Jonathan moves to restructure Presidency
By Elor Nkereuwem
February 27, 2010 06:48PM
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The era of a Yar'Adua-led government is set to suffer another blow as Acting President Goodluck Jonathan makes moves to take charge of the Presidency.

Mr. Jonathan is expected to meet with key members of President Umaru Yar'Adua's staff tomorrow, Sunday, to determine who will remain in his employment.

Inside sources told NEXT that Mr. Jonathan will be meeting with senior security and political aides, including ministers and special advisers, to the ailing president in the State House.

"The meeting is supposed to work out the final agreement and terms of settlement for disengagement," a source disclosed while also adding that this would spell an ‘end of game' for Mr. Yar'Adua's supporters. "I believe this will be the point of surrender for the remaining of the Yar'Adua supporters," he said.

Mr. Yar'Adua's supporters have, since his trip to Saudi Arabia last November, resisted a formal hand over to the president's deputy while making claims of the president's positive response to medical attention and imminent return to duty.

The ailing president, who returned to Nigeria on Wednesday after a three month-long medical vacation in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, has made no public appearance since his return. It is believed that Mr. Yar'Adua remains critically ill in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in a mobile ambulance that conveyed him from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, to the State House.

Support for Mr. Jonathan

Mr. Jonathan's plans are coming in the wake of the seeming endorsement of the current transformations in the presidency by the international community and local interest groups.

Yesterday, the British government and their American counterpart made strong statements in support of Mr. Jonathan. It is also believed that the European Union and the Canada will also be making similar calls. Sources close to the two missions suggest that plans are afoot to make similar statements of support.

Sources in the presidency also speak of a sudden surge of visits to the State House from perceived political opponents of Mr. Jonathan. A number of the visitors are said to be from the South-South geo-political zone, including former governors from the region who may now be seeking to insert themselves into the emerging Jonathan-led government.

In search of the president
Meanwhile, the whereabouts of the president continue to be a source of concern. Mr. Yar'Adua has not been seen in public since November. As reported by NEXT yesterday, neither the Acting president nor the members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) have been allowed access to the president since his return home.

Also causing concern is the noticeable absence of the president's personal physician, Salisu Banye. Mr. Banye is believed to be a member of the team that accompanied Mr. Yar'Adua on his medical trip to Jeddah. However, although the president's aides and his family have since returned to the country, Mr. Banye has not been sighted.

"Even his family, who live in Andy Uba's house here in Abuja say that they have not seen him since the president came back," a source close to the doctor's family said to NEXT.

At the moment, the clamour for the position of the vice-president continues. It is not clear whether any member of the first family or aides of the president, who have allegedly been lobbying for the position, will receive a nod.
http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/National/5533025-146/jonathan_moves_to_restructure_presidency_.csp

Let us see what comes out of it. . . . .
Makes move? Jonathan now has the balls to make a move when he has been sitting idle since they got "imposed" on Nigerians
Wonders they say, shall never end!

Can we stop blabbing slants about this guy. . .
And get this guy working.

paddy_lo:

Jonathan moves to restructure Presidency

In search of the president
Meanwhile, the whereabouts of the president continue to be a source of concern. Mr. Yar'Adua has not been seen in public since November. As reported by NEXT yesterday, neither the Acting president nor the members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) have been allowed access to the president since his return home.

Also causing concern is the noticeable absence of the president's personal physician, Salisu Banye. Mr. Banye is believed to be a member of the team that accompanied Mr. Yar'Adua on his medical trip to Jeddah. However, although the president's aides and his family have since returned to the country, Mr. Banye has not been sighted.

"Even his family, who live in Andy Uba's house here in Abuja say that they have not seen him since the president came back," a source close to the doctor's family said to NEXT.

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/National/5533025-146/jonathan_moves_to_restructure_presidency_.csp

i am suspecting the they never came into the country with the president. i think he is still in saudi arabia receiving treatment, all the plain landing in the night ambulance coming and going to aso rock fully guided by solders are just acting period GOODLUCK should be careful.

By monday morning we go hear new story. E go become say him send his cook to become in charge of inventory.

I am only pleading with Dora Akunyili to keep quiet and stop drawing enemies for this guy. He ai'nt worth it.

hehehe, mrcrackles never stays off NL for a second.

In times like this you just know how unfortunate this country is

why was Donald Duke not the VP?

By monday morning we go hear new story. E go become say him send his cook to become in charge of inventory.

