What Patience Jonathan "said" about the Dana Air Crash

Barely 24 hours after the fatal Dana Airline crash that claimed the lives of more than 150 people, I received the following message from a contact on my Blackberry Instant Messenger application:

"Patience don com agn ooooooo: Dix woman is disgracn nyja...:

Patience Jonathan speaks on Dana Crash:

"I blame Road Safety for this Dana Air Crash. Civil Defence will investigate the matter in collaboration with my office so that all the victims will be happy!"

The following conversation ensued between myself and the contact that sent it:

Me: I don't think it's appropriate to joke about this barely 24 hrs after the crash.

BBM contact: Not joking. She actually said it.

Me: Can you send a link with the quote?

BBM Contact: Ok. Gimme a moment.

*A few minutes go by*

BBM Contact: My bad.

*More minutes go by*

BBM Contact: Ok. I think I was wrong about this. I was told that she actually said it and it was not a joke. But I have checked and I can't find proof that she did say it.

Me: There you go. I suspected as much

BBM Contact: I'm sorry

The alarming thing is, this is someone I worked with at a global financial institution last year during my Youth Service. I consider this individual to be intelligent and it's quite worrying that they would accept this completely without bothering to check its validity. This is just one person and I can only imagine how many other people have disseminated this false quote.

Perhaps I'm making a bigger deal of this than I should. Ok fine, but a couple questions:

• Are some people in this country so envious of this woman that exaggerating her supposed grammatical problems and alleged vapidity the only way they can feel better about themselves?

• Is the level of vitriol towards the First Lady (and to a larger extent, her husband) so high that one or more individuals felt it appropriate enough to tell this insensitive "joke" so soon while many are still grieving?

My deepest condolences go out to the families and friends of the victims of this tragedy. I along with the rest of the country hope that they can find closure in this terrible moment of despair.