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rs. Patience Jonathan returned from medical treatment in Germany to the embrace of her husband, mother-in-law and son recently. She is alive and well, which is good and what we all hope for and wish to happen to every Nigerian who is sick and in need of medical miracle. Unfortunately, medical miracles are few and far between in Nigeria because we do not have the medical equipment needed and necessary to treat patients in our hospitals. When you consider the fact that Patience Jonathan has access to the best hospital in Nigeria, the Aso Rock Clinic, then the gravity of the deplorable state of our teaching hospitals and health care system is obvious. But my concern is why Mrs. Jonathan has access to overseas medical care at taxpayers' expense when taxpayers do not have such access. When Mrs Jonathan alighted from the presidential jet on her arrival from Germany I wonder what right she has to use the presidential jet and if Goodluck Jonathan truly care about simple standards of ethics and decency.

My brother-in-law took ill about two months before Patience Jonathan got sick. He was admitted at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) and the doctors could do very little for him and several others on admission at the hospital. During his nearly six weeks admission and before he demanded that he be discharged - he actually discharged himself - preferring to go and "die at home," several patients died in his ward due to lack of proper and adequate care, traceable to the inability of the hospital to diagnose these patients. The medical equipment/tools needed to diagnose patients are not there. But neither my brother-in-law nor any of the other patients, including those who died while on admission, could be taken to Germany. It is not because these patients are less human than Patience Jonathan or they have not been paying their taxes, or even because they no longer have anything to offer our nation and society. My brother-in-law is still bed-ridden and at home. He is being moved around to see specialists who can help him regain the use of his lungs and overcome the effects of stroke, and he still cannot swallow, relying on tube for little meals, all of which have to be grinded. Watching patients die or being told that the patient you saw last night is no more became a regular occurrence and, before you know it, you are used to hearing the bad news again and again, until you are almost used to it!

Mrs. Jonathan took ill and within days she was flown to Germany for treatment. Why is the opportunity for overseas medical care restricted to the very same people who have the responsibility of making our health system work but instead are making a terrible job of it? Will any of the women who walked the sun and the heat and were organized to welcome Mrs. Jonathan be taken to Germany if they suffer health set-back or sun stroke? I wonder if the life of Mrs. Jonathan is worth much more than my brother-in-law's, and if she is making any special contribution that is beyond what a laboratory technology specialist is making to the nation. A leech like Patience Jonathan is getting the very best while the people die without any hope or opportunity to get medical care. I do not see any value or relevance she is adding and the preference offered her, the special access to state funds allowed her, and the overseas treatment provided to her is yet another example of the corrupt ways and unethical actions of this administration, an abuse of our process. Patience Jonathan should be reimbursing the national treasury every dollar spent on her in Germany.

We need to tell Goodluck Jonathan that what is good for the goose should be good for the gander; you owe it as a duty - and you swore on oath - to the people of Nigeria to ensure that they are treated equally and fairly. But it has been obvious from day one that Goodluck Jonathan loathes fairness and has a huge disdain for equity and transparency. He is the collector of gifts, because gifts are not bribes; they are just a show of generosity and kindness. It leaves us all wondering how much gifts - in cash and in kind - followed the various worthless national honours he dashed to the rich and wealthy this last October. Patience Jonathan has returned and looking well but did Jonathan not pay the hospital bill before she was discharged? Did they not find the money, the hard currency to pay her hospital bill? It is only when people like Jonathan are tasked about the need to provide amenities and services to the people that they will begin to claim there are no funds. "Sorry we did not budget for that," or "We can't find the money and the civil service rule did not approve that we take civil servants involved in ghastly motor accidents on-the-job for medical treatment overseas." So it is a different rule for different folks - one rule for his family and another for the rest of us. That is the way it has been for decades and we thought Jonathan was going to change all that and reverse the leadership mentality and myopia of putting the people last. While many were dying and actually died in our poorly equipped hospitals Patience Jonathan was spending our money to secure the best health care money can buy in Germany; while the owners of the resources are dying, sick and lacking reasonable health care, the bystander was abusing their resources and using it to fortify himself and his family, procuring what is not available at home from foreign land and a huge cost to the owners of the wealth.

If the truth must be told, the transportation, treatment, hospitalization, and care of Patience Jonathan must have cost well over half a million dollars and it is not the taxpayers of Nigeria who should pay that bill. Perhaps the Bayelsa State government should pay since she is a Permanent Secretary there, albeit in name only and on a virtual basis, and is sure on their payroll as we speak. Her medical treatment in Germany will be seen as a sick leave while her salary, allowances and other perks are still being remitted into her bank account and place(s) of residence. Goodluck Jonathan has taken the abuse of state machinery and due process to a new level. The shocking thing is that he appeared at home and in sync with all the abuses and pleased with himself! When will he or his ministers approve overseas treatment for federal civil servants who sustained life-threatening injuries in automobile accidents on-the-job, on their way to or from Abuja in recent months? What will Goodluck Jonathan tell the children of those civil servants who were critically injured and bound to beds at the Federal Medical Centres after being terribly hurt in auto crashes while serving the nation? I know what he is likely to say to the children: "Children, these things happen and we are doing our very best to care for your parent! I know that God is on the throne and He will heal him. You know where two or three are gathered in his name, he is there with them and will heal them. God has a plan for all of us." We know that God has a plan for all of us, but what plan has Mr. Jonathan for you and me, for our health care and well being?

Sometimes you are not sure if these opportunists think the rest of us have blood flowing through our veins or if it is water. Having direct access to state funds should never be that easy, but in a corrupt environment like Nigeria it is just too easy for executives to dip their filthy fingers into the collective purse of the people. If the normal process was followed in the request for funds to pay the German hospitals then there must be paper trail which can be used to prosecute Jonathan and his sidekicks for approving and authorizing payment for goods and services the nation ought not to have paid for or purchased.