The claim by Nigeria’s First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, that she rose from the dead after seven days is, to say the least, ridiculous.

This is yet another tale by moonlight from quarters that have no regard for the truth and have made lying a policy.

When Mrs. Jonathan disappeared from the scene for close to three months last year, online papers, with News Express among those in the forefront, reported that she was dying and was seeking a medical miracle in Germany. Her aides and presidential spokespersons however insisted that she was fit and resting abroad.

To perpetuate that lie, Mrs. Jonathan on her return to the country on October 17 did not blink an eyelid when she declared that she never neared any hospital during her sojourn abroad. To quote her, while speaking with newsmen at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport on her arrival on a presidential jet: “I read in the media where they said I was in the hospital. God Almighty knows I have never been to that hospital. I don’t even know the hospital they mentioned.

“I have to explain what God has done for me. I do not have terminal illness, or (went for) any cosmetic surgery, more or less tummy tuck.”

For the same woman to go to church yesterday to organise a thanks giving service for her narrow escape from the jaws of death shows how shameless some people could be. Hear her speaking at State House Chapel Abuja during the service at which pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), ministered:

“I remember when Chief Obasanjo was the President of the country, I was close to his late wife, Stella. We worshiped together in this chapel.

“It was a painful moment for me that time when she died and her corpse was brought here.

“That was how my corpse would have been brought here. It was not an easy experience for me. 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.

“A black doctor in London who is with us in this service was flown in when the situation became critical. It was God himself in His infinite mercy that said I will return to Nigeria. God woke me up after seven days.

“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. Some of them even sold my things off.

“I won’t say everything here. It is the Lord’s doing that I returned alive. 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 (surgery) after the third operation because I was going to the theatre everyday.

“It was God who saw me through. I did eight or nine operations within one month. 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 privileged.

“God gave me second chance because I reached there. He knew I have not completed the assignments He gave me, that was why I was sent back.”

While the First Lady’s confession that she underwent multiple surgeries and knocked on the door of death vindicates our reports, her claim that she rose from the dead spoiled the whole show because this is a lie that is easy to puncture.

If Mrs. Jonathan actually died, which doctor or doctors certified her dead? Where is her death certificate? Where was she kept during the said seven days that she was allegedly dead? Was it in the morgue or did the German doctors primitively keep a dead body in a hospital bed for seven days?

People like Mrs. Jonathan and her lieutenants should know that lying does have its consequences, one of which is lack of credibility. Having claimed previously that she never visited any hospital in Germany, she needs to go the extra mile to convince us to give any serious consideration to the tales she spewed out in church yesterday. They are nothing but folk tales designed to mislead the gullible.

•Photo, courtesy Vanguard, shows CAN President, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor addressing the First Family during the Thanks Giving Service.

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