Pastor Tunde Bakare of The Latter Rain Assembly has said that there is no more vacancy for ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua in Aso Rock.

According to Bakare, who is a member of the Save Nigeria Group, “whenever Yar’Adua is brought back from Saudi Arabia, whether dead or alive, he should be taken to Katsina, since Aso Rock, the seat of power, cannot be inhabited by an incapacitated President.”

He said Vice President Goodluck Jonathan should be sworn-in as President, adding that events have since overtaken Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution which provides that the president should transmit a letter to the National Assembly that he is embarking on a medical trip and so his deputy should be sworn as acting president.

He said the National Assembly should set in motion the machinery to swear-in Jonathan as President in accordance with Section 146 of the 1999 Constitution.

According to Section 146 (subsection 1) of the constitution: “The Vice President shall hold the office of President if the office of President becomes vacant by reason of death or resignation, impeachment, permanent incapacity or the removal of the President from office for any other reason in accordance with Section 143 or 144 of this constitution.”

Bakare also lambasted Vincent Ogbulafor, the national chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, saying he was a clown, for praising Jonathan for his steadfastness in playing the role of acting president.

He likened PDP to ostrich which is a big for nothing bird that lacks brain and has no touch with reality.

He said the PDP is full of clowns and court jesters and has all of the characteristics of the ostrich, adding, “we are not religious imbeciles. We must speak against corruption and injustice in the country.”

President Yar’Adua has been away from the country since 23 November last year when he travelled to Saudi Arabia to treat his ailment at King Faisal Hospital in Jeddah.

His long absence has heated up the polity, with many, including the Minister of Information and Communications, Dora Akunyili, elder statesmen, Guild of Editors, Governors Forum, calling on him to quit.

Also, the Action Congress (AC) has stressed that the country is on life support since its President, Umaru Yar’Adua, is in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Saudi Arabia.

The party therefore urged more Nigerians to speak up against the continuous absence of the President and the political gimmicks played by members of his kitchen cabinet including the Attorney-General of the Federation, Michael Aaondoakaa(SAN).

The party, through a release sent by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, also urged the Federal Executive Council to jettison its earlier decision that the president’s illness has not made him incapable of ruling the country effectively.

AC further demanded that the President should immediately transmit a letter to the National Assembly saying he is proceeding on medical vacation so as to make his deputy, Goodluck Jonathan act on his behalf.

“The fact that the President has yet to fully recover after 77 days of intensive medical treatment is enough for FEC to stop embarrassing themselves and the nation by saying the President is in ‘good’ stead to carry out his official duties.

“Once the FEC acts, the National Assembly must move quickly to set up a medical panel to determine whether or not the President can continue in office,” the party stressed, calling on the federal lawmakers to help the nation’s democracy by immediately starting the process of amending Sections 144 and 145 of the Constitution to remove any ambiguities and also to strip ministers of that critical role of making a key decision on the man who appointed them into office.

Commending various Nigerians who have risen against the action of the President and his men, the party tasked more courageous Nigerians to speak up on this issue.

It further asked Nigerians to resist any attempt by any individual or group to truncate the country’s democracy. “We believe that it is only through the kind of challenges we currently face, and the manner in which they are resolved, that our democracy can grow,” the party said.

The party reminded Nigerians of how it had maintained that President Yar’Adua was not capable of ruling the country even before he disappeared from the shores of the country. It added that the consequence of the inefficiency is being witnessed by millions of citizens.

The party emphasized: “When we said, in one of our numerous appraisals of the state of the nation, that the ship of state was adrift and that the Captain was in a deep slumber - and that was even when President Umaru Yar’Adua was fully in the saddle - we never imagined that the ship would drift this far and that the sea would become this turbulent.

“Since the President left these shores on Nov. 23rd 2009, our nation has faced perhaps the toughest test yet in its recent history, while the survival of our young democracy has been threatened more than at any other time since our return to civilian rule in 1999.

“Times like this call for rare courage, and they demand men and women who can rise to the occasion and lift their country out of the doldrums. Challenges are part of life, and the way and manner they are tackled make all the difference.

“We have people like Information Minister Dora Akunyili, who as the mouth piece of the federal executive council once told the nation and the whole world that the President was indeed recovering well and would soon return home, when they had neither seen nor heard from the President since he left the country last year.

“It is OK that some of these people are now seeing the light and are echoing the same stand long advocated by our party, the AC! They are welcome”, the party stated.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) has tasked those it described as President Umaru Yar’Adua’s handlers to save the country and allow Vice President Goodluck Jonathan function in acting capacity pending the return of the ailing President.

The Guild, in a communiqué it issued at the end of its expanded committee meeting on Friday, last week, lamented the current state of the nation and advised against politicizing the President’s health challenge.

The guild further condemned the recent Jos crisis while blaming it on the failure of security agencies in the country and government at various levels.

“The NGE aligns with stakeholders and international bodies like the European Union to demand that perpetrators of the violence be brought to justice,” it stated.

On the allegation by the True Face of Lagos group that N183 million was spent on newspaper editors and media houses by the Lagos State government, the Guild described as spurious and malicious the allegations by the group.

The Guild urged that advertising budgets for media houses should not be confused with graft.

It therefore challenged the group to come out in the open and substantiate its claims.

The Guild, while speaking on the proposed Nigerian Press Council bill, acknowledged the need for regulation.

It however, rejected any effort to have a government-regulated Nigerian Press Council. The Guild also restated its opposition to the criminal libel law and suggested that the law be repealed, like it was done in Ghana.

On the proposed registration of journalists as contained in the Press Council bill, through the Nigerian Union of Journalists, the Guild said it would be guided by Section 39 of the Constitution of the country, which conforms with the provisions of the African Charter on Human Rights, that the right to seek employment and to disseminate information should not be discriminatory.

“The registration of journalists would be tantamount to licensing journalists, which, due to the precarious nature in our environment, should be discouraged,” the Guild noted, while rejecting the legislation of salaries and wages as proposed in the bill.

The body further condemned the effort of members of the House of Representatives to frustrate the passage of the FOI bill, an action it sees as deliberate. It said it would keep a watch-list of members in the House who have elected to deny the people their right to know.

Source, ?

kosovo:

Source, ?

it seems wierd someone would post an article like this and the first thing anybody would think of asking is 'source' - do you think somebody would suddenly get on the computer and type up a story as long as this to put online? do u think pepople get paid to post articles on NL? use ur sense!

@poster,
To ensure the credibility of posts, Sources are required. Read the Rules which you agreed to.
NO source, Locked!