Not another Yar'Adua! Do Nigerians need to know what is wrong with Patience Jonathan?

     I don't know if anyone has noticed but our first lady has been away from the country for. First of all, the gist was that she had suffered from food poisoning. I'm a little confused here: did she leave the country for medical treatment abroad because she had symptoms of food poisoning?

     Next, we heard conflicting stories about her condition. One party claimed that she had undergone a fibroid removal surgery. Another 'trusted' source also claimed that she had undergone an appendicectomy. By the way, these are common surgeries done in Nigeria everyday... so if this were true, why would she travel outside the country to be treated in the first place? This is why it would be difficult to improve the state of our health sector.... when government officials keep travelling outside the country to treat simple ailments! If they all got treated here, I'm sure our hospitals will all be of international standard!!

     Anyways, the latest gist is that she has Parkinson's disease!! All these rumours!! This is how it started with late President Yar'Adua. To the extent that when they flew him back home from Saudi Arabia, he never made a public appearance till he died. How do we even know that he was conscious when he was brought back? For all we know, he might have been in a coma! Till today, we don't even know what killed our last president. I don't think that's fair: we elected him and we must know certain details about our president. When you run for office, you are giving up your  privacy to a major extent!
     I know that Dame Patience is not the president but why is her sickness shrouded in secrecy? Our leaders should learn to open up about their ailments. Or should we mind our business? Do we deserve to know what ails our leaders? Or not?

Fomsky