Missing “President”: Six-man ministerial team to go in search of Yar’Adua in Saudi Arabia
Written by Saharareporters, New York
Wednesday, 17 February 2010 13:15




The Federal Executive Council (FEC) headed by “Acting President” Goodluck Jonathan, ended its weekly meeting today with a "resolution" to send a six-man team composed mainly of ministers to look for Umaru Yar’Adua, Nigeria’s sickly leader who was evacuated to Saudi Arabia in a medical emergency on November 23 2009. Nobody in the government has set eyes on him since then.
The delegation will be led by Yar’Adua’s crony, Abba Sayyad Ruma, who is the Minister of Agriculture; Rilwan Lukman, Minister of Petroleum Resources;Professor Babatunde Osotimehin, Minister of Health; Adetokunbo Kayode, Attorney General and Minister of Justice; Ojo Madueke, the Minister of Foreign Affairs; and Ahmed Yayale, the Secretary to the Federal Government.

Sources at today's meeting told Saharareporters that it was stormy, as some ministers wanted the FEC to declare YAr’adua incapacitated outright. They were met head-on by Yar'Adua loyalists who forced the meeting to adopt the resolution that would enable the team visit Jeddah to ascertain Yar’Adua’s condition and revert to the full FEC.

An after-session briefing by Dora Akunyili, the Minister of Information who lit a fire under the cabinet two weeks ago by introducing a memo challenging its position on the ailing leader, did not offer much, but she described the FEC as being the “closest” [institution] to Yar’Adua, which should be able to visit him in person.

This seems to be an allusion to the several delegations, including those of the Senate, the House of Representatives, Governors, that have made futile visits to Saudi Arabia. It is unclear how the delegation will succeed in meeting Yar'Adua face to face, but the FEC also resolved to send a letter to the King of Saudi Arabia Kingdom.

Said a political analyst today, "The FEC is playing an extended game, like the Nigeria Football Federation trying to hire top foreign coaches without getting in touch with them directly. This so-called resolution does not offer a sense of urgency, or seriousness or of protocol. If it had a sense of urgency, the delegation would be leaving tonight. If it had a sense of seriousness, this move would have been made before now, and certainly no later than last week. If it had a sense of protocol, the letter to the King would have been sent before the FEC announced the card it intends to play. This has all the makings of ritual, but also of potential embarrassment

http://www.saharareporters.com/real-news/sr-headlines/5196-missing-president-six-man-ministerial-team-to-go-in-search-of-yaradua-in-saudi-arabia.html

You just got to love Jonathan's level headed approach to things

Let Sayaad Abba Ruma go to Saudi Arabia and come back.
He will now choose to respect our National Interest by telling the truth about Yar'adua's health against the will of his maddam or he can choose to lie to 150 million Nigerians.

The ball is now in Abba Ruma's court. He should play it the way he likes.

This team in collusion with Ambassador Aminchi should be very careful, because after this they will be commiting treason if they joke with this task.

Meanwhile the letter to King Abdollah makes a lot of sense, they must make sure they secure his permission before they leave. This is now a diplomatic mission. Saudi Arabia now has a choice to grant us access to our President or tell us why they are holding our President custody.

Turai is now effectively out of this equation.

Who says we are not making impact here on Nairaland. Is this not what we have been calling for in the last one week?

this people should better stop wasting out money on fruitles journeys to saudi!!! yaradua is sick and cant govern us, is better we move on and allow the poor man to get better health care in peace so that he can also move on with his life!!

how many times are they going to send someone to saudi?

g1:

this people should better stop wasting out money on fruitles journeys to saudi!!! yaradua is sick and cant govern us, is better we move on and allow the poor man to get better health care in peace so that he can also move on with his life!!

how many times are they going to send someone to saudi?

Unfortunately we can only move on when we ascertain the true state of his health or if he resigns

Non has happened yet

I hope they go to Saudi with a cam coder or video coverage which the rest of FEC will have to watch to make Judgements for themselves.

We can no longer trust word of mouth.

Na waoo!!wake up people our presido is missn!! Let d search begin! 150mil awaits who so finds mr presido!

mikeansy:

You just got to love Jonathan's level headed approach to things

Let Sayaad Abba Ruma go to Saudi Arabia and come back.
He will now choose to respect our National Interest by telling the truth about Yar'adua's health against the will of his maddam or he can choose to lie to 150 million Nigerians.

The ball is now in Abba Ruma's court. He should play it the way he likes.

This team in collusion with Ambassador Aminchi should be very careful, because after this they will be commiting treason if they joke with this task.

Meanwhile the letter to King Abdollah makes a lot of sense, they must make sure they secure his permission before they leave. This is now a diplomatic mission. Saudi Arabia now has a choice to grant us access to our President or tell us why they are holding our President custody.

