The wish of Nigeria’s First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, to reduce her weight and look more fashionable appears to have finally come true.

The Dame Jonathan who returned to the country this afternoon after about two months of medical sojourn abroad looked slimmer as she disembarked from the presidential jet that brought her home from Wiesbaden, Germany, around 3:45 p.m. She also appeared smarter as she exchanged greetings and slipped into the arms of a visibly happy President Goodluck Jonathan.

The First Lady’s slimmer looks tends to lend credence to the exclusive report by News Express that her ordeal arose from a tummy tuck operation that developed complications. As we reported on Oct. 8, the First Lady was said to have been talked into doing tummy tuck by close friends and apparently went for it without the consent of her husband.

According to our source: “After the surgery, which was successful, the doctors advised her to stay back in the hospital so that they can monitor what she eats and drinks till she was fully healed. But she went against advice, came back to Nigeria and began to eat diet not within prescribed limits. The operation therefore went awry and she was flown out at night in an air ambulance. She has been in and out of coma ever since and, according to those who know, the chances of her surviving and getting back to Nigeria as a normal person is becoming slimmer.”

News Express learnt that Dame Jonathan would need to make periodic visits to the Horst Schmidt Klinik, Wiesbaden, Germany, where she received treatment, for check-up.

Dame Jonathan had disappeared from public view late July, with her spokespersons and those of her husband claiming that she was resting abroad. She was speculated to be suffering from food poisoning, fibroid and uterine cancer but the tummy tuck theory appears to be the most plausible since she looked healthy before her suddenly disappearance from public view and now looks slimmer on her return. Fashionable but of plus size, the First Lady is known for her desire to look trendy, which may have informed her decision to go for tummy tuck, a procedure which cost Stella Obasanjo her life during her days as First Lady.

*Photo, courtesy Sunday Aghaeze, shows a slimmer Dame Jonathan on arrival in Abuja this afternoon.

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