Patience Jonathan, the wife of President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria, will not be traveling with her husband to the United Nation’s General Assembly in New York, according to a manifest seen by SaharaReporters. Instead, Helen Mark, the wife of Nigeria’s Senate President David Mark, has been penciled in to stand in for Nigeria’s First Lady in a series of meetings during the General Assembly.
A number of Nigerian Presidency officials contacted by SaharaReporters said they were unable to explain why Mrs. Jonathan was dropped from the New York leg of her husband’s trip. One of the sources disclosed that Mrs. Jonathan arrived with the president in London earlier today. He added that she would remain in London and then return to Abuja with Mr. Jonathan on his way back from his New York trip. The President is scheduled to return to Nigeria on Thursday.
Mrs. Jonathan was also conspicuously absent from her husband’s side when he made a high-profile trip to the US to attend the US-Africa summit convened by President Barack Obama.
SaharaReporters revealed earlier today that Mr. Jonathan will make a secret trip to Germany to former Nigerian dictator, Ibrahim Babangida, who is hospitalized in a German hospital.
Among those accompanying Mr. Jonathan to New York is Petroleum Resources Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke. Both the president and Ms. Alison-Madueke will be staying on the same floor of The Pier, one of New York’s luxury hotels, throughout the week of the UN General Assembly.
In another development, the size of Nigeria’s delegation to the 2014 UN General Assembly was drastically reduced on the orders of President Jonathan. A source at the Presidency said Mr. Jonathan decided to scale down the number of delegates in response to revelations by SaharaReporters that the Nigerian delegation last year was the largest of any participating nation, recently Nigeria’s foreign affairs minister, Ambassador Aminu Wali attested to that fact.. “Mr. President ordered a comprehensive review of his entourage this year,” said the source.
So far, only 76 Nigerian delegates have officially arrived in New York. President Jonathan is traveling with 20 aides while ministers accompanying him were told to include only one technical aide each.