Turai is now effectively out of this equation.

Who says we are not making impact here on Nairaland. Is this not what we have been calling for in the last one week?

@ mikeansy

Someone has recommend your commentary here to FEC and Goodluck in particular, and they continue to read what you have to say, and doing exactly what the doctor order.

It is clear that 'mission failed' before embarkation. Goodluck is simply trying to please the Kitchen cabinet and at the same time exposed the charade., even his private secretary cannot see him to 'read and sign a 109 pages supplementary appopriation bill'. neither did all the PDP bigwigs including 3 'foolish' governors whcih include his own son in -law.

Even, if 150million Nigeria invades Saudi Arabia nothing will come out of it. They are just playing extended long game which will blow in their face as the NASS joint proclamation has caught them by surprise.

Waste of scarces resources, if you ask me.

Its a right move in d right direction but d question d start up date is not shown and d dead line too! Is it going to be till december or what? D news is not complete. Excuse me pass jare.

Vigasimple

The difference is those people jumped on a plane to Saudi Arabia and could easily be told they have no access to King Abdollahs ward.

But this time a formal request has been sent to King Abdullal. He has a duty to consent or he will be accused of kidnapping the President of Nigeria. Its that simple.

Turai will now come under pressure from the office of the Saudi King to consent or leave Saudi.

Trust me this is no waste of resources. Jonathan has no other option. He can not lead the FEC declare Yar'adua incapacitated without determining his true state of health. It will lack legitimacy. But after this visit, any minister who opposes declaring Yar'adua incapacitated will have to explain why and trust me thats not easy.

I think the composition of the team is very shrewd. Let Abba Ruma be part of the report that will declare Yar'adua incapacitated instead of being at home to plot behind the scene. Let him come to the fore and take positions lets hear what he has to say. Abba Ruma is young man


He has a choice to stand for the truth or destroy his political career forever.

safeact:

Its a right move in d right direction but d question d start up date is not shown and d dead line too! Is it going to be till december or what? D news is not complete. Excuse me pass jare.

Am not sure you can really give King Abdollah or the leadership of any soveriegn country a deadline to respond to your letter. Keep in mind these guys can not go until they have response from the Saudis. Otherwise it will be a futile excersize.

But what they can do is make sure this letter to King Abdollah has a lot of publicity in the international community, that will put some pressure on them as they can be accused of complicity if they do not react.
Our Government can also lobby the Americans to put pressure on Saudi if the Saudi's are not forth coming. However it make's no sense to have a dealine. But this can progress quickly if we on the sidelines protest any intentional administrative delay.

The protest on the streets and in the local media has to continue. If the Saudi's waste time a protest in front of the Saudi Arabian embassy in Abuja, London and New York will also be a good idea.

But I don't expect the Saudis to go down this route.

mikeansy:

Am not sure you can really give King Abdollah or the leadership of any soveriegn country a deadline to respond to your letter. Keep in mind these guys can not go until they have response from the Saudis. Otherwise it will be a futile excersize.

But what they can do is make sure this letter to King Abdollah has a lot of publicity in the international community, that will put some pressure on them as they can be accused of complicity if they do not react.
Our Government can also lobby the Americans to put pressure on Saudi if the Saudi's are not forth coming. However it make's no sense to have a dealine. But this can progress quickly if we on the sidelines protest any intentional administrative delay.

The protest on the streets and in the local media has to continue. If the Saudi's waste time a protest in front of the Saudi Arabian embassy in Abuja, London and New York will also be a good idea.
But I don't expect the Saudis to go down this route.

I do appreciate your support for the visitation to the President.But a fact still remain,the FEC don't need to be knee begging the saudi authority for them to see Mr president.For God sake Mr president is an embodyment of the nation called Nigeria,application for Visa is an enough notice to the Saudi authority of the intend visit to the ailing president.If they are not allowed to see him,then the nation will either declared him kidnapped or ask the Saudis to send him back with the next available flight.

Mr president is an embodyment of the nation called Nigeria

since when?

i thought you people are saints being ruled by devils?

hw many tyms r they gonna send 'teams' 2 look 4 our president?

Turai's gon' do them d same thing anyway

Haha they aint seeing him just like the Reps,ogbulafor,his own daughter,governors.

Hahaha,and if they dont the ECF are goint to declare him unfit, Sobbs™

No point wasting Nigeria's depleted resources looking for Yaradua at all. . . .
What is the point of searching for someone when we all know where the person is

MrCrackles:

No point wasting Nigeria's depleted resources looking for Yaradua at all. . . .
What is the point of searching for someone when we all know where the person is

Ohh! u know where he is??

pls tell us. d man's been missing 4 ages

tayo_ast:

Ohh! u know where he is??

pls tell us. d man's been missing 4 ages

Saudi Arabia. . .

he is in his graves!