Panic in the North and Aso Rock over Yar’Adua’s health condition - How Yar’Adua dribbled aides to make Saudi trip
Idowu Samuel, Abuja
Sunday, August 31, 2008
President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has caused panic in the Presidential Villa and indeed among his arch supporters following news report that he was hospitalised in an hospital in Saudi Arabia for an undisclosed ailment.




The anxiety among officials within the Presidential Villa, Sunday Tribune learnt, was not unconnected with their inability to track information on the true health situation of the President since he never told any one of them that he was traveling out to seek medical attention.



There had been hues over the manner Yar'Adua travelled out of Nigeria some days ago on the pretext that he was Saudi Arabia-bound for the lesser hajj whereas some of his close aides had suspected his trip on consideration that the issue of lesser hajj was shrouded in secrecy.



Indication that all was not well within the Presidential Villa emerged when most of the useful aides of the President were tactically left behind to the extent that only a few among them knew that he would be travelling out, talk more to know that he would be doing so on health grounds.



Investigations by Sunday Tribune revealed that Yar'Adua sold a dummy to his aides about his trip abroad by reducing the number of aides in his entourage in order to shield his real mission for travelling to Saudi Arabia.



A top Presidency source hinted that he only went with his wife, Turai, his top security aides and members of his immediate family and those of his wife who he could trust.



The essence of doing so, as checks revealed, was to moderate the inflow of information from his present base in Saudi Arabia to Nigeria, since his close aides were known to have been spilling information on his health condition to curious information seekers back home anytime he was away.



The presidential Adviser to Yar'Adua on Communications, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, had earlier responded on his trip to Saudi, debunking speculations that the president went for medical attention where he travelled to as according to him, Yar'Adua was hale and hearty.



The inability of the President to attend to state functions has been stalling the process of governance, since most of the government functions had been halted pending his return to the country.



Last week, the House of Representatives had to postpone a meeting between it and the newly appointed service Chiefs on the issue of gun running levelled against Niger Dock Company, in line with the resolution of the House.



The new service chiefs had pleaded for time to keep abreast of the situations in their respective offices in respect of the information being sought by the House and more importantly on the need for them to be sworn in by the President.



During his first and the last Presidential media chat, Yar'Adua had had cause to open up on his state of health which had been a subject of grave concern to most Nigerians and the international community that he had cancer problems.



According to him, the problem had persisted because the doctors attending to him had been administering wrong doses on him until he sought expert medical solution in a German hospital which he said he had been familiar with.



Yar'Adua told the bewildered nation that the issue of his health condition was in the hands of Allah as he expressed disappointment that some Nigerians had been sniggering about his state of health to the extent that some had speculated that he would die in the process.



Before he became president, the electorate in Nigeria had expressed misgivings about the condition of Yar'Adua's health, accusing his predecessor, former President Olusegun Obasanjo of forcing a visibly ill presidential aspirant on Nigeria.

The then president, during a Retreat for all elected Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Officials in early May 2007, had rained curses on those talking ill of the health of Yar'Adua, averring that anyone who wished Yar'Adua evil on health condition would get evil.



http://odili.net/news/source/2008/aug/31/601.html

[size=14pt]Anxiety lingers over Yar’Adua[/size]
Written by Leon Usigbe, Abuja
Sunday, August 31, 2008
AS anxiety lingers over President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, the man he defeated in the 2007 general elections, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), wants Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to assume full executive powers so that the nation can move forward in the absence of the ailing number one citizen.



Buhari, the candidate of the All Nigerian Peoples Party, ANPP, in the 2007 polls, made his position known on the president, who was said to be recuperating in King Fahd Hospital, Saudi Arabia, after successfully undergoing renal transplant surgery, just as many members of the National Assembly declined comments on the president’s ill-health on the grounds that they were not aware of the situation.


The only member of the House of Representatives who spoke on the matter, Hon. Leo Ogor, said whereas he was not in the position to confirm Yar’Adua’s health condition, there was nothing unusual in the president taking ill as he is a human being.



Uncertainty persisted in the Presidency on the president’s health yesterday. Some sources inside the nation’s seat of power said Yar’Adua’s situation was stable and that he was esponding to treatment after the surgery. But many top government officials preferred to keep mum.


