Former First Lady of Nigeria, Dame Patience Goodluck Jonathan, has opened up about her journey through academia, testifying to God’s grace after completing her PhD programme.
She shared her moving testimony during the NSPPD Testimony Hour, a segment of the widely-followed New Season Prophetic Prayers and Declarations led by Pastor Jerry Eze.
The online prayer session is streamed daily on YouTube by Streams of Joy International Church.
Addressing the congregation, Dame Patience said, “We give God the glory, I have come here to thank God and to tell papa (Pastor Jerry) thank you for everything, thank you for your prayers. My children were the people who came here first, and they continued praying, ‘God touch our mama to go there, God touch our mama to go there.’
“So one day, I got up, I told my children, let’s go there. When I brought them there, they said God! Mummy, you are here. Mummy, we thank God. Since then, every Sunday I go there to praise God. Any Sunday you don’t see me here, you know that I am not in town. If I am in town, I come here to praise God and to thank God.”
She revealed that it was her children who inspired her to further her education. Initially hesitant due to her age and past accomplishments, the former First Lady eventually took up the challenge.
“Then I started going through my educational background, I did my NCE, I did my B.Sc, I did my Master’s. When I went to pick PHD form I thought that I would not make it, I have finished my career, I have finished as First Lady, and what am I going to do with PHD, am I disturbing my life? I’m going there for nothing.
“But my children said, go there and try, if these children can make it, you can make it. Just go there and try. I went and picked the form, three years was like 40 years. I said three years is too much for me,” she explained.
Despite the doubts, Dame Patience embraced the full experience of postgraduate study. She immersed herself in lectures, assignments, and all the rigors of academic life.
She recalled how challenging the learning process was, particularly in keeping up with younger classmates, “While other children with me in class would understand the teachings at a go, I would ask questions several times before I would understand.”
She didn’t hide her frustration either when things didn’t go as planned, “I often got angry whenever my lecturer asked me to repeat a course I did not do well, not minding that I am an old woman,” she admitted, adding that the programme had a rejuvenating effect on her mental faculties.
Her commitment even took her to Port Harcourt for extended periods just to attend classes.
“My children told me, Mummy, try, let us go to class. I would go to Porth court and stay for two weeks to one month. When we go to classes, I will sit on the bench with my children, those children that are there, they are my children and am the mama among them. I was not ashamed ooh,” she narrated.
Now proudly holding her PhD, the former First Lady gave all credit to God.
“I give God the glory, and say, God, thank you. If Patience can make it, you, the younger ones, can make it. No age limit in education. You are 100 years you can make it, you are 10 years you can make it. Just determine and you will make it,” she added.
She also extended her gratitude to Pastor Jerry Eze, encouraging him to continue interceding for the nation.
“This Nigeria belongs to all of us. And we will work together and make Nigeria great, one person alone cannot make Nigeria great, it is all of us that will join hands and make Nigeria great,” she appealed.
