Doctors treating Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua are suspecting that the ailing leader is suffering from skin cancer aside the acute pericarditis announced in November.




Sources confirmed to Sunday Tribune that contrary to insinuations coming from government circles in Abuja that the President would return to the country any moment from now, the first family has actually been battling with unpleasant news from the medical experts in recent times.

It was gathered that the president’s condition relapsed in the last one week and that recent diagnosis tend to indicate that the president may be suffering from skin cancer.

That must have ruled out any attempt to rush him back to the country early. It was gathered that while rumours of the imminent return of the president was being spread in Nigeria, his immediate family has been battling with reports of continued breakdown in his system.

His condition is said to have become unpredictable to the extent that no member of his kitchen cabinet can put a finger to the exact time of his likely return.

Investigations in Abuja also revealed that members of his immediate staff are unaware of his imminent return. No plans were being put in place to receive him as at Saturday afternoon as the situation in the presidential villa remained calm.

As a result of the unpredictable nature of the ailment, it was gathered that the kitchen cabinet is only seeking to rely on legalities to hang on to power in the name of the ailing president.

According to sources, there is the fear that once power slips off their hands now, there is no assurance that the president will return to office in any foreseeable future.

“There is a wide difference in living a private life and serving as the President, if we are talking of coming home to sleep quietly in his house, that is possible, but for him to resume office may be a tall order in the foreseeable future,” a source said on Saturday.

Following the failure of the bid to stop Senators from passing a motion seeking the transfer of power to the Vice president Goodluck Jonathan, it was learnt that the kitchen cabinet was hovering between outrightly disobeying the Senate and intimidating the lawmakers from any process of impeachment, which the lawmakers may want to resort to if there is no letter from the ailing president within the next one week.

A source also said that Senators and members of the House who are rooting for the transfer of power to the Vice president Goodluck Jonathan are also studying the ruling of the Federal High Court which indicates that the president is not duty bound to present a letter of vacation to the National Assembly.
A source close to the lawmakers said that the group in the Senate and the Reps would compare notes when the Assembly resumes from the weekend break.