CRACKS IN FEC: Hand over to Jonathan •Akunyili asks Yar’Adua •Colleagues accuse her of betrayal •Why she ‘revolted’

Written by Akin Durodola and Christian Okeke

THE Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting of Wednesday, presided over by Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan, was hot for almost 30 minutes out of the 90 minutes spent by members.

The bone of contention was a position paper presented by the Minister of Information and Communications, Professor Dora Akunyili, calling on President Umaru Yar’Adua to respect the constitution and transmit power to his deputy as a result of his ill health.
President Yar’Adua had left the country since 73 days ago for Saudi Arabia, where he is currently recupperating from acute pericarditis and this had generated a lot of controversies from Nigerians, world powers, including the United Kingdom (UK), United States (US), France and other organisations in the country.

The Federal Executive Council (FEC), during its meeting last week, in consonance with the directive of a federal high court in Abuja, to take a position on the health of the president, resolved that President Yar’Adua was not incapable of performing as president.

Excatly eight days after the FEC took that decision to beat the 14 days ultimatum given by the court, information minister, at the 11th FEC meeting held during the  absence of Yar’Adua, created a fiasco, when she presented her position paper on the issue.

According to sources at the meeting, Akunyili, was said to have expressed her view that the ministers should urge the president to transmit a letter to the National Assemly to facilitate smooth transition.

Akunyili, it was gathered, said her position paper was based on the views of eminent Nigerians, organisation and groups and that of foreign nations, all urging Yar’Adua to respect the  law of the land, and transmit power to Jonathan, pending his return.

She first circulated her position paper among her colleagues and later read from the content.

Part of the reasons, she gave in the paper, was to relieve the whole country, including Yar’Adua family, the burden of the controversy being generated as a result of ill health of the president, adding that “it doesn’t pay anybody the way the country is drifting.”

She was also said to have cited the problems of the Movement for the Emancipationo of Niger Delta (MEND) and the agreement reached with the militants, of which nobody was ready to meet with them.

Also in the paper, the issue of some federal ministries that were without permanent secretaries came up and Akunyili said since the vice-president did not have power to appoint or swear them in, it means that those ministries would continue to be coordinated without permanent secretaries.

Nigerian Tribune gathered that no sooner than Professor Akunyili finished reading her paper that majority members of the FEC shouted her down, calling her names and asked her to withdraw the paper.

Some of the ministers accused her of betraying the council and breaking protocols in terms of memo presentation to council.

She was even accused of “parroting the opinion of the opposition and fronting for enemies of government.”

It was the intervention of Vice-President Jona-than that saved the ugly situation.

Jonathan was said to have reminded Professor Akunyili of the position of FEC last week, a reason why her position paper of Wednesday could not hold water.

She was, however, asked to withdraw the paper and, which sources said, she complied.

The Nigerian Tribune sources, however, hinted that majority of the ministers who had confronted Akunyili on the paper came back to her after the meeting to laud her initiatives and courage.

When the Nigerian Tribune attempted to get the minister’s reaction on phone around 8:15 p.m, the call was cut at the receiver’s end.

Text message sent to the minister was also not replied.

The text had read: “Good evening honourable minister. Please can you confirm to us that you submitted a position paper to FEC today, urging it to face up to the reality of President Yar’Adua’s incapacitation?”

Nigerian Tribune equally made an attempt to speak to her Special Assistant on Media, Ogbonnaya Orji, but he only asked to be called later, claiming to be in a meeting after an introduction by the Nigerian Tribune.

Meanwhile, facts have now emerged on why Professor Akunyili “revolted” and presented another position paper different from the one jointly presented by FEC last week.

The principal reason, it was gathered, was to rebrand her name and remain the Akunyili of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) days who was “forthright, clean and straight foward.”

According to what many people were saying and which investigations revealed got to the hearings of Akunyili, for about four months now, she had derailed.

The  presentation of Wednesday, Nigerian Tribune gathered, was to redeem her name and come back to her old self that people used to know.





Kudos Mama Akinyuli,. Nigeria is a country ruled by cowards.   "Thread carefully"