Presidency Silent Over Yar'adua's 8-week Trip

The Presidency declined to comment on a newspaper report that President Umaru Musa Yar'adua would spend eight weeks abroad having medical checks from January 26.
A newspaper report on Friday quoted a Special Assistant in the presidency as saying that aides and ministers were trying to get approval for government business ahead of Yar'adua's departure in 10 days' time.
"I'm not going to react to that story, whether it is true or false, papers can go ahead speculating on the health of Mr. President. I won't talk about it," presidential spokesman Olusegun Adeniyi is quoted as having said in a Reuters report.
Yar'adua, known to have a kidney problem, travelled to Saudi Arabia for more than two weeks in August last year.
Official statements said he was on pilgrimage but senior government officials and a medical source in Saudi Arabia said he had received treatment in Jeddah during the trip, raising fears about his fitness.
Ministers must obtain approval for certain expenditures and projects, and a prolonged absence could stall government business as the Vice President does not automatically have executive powers.
Yar'adua's health was long a source of concern even before he assumed the presidency.
He had to be rushed to hospital in Germany while he was campaigning just weeks ahead of the April 2007 presidential election when former President Olusegun Obasanjo phoned from the stage at a Peoples Democratic party (PDP) campaign rally so he could confirm if he was still alive after rumours spread to the contrary.