FRONT PAGE COMMENT: Mr President, It’s Time To Go
Written by LEADERSHIP
Sunday, 06 December 2009 18:59
President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's current hospitalisation in Saudi Arabia is one too many for a nation facing a mountain of challenges. Since all indicators point to the fact that he will not get fit enough to do his job any time soon, this must be a moment of decision for the President. It calls for statesmanship - and patriotism. For the sake of 150 million Nigerians - who are not senators, governors, ministers, directors, contractors or special advisers that have access to public funds - and the tension his perennial ailment has caused in the past three years, President Yar'Adua should step aside immediately and let Nigeria move on. Understanding that he will be freer to manage his health if he gives up the job, his family should never mind the shenanigans of those whose interests will best be served as long as the label "president" is not removed from him. They love neither Yar'Adua nor Nigeria.
Ever since Olusegun Obasanjo imposed him on Nigeria, in 2007, the country has not been governed effectively primarily because of the President's sickness. In a saner country where Presidential aspirants are screened properly, Yar'Adua obviously would have been estopped from running for president on grounds of ill-health. But this is Nigeria - an otherwise great nation that has been turned into a banana republic by an evil-minded tyrant named Obasanjo and his collaborators. Like many others, the do-or-die president knew the health status of the then governor of Katsina State long before 2007. He desired to punish Nigerians for denying him an illegal third term: with an ailing president, he thought, Nigeria would remain ungoverned.
Almost certainly, Obasanjo expected the worst when, in spite of all the atrocities he committed while in power, he predicted that Nigerians would miss him.
Nobody misses Obasanjo, however. An ailing president is far better than an evil one. At least, the nation has enjoyed some measure of peace under Yar'Adua. Unlike during the Obasanjo presidency, there have not been assassinations of political foes, genocide in Odi and Zaki-Biam, forgery of the Electoral Act and other perfidies. Under Yar'Adua, we have not had a president that steals the country blind while pretending to be leading a fight against corruption. Admittedly, there are thieves around Yar'Adua, but we believe they owe their success in stealing chiefly to the limitations imposed on the President by ill-health.
We are at a crossroads. Unlike those who wish him well only on the pages of newspapers, we sincerely pray for the President's good health. May he become fit today and return to lead the nation out of the massive morass created by our past leaders. If, however, the Creator decides that he needs more time to attend to his health, then, the office of president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has to be taken by another. In fact, if he had received signs that he would not be back soon, before he was flown out two weeks ago, he should have handed over to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan. For the business of the state cannot wait.
When it comes to the health of President Yar'Adua, full disclosure is not expected from members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), governors, some elder statesmen, government contractors and fronts for treasury looters. That is why Nigerians, long used to living in denial, have been falling over themselves (even without citing a doctor's report or vital information) to declare that he is still capable of discharging his duties as president from a hospital bed. After its meeting last Wednesday, the FEC noted that all organs of government were fully functional. Nigeria is a lie! And those that are supposed to be our leaders are among the worst Nigerians. Progress is impossible in such a nation. Twenty-six years after one of Chinua Achebe's famous books was first published, the trouble with Nigeria has remained "simply and squarely a failure of leadership".
The country has been drifting because thieves and liars have been running its affairs. Suddenly, we are hearing from "patriots" that it is best to have a country without a president. Ministers, legislators, governors, ambassadors and contractors have all been condemning any suggestion of declaring his office vacant. But hardly any of them is sincere. The true intentions of these sycophants - these selfish liars and crooks who have no love of their nation or the President at heart - are buried deep in their hearts. Secretary to the Government of the Federation Yayale Ahmed and ministers who have assured us that the job of the President is being done in his absence deserve to be prosecuted. Is the office of the President now dispensable, or shall we let SGF Ahmed and the ministers hold the fort for as long as they deem fit? How long shall the nation wait?
Nigerians deserve to know the President's state of health. Is he currently on life support as the rumour mill has it? Will he be capable of discharging his duties as president after leaving the Saudi hospital? The President may be fit enough to watch football, as Nigeria's ambassador to Saudi Arabia Garba Aminchi stated some days ago, but he was not elected to watch football.
In this defining moment for our country, therefore, nothing should be left in the hands of those who have continued to ruin Nigeria since 1960. And nobody should listen to them. Where were the emergent well-wishers and prayer warriors when Obasanjo was single-handedly selecting our leaders and making a mockery of democracy? Of course, even after the fraudulent polls organised by Obasanjo's lackeys in INEC, we were asked to leave everything in the hands of God. And the courts failed to get convinced "beyond reasonable doubts" that the 2007 general elections were a fraud. Now, the sycophants want us to keep praying - and waiting - for our president forever. President Yar'Adua would be playing the statesman by disappointing them.