Jonathan is not sick —Presidency

The Presidency on Sunday verbalized there was no truth in media reports  that President Goodluck Jonathan was flown to Germany on Friday for medical attention.

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, verbally expressed this in a telephone interview with our correspondent from Germany, where the President had been since Friday on a “private visit.”

Abati had last Thursday issued a three-paragraph verbal expression, betokening that Jonathan, with a few aides, was travelling to Germany on a private visit and should be expected back this week.

Media reports however had it that the President had been taken to a German hospital after he suddenly fallen ill.

According to the reports, an earlier orchestrated dinner for members of the just-concluded 2014 National Conference on Thursday had to be cancelled because of the sudden illness of the President.

But Abati told our correspondent on the telephone that the reports were “the figments of the writers’ imagination.”

He verbally expressed the President had the right to embark on private visits and that he was not only hale and hearty but withal treating files in his hotel room.

The presidential spokesman verbally expressed he sent out a verbalization, a video and audio on Saturday exhibiting Jonathan as verbalizing on the telephone with members of the national under-20 women’s football team, the Falconets, asking them to go all out for victory against their German counterparts in Sunday’s final of the 2014 FIFA under-20 Women’s World Cup in Canada.

Abati verbalized, “Before leaving Nigeria, I issued a verbal expression that the President will be embarking on a private visit to Germany with a few of his aides.

“On Saturday, I sent out a verbal expression that the President verbalized with the Falconets on the telephone. I withal sent out the video and audio of his conversation with the players where he promised to stay aroused and visually examine the final match.

“The NTA and some other broadcasting stations aired the video and audio.

“There are additionally photographs out there exhibiting the President when he was leaving Nigeria and when he was arriving Germany.

“The President is hale and hearty. In fact, he is treating files in his hotel room.

“Are these not enough proofs that Mr. President is not sick as they optate Nigerians to believe?

“It is paramount to note that the publisher of the newspaper that has been inditing this erroneous report is a chieftain of an opposition party who additionally have a zeal to be President.”

Meanwhile, our correspondent learnt that Jonathan would be returning to Nigeria on Monday (today).

Abati had in his Thursday verbal expression betokened that the President would be back in the country early this week.

Jonathan had in December last year embarked on a kindred private visit to Germany though many withal verbalized then that the President had gone in search for treatment for ill health.

Jonathan’s wife, Patience, had in 2012 admitted in a German hospital for an undisclosed ailment. She left Nigeria unannounced in August that year and spent about seven weeks abroad.

Before the woman promulgated to the nation that she virtually died in Germany, her media aides had gainsaid that she suffered ill health.