I am only pleading with Dora Akunyili to keep quiet and stop drawing enemies for this guy. He ai'nt worth it.

u are not making sense
has it occured to u that it is turai and her gang that are drawing the wrath of Nigerians right now?

i am suspecting the they never came into the country with the president. i think he is still in saudi arabia receiving treatment, all the plain landing in the night ambulance coming and going to aso rock fully guided by solders are just acting period

No i disagree,its either he was instructed to lay low for a while so as not to answer any questions about yar adua

or he refused to be a part of the charade anymore as a medical doctor

or perhaps he was long stopped access to the president as the saudi doctors took over

either way yar adua is back home but is a GONER. . .
he was kicked out by the saudis

If salisu banye is missing he may likely be with yardua in d ambulance or wherever hes been kept. Anyway i hope Goodluck jonathan will get rid of whoever is not loyal or ready to work with him in order to move this country forward cos we've enough of this game.

I said on this nairaland that there is some people I call them

Parasitic elite
some call them Cabal

They behave as if they are acting for your tribal interest. You will wonder how a "yoruba man" would be fighting the cause of an "Igbo man" or an Igbo man will be fighting the so called cause of a "hausa man".

To them there is only one tribe the CABAL. They dont want to be exposed they cant be exposed they will sell kill destroy anything any nation instead of them to be discovered.

The pessimistic Majority feed this TINY CABAL. The Optimistic minority are silent.

A spineless and liverless Jonathan now pulling strings in Aso Rock, . . .eh!

Should the restructure go on as reported I'd wonder where he got the staff to do such.

A spineless and liverless Jonathan now pulling strings in Aso Rock,  . . .eh!

Should the restructure go on as reported I'd wonder where he got the staff to do such.

what u call spineless and liverless
the bible would call the wisdom and grace of solomon

theres this pidgin english proverb

No be initial gra-gra,na end result na im matter

Meaning once u shot all your bullets and left with blanks,the real players bring out the big guns
lets see how it plays out

Goodluck should bring in fresh blood and condemn all these akpangiri ministers (including dora the explorer) to the scrapyard, when the time is right.

Goodluck nah sharp guy - he has brought the cabal to their knees.

this is exactly why Jonathan will fail

All the people wey been dey piss for pant here don they come tell us how Jonathan be sharp guy and who him go stab for back.

I hope he sacks Dora first?

Its not a sprint, its a marathon

Here we go again, i wondered how long it would be before the broken record of betrayal was brought out yet again.

I hope that Jonathan will and can use this to send a message to them all that he is in charge.
Good luck to Oga Goodluck

One day bushmeat go catch the hunter. . .
More power to Jonathan.

But people don't announce that they are sacking and beheading before the deed is done. I smell mischief.

Beaf:

One day bushmeat go catch the hunter. . .
More power to Jonathan.

But people don't announce that they are sacking and beheading before the deed is done. I smell mischief.

beaf walai u don craze i cant stop laffing @^^^^^^^ no b hunter go shoot bush meat,na bush meat go catch d hunter lmao

Nigeria  

Jonathan played the whole the thing simply well. Jonathan is good for the stability of Nigeria.

He has displayed his sense of wisdom without all the theatrical over dramatic things that would make situations worse.

Haha I remember when I read that Obj wanted (Soludo) to become VP in 2007 and he(Soludo) started doing "big boy" acting like he is the VP of Nigeria, an emperor and even hired a makeup artist to prepare him before he went out, had a larger convoy than atiku and bought million of naira worth of clothes from each tribe- all while he was still CBN Govenor.
They said that top officials wondered how can some who is still cbn gov become so power drunk already.- the reason why they didnt want him and went for Jonathan.

Nigeria needs leaders who are moderate and know when and how to play their cards right, some may think Jonathan is a coward for not saying much but the guy played it smart.

Beaf:

One day bushmeat go catch the hunter. . .
More power to Jonathan.

But people don't announce that they are sacking and beheading before the deed is done. I smell mischief.

They announce it when its inevitable and the game is up. US and Britain have even told the North, IBB and co how its going to be, whether they like it or not. Either they listen to the US or Nigeria will be the next Iraq. simply put

OMO IBO:

A spineless and liverless Jonathan now pulling strings in Aso Rock, . . .eh!

Should the restructure go on as reported I'd wonder where he got the staff to do such.

The way some of us analyse  issues here is baffling. Spineless? My friend wisdom guides a man to focus more on the end and not style.

When you stay in Lagos and or any other part of southern Nigeria to analyse the issue here without factoring what the average Hausaman In KANO or MAIDUGURI thinks in this yaradua saga , then such consideration is incomplete ,inaccurate and useless.

Bravery is not same as playing to the gallery. One of the first challenges of a real man is the ability to conquer himself. Yes conquer yourself when provoked  but you have to choose between temporay insult but an accomplished end OR  Fighting the commando style for "pride" ,get some public applause but miss the goal.

Ask "livered" ATIKU who we all know is finished politically and sincerely he will tell you that he now knows better, that given the same confrontational circumstance from his boss he would act differently. We all know when Atiku fell off the cliff.


May  be many of us do not know that if jonathan had sacked the FEC and replaced all of them with his loyalists on his first day as acting president, we hardly would have gone half way in the proper impeachment proceedings. To impeