is definitely not considering the option of resignation. That’s out of the question,” the source insisted.