Expectations that President Umaru Yar‘Adua would return to the country this weekend from Saudi Arabia where he had been hospitalised in the past 68 days, receiving treatment for acute pericarditis, may not materialise.

Reason: Doctors tending to Yar‘Adua at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital, Jedda, may have warned his wife, Hajia Turai, and the President‘s kitchen cabinet against heightened plans to move him prematurely from Saudi Arabia to Nigeria.

Saturday Punch investigation revealed that the agitated doctors who were of the opinion that the Present‘s health had not improved, had also handed over a disclaimer to the First Lady who is the next of kin of the President to fill if she insisted on acting against experts‘ opinion on the sensitive health issue.

The position of the Saudi doctors was said to have followed the insistence by Turai and members of the President‘s kitchen cabinet that Yar‘Adua must be moved to Nigeria on or before January 29 (yesterday), in order to sustain his hold onto power.

A source who spoke on the condition of anonymity alleged that Turai and the kitchen cabinet members deliberately deceived Nigerians about the reported improvement of the President‘s health, saying it was meant to halt the process of paving the way for Dr. Goodluck Jonathan to assume power as the Acting President of the country.

It was also revealed that contrary to the impression created by the First Lady and her team, the President was still in the Intensive Care Unit of the King Faisal Hospital and was lucky to have survived a critical condition last Friday.

Contrary to the position of the hospital, they were also said to have procured a Ford E-25 advanced ambulance with ICU-type equipment in preparation for the planned journey.

While the Ford-20 ambulance reportedly arrived in Lagos on January 20, it was transported to Abuja three days after, with efforts being made to charter a similarly equipped air ambulance to fly the President back to the country.

The plan was to fly the President into the country late in the night to beat the arrival of a delegation from the House of Representatives, billed to pay Yar‘Adua a goodwill visit early this week.

It was further gathered that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia authorities had given a tacit support to Turai and her group by tactically denying Nigerians suspected of travelling to the country to enquire about the President‘s health condition visas.

Meanwhile, indication has emerged that there is a face off between the members of the President‘s kitchen cabinet and some of their supporters who they accuse of not doing enough to defend the Yar‘Adua presidency.

It was revealed that a memo purportedly signed by Yar‘Adua titled ”Restructuring the Presidency” and sent to the country through one of the President‘s daughters is at the root of the bitter disagreement.

The memo, said to be drafted by the core members of the kitchen cabinet conveyed the decision of Yar‘Adua to sack some members of the Federal Executive Council.

Those listed for sacking include the Secretary to the Federal Government, Alhaji Ahmed Yayale; Head of Service, Mr. Steven Oronsaye; Minister of Petroleum, Dr. Rilwanu Lukeman; Minister of Information and Communication, Prof. Dora Akunyili; Minister of Power, Dr. Lanre Babalola; Minister of the Interior, Dr. Shettima Mustapha; and the Attorney General and Minister of Minister of Justice, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa.

The alleged plan to sack these ministers ostensibly for the failures in the power, communication and the constitutional shortcomings was strategically designed to cause confusion and divert attention from the burning issue of the President‘s health.

It was said that the letter had not been made public obviously because of fears among the authors of the document that the agitated Nigerian public might raise issues with the letter.

They were said to have held onto the letter because of the feeling that Nigerians would demand to know how a President who could not draft a letter of handover to his deputy to the National Assembly, could write such a letter of terminating the appointment of his ministers.

It was also gathered that Turai and the group were not very comfortable with a former Governor from the South-South and another serving Governor from the western axis of the North Central who they felt were not doing enough to defend what they perceived to be a threatened Yar‘Adua presidency contrary to expectations.

The group is said to be relying more on a former Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service during the military regime to intensify the campaign for the defence of the Yar‘Adua presidency in the guise of protecting the political interest of the North.

The former Customs boss and a top chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party from the South-South were allegedly given about N60m by a Governor from the North Western part of the country to enlist the support of members of the Board of Trustees of the party against deliberating the health of the President during its meeting penultimate Thursday.