First Lady meets former Nigerian counterpart

Aug 30, 2021

Nigeria now has a law that bars anyone who has not yet received the COVID-19 vaccination from attending any public function.

Mrs. Janet Janet Museveni and Nigeria’s former First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan (seated)

NewVision Reporter
Journalist @NewVision

The First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Mrs. Janet Museveni, on Wednesday received and held a meeting with the former First Lady of Nigeria, Dame Patience Jonathan, who paid a courtesy call on her at State House Nakasero.

Mrs. Jonathan was in Uganda to accompany her husband, ex-Nigerian President Dr Jonathan Goodluck, for his installation as the Chancellor of Cavendish University which took place on Thursday.

Mrs. Museveni welcomed Mrs. Jonathan and her entourage to Uganda and hoped they would enjoy their short time in the country.

In their meeting, the two talked about a wide range of issues, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the status of the mass vaccination against COVID-19 in their respective countries, tourism, their work and family matters.

Mrs. Jonathan said Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari and the First Lady Aisha Buhari are trying their best and by the grace of God, COVID-19 in their country has reduced with more than 80% of the people already vaccinated. She said all offices and schools are open and everything is back to normal now. She said Nigeria also lost many people in the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.

She explained that in Nigerian, schools are open because the President made sure that all university lecturers and students, teachers, secondary school students and all workers at the schools were vaccinated. She also added that Nigeria now has a law that bars anyone who has not yet received the COVID-19 vaccination from attending any public function, so even those people who had fears and had dodged, are now embracing the vaccination.

Mrs Museveni informed her guest that unlike Nigeria, schools in Uganda are still under lockdown, but she hopes that by God’s grace they will be opened soon. She said they are trying to prioritise vaccination of teachers and university students so that at least universities can be opened and if teachers are vaccinated, then schools can be opened gradually but not at the same time.

“We opened for some candidate classes, who did their exams and vacated the schools and now we want to bring in the other classes that were not in school at all since the beginning of the year. If we can get more of our young people also vaccinated then schools can open,” she explained.

Mrs Museveni informed her guest that the tourism industry in Uganda is thriving because of the various animals and birds that interest tourists to visit the country. She hoped that Mrs Jonathan’s short time in Uganda would be interesting and memorable and encouraged her to come back and visit the many tourism sites in the country.

Mrs. Jonathan, who was Nigeria’s First Lady from 2010 to 2015, informed Mrs. Museveni that since she left office of First Lady, she has focused on her NGO, which supports the less privileged, widows and orphans. She said she is also an advocate for women to be part of governance and during her husband’s term as President, he gave women 25% affirmative action, which has also been sustained by the current government. She said she has also worked with Nigeria’s First Lady on the campaign to mobilise people for the COVID-19 vaccination.

She wished Mrs Museveni and the people of Uganda well and hoped that the battle against COVID-19 would be won in Africa and globally.

Nigeria’s former First Lady was accompanied to the meeting by Nkechi Ubah, her personal assistant, Collins Otutu the CSO, Rosemary Yellow Duke Consular Officer from the Nigerian High Commission, Roses Ezekwesili and Isingoma from Uganda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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