According to Buhari’s close associate and director-general of the presidential campaign of the ANPP, Alhaji Sule Hamman, who spoke on telephone with Sunday Vanguard, yesterday, in Abuja, while the Buhari camp sympathised with Yar’Adua over his poor health and wished him quick recovery, it was important for the vice president to take over the responsibility of running the country fully in line with the prescription of the constitution.


“Well, I will like to say that we commiserate with the president on the unfortunate condition that he is in and we wish him successful surgery”, Hamman stated.

Chiding the Presidency for concealing Yar’Adua’s health status, he said, “But, we obviously condemn in unequivocal terms the irresponsible manner in which the Presidency managed the situation by denying the people of Nigeria information and confusing the people with false stories and reports about the health condition of the president. This should not be a political matter. It is irresponsible politics to play with the health of the leader of the country. So, we regard this as unfortunate”.


He explained that the Buhari group hoped that the PDP will accept the constitutional provision whereby the vice president of the federation will exercise full responsibility of leadership in the absence of the president. “So, we hope this will be complied with so that in his absence, the vice president will provide full leadership and take full executive responsibility so that the country can move on with the leadership that is constitutionally designated”, he said.


Also reacting, Ogor, representing Isoko Federal Constituency of Delta State, told Sunday Vanguard that even though he could not confirm the report, there was nothing unusual in the president taking ill as he was a human being.


According to him, “We are all human beings and we can fall sick at any given time. If the story is true, we should even be happy that the whole thing went well and he is recuperating. What we need to do is to pray for him and to wish him well. Nobody has control over health. It is something that only God controls”.


On the initial denial of the Presidency of the poor state of Yar’Adua’s health, he noted that the officials probably did not have accurate information at the time they went public with the denial.


“Probably as at then, the person who was giving the information was not abreast of the situation. He had to go back and re-confirm the story but I really don’t see any big deal about it because we don’t know when the operation took place and we cannot confirm the story. Even as I speak to you now, I really don’t know the true position”, the lawmaker said.


He added that it would be too early to speculate over the ability of the president to carry out his constitutional functions as such the decision rested squarely with him.

The former chairman of the House Committee on Inter Governmental Affairs went on: “The man has not told anybody that he cannot perform his functions that he is supposed to be performing constitutionally and that responsibility is purely in line with the constitution.


“The responsibility of saying he does not want to run the affairs of the state is left to him. Nobody can speak on that because you cannot say that if somebody goes through an operation and that would be the end of the man, the answer is no. Anybody can face this kind of predicament. People go through operation and even come out stronger.


“The fact remains that, at this moment, what we should be doing as a nation is to pray for the president. From my own position, I have not been able to confirm it but if it is true and the operation is successful, then it calls for jubilation and we should be excited over it. We should pray to God so that he can recover and go back to his job”.


Many other members of the House including the chairman of the House Committee on Rules and Business, Rep, Ita Enang, Rep. CID Maduabum (PDP Anambra), Farouk Lawan (PDP Kano), Ahmed Salik (PDP Kano) and Doris Uboh (PDP Delta) declined comments on the president’s health on the grounds that they were not aware of the situation.


http://odili.net/news/source/2008/aug/31/300.html

Rumour had it today in my area that he had died.

Really? Bless his soul!! I liked him so much.

Second time a northerner will die on that throne. What a record!!!

Our president is a living corpse. . . this must be the world's only thanatocracy.

It's not his fault. Irrespective of our differences, i do not wish him to die especially when he's about the most liberal president that has ever come from the north.

Nigeria cannot afford this guy to die right now. . .

I heard that too, and i pray it is a lie. God wont allow that. We all wish his saf and quick rcovery. But why cant we just be told the whole story. It not fair, that they would kep us in suspence.

so is Jonathan Goodluck the one ruling the country while Yaradua is in saudi, and is MEND happy now?

Is it the MEND that disowned him? they've always regarded him as an ibo man anyway.

DeepZone:

Is it the MEND that disowned him? they've always regarded him as an ibo man anyway.

hmph.

There's talk for the benefit of outsiders, and there's talk for the benefit of the "inside" group.

KINGEBE is ruling, not GOODLUCK.

gost:

KINGEBE is ruling, not GOODLUCK.

Tell them jare. . . who dash Ijaw man presidential powers?

why