Patience finally appears in public after polls

For the first time since President Goodluck Jonathan lost the March 28 presidential election, his wife, Patience, has been seen in public.

The first lady had avoided the public eye since her husband conceded the election to Muhammadu Buhari, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

On Sunday, ‘Mama Peace’, as she loves to be called, attended the thanksgiving and farewell service in honour of the president’s family at the church of the Advent, Abuja, in the company of her husband and other federal officials.

Speaking at the event, Jonathan appreciated the leaders of the church for their support through his time in office. He reiterated his message via Facebook account, giving particular gratitude to Nicholas Okoh of the Anglican Communion.

“I thank the most reverend Nicholas Okoh, archbishop and primate of all Nigeria, the church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) and the entire presbytery and laity of the Cathedral Church of the advent, life camp, Abuja, for the thanksgiving and farewell service held in honour of my wife and I earlier today,” he said.

“I am grateful to God for all he has done in my life. May God bless Nigeria.”

Until Sunday, the vocal first lady had avoided all of the president’s post-election events, including the fifth presidential prayer and the final rites of the late Oronto Douglas, the president’s senior special adviser on documentation and strategy.

In the buildup to the election, Patience caused stirs with many of her campaign-ground utterances, particularly her claim at a rally in Kogi state on March 03 that Buhari was entirely brain-dead.

It was a statement that got the APC campaign organisation responding by thanking Nigerians for putting up with “an incredibly crude woman” as the first lady.

After the election, though, Patience put all campaign issues behind her and congratulated Buhari’s wife for her husband’s victory and appealed to Nigerian women to “work with Hajia Aisha Buhari and give her the maximum support to make her succeed in her new assignment”.