A plan by the doctors treating President Umaru Yar‘Adua to transfer him to a hospital in the United States of America when his condition did not improve after nine days in the hospital‘s Intensive Care Unit has been shelved.

A staff of the hospital who spoke to our source, a journalist with a newspaper in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, described the condition of the President at the time as ”extremely serious.”

”He was in intensive care all day yesterday (Monday) and plans were being made to fly him to the best cardiologists in the United States.

”His condition was extremely serious yesterday. He was given several types of medication to decrease the swelling. He was not able to speak and his wife was the only one permitted to see him,” the source said.

The information, which Saturday Punch, received during the week put a lie to the claim by Vice President Goodluck Jonathan and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Michael Aandoakaa, that they had been communicating with the President

The source said though the President‘s condition was not as critical as it was earlier, he had been transferred from the ICU to the VIP suite where his doctors were monitoring him in order to decide what to do.

”Today he is in the VIP unit of the Cardiac Care Ward in King Faisal Hospital in Jeddah. He is in the VIP suite in stable condition under heavy security,” he said.

The source, who confirmed that the President was being treated for acute pericarditis, added that securing information about the President‘s condition was difficult as the hospital authorities had removed every information on his medical history from the hospital‘s computer system.

The source was however silent on whether the President had undergone surgery or not.

Meanwhile, a pressure group in the country, The Patriots, led by Prof. Ben Nwabueze, has challenged the Northern Union led by Dr. Olusola Saraki not to sacrifice constitutionalism for political expediency on the current sickness of President Umaru Yar‘Adua.

In a statement issued on Thursday and signed by the Chairman of the Northern Union, Chief Patrick Adaba, the group had warned that the stability of the country depended on the rotation of the office of the president.

It added that every nation had its own peculiarities, saying, ”It should be understood by those who love this country that one of such peculiarities upon which the unity and stability of our country is hinged is power rotation between the North and the South.”

But reacting to the statement on Friday, The Patriots said that all Nigerians should give the deserved respect to the express stipulations of the 1999 Constitution on serious national questions and issues like the current illness of President Umaru Yar‘Adua and the possibility of power succession in the country.

Secretary General of the Patriots and prominent Lagos-based lawyer, Chief Ladi Williams, SAN, also said in an exclusive interview with Saturday Punch in Abuja on Friday that the issue of succession in the country must be guided by the provisions of the constitution.

He said that it would be inappropriate for anybody to tend to sacrifice the constitution in preference for ethnic considerations.

Williams, who is a son of the late legal luminary, Chief FRA Williams, challenged those calling for power rotation in the country on the basis of an unwritten agreement of the Peoples Democratic Party to strive to include the concept of power rotation in the constitution in consonance with the position of President Yar‘Adua on the Rule of Law.

Williams said it was not proper for any group, be it from the North or South, to be canvassing power rotation along ethnic lines since the constitution was clear on the issue of succession.

He said that while the Patriots, a group of eminent Nigerians, had joined others to pray for the President so that he could recover from the sickness to assume his responsibilities it would not encourage acts that negate the sanctity of the constitution.

He argued that the claim being made by the Northern Union and others on the issue of power rotation was unacceptable as it could not be preferred to the constitution whose position is supreme on any issue in the society.

He said, ”First of all let me say straight away that the Patriot wish Mr. President well and we wish him speedy recovery so that he can come back and continue with his mandate. However, any succession of power in this country must be guided by the provisions of the constitution.

“I would say that the major legacy that President Yar‘Adua has given this country is the strict adherence and implementation of the rule of law. Constitutionalism must not be sacrificed on the altar of ethnicity. If we want to amend the constitution to include rotation, we can do so at a later day. But at this point in time, the succession mechanism is already well-defined in the constitution.

“So there is no point whether it is northern union, southern union, eastern union, western union. Nigeria is bigger than all these groups. The constitution is supreme. We must learn to respect the provisions of our constitution.”

Williams said that Nigerians did not vote for the Northern Union but a joint presidential ticket of Yar‘Adua and Goodluck Jonathan which was offered by the ruling PDP.

“Remember, it is a joint PDP ticket. It is not a joint PDP/Northern Union ticket; the mandate we gave was for the party to govern. The Supreme Court itself has said that when we vote, we are voting for the party.

“We voted for the PDP, we did not vote for any Northern Union. And when I say we I don‘t mean I in particular, I mean Nigerians voted for the PDP, the joint ticket they presented to us is Yar‘ Adua and Jonathan,” he added

Similarly, Chief Olu Falae, a former Presidential Candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party in the 1999 election said that those clamouring for power rotation between the North and South had missed the point.

He said there was no agreement between the North and South on the issue of power rotation and political succession that was binding on the Nigerian citizenry.

The politician who spoke in a telephone interview with our correspondent also on Friday, said the issue of power rotation between the North and South might be an arrangement of the PDP which could not be said to be binding on Nigerians.

He warned that those clamouring for power rotation outside of the stipulations of the constitution were only committing acts inimical to the unity of the country.