PHOTOS: Patience Jonathan's lavish thanksgiving party

Thousands of guests, including state governors, overrun Abuja for a lavish thanksgiving party thrown for Nigeria’s First Lady, Patience Jonathan, reportedly at a cost of N500 million.

Although the Presidency had previously denied the First Lady being in hospital in Germany, Mrs. Jonathan revealed at a special service at the Aso Rock Chapel, stunning worshippers with the admission her medical condition had been very serious. “I actually died, ...I passed out for more than a week. My intestine and tummy were opened.” she admitted.

She said her doctors had actually given up hope, although she did not specify her diagnosis. “It was God himself in His infinite mercy that said I will return to Nigeria. God woke me up after seven days.”

Several trucks bearing gifts from government officials and contractors reportedly lined the streets of the presidential villa waiting to deliver gifts to the First Lady.

more pictures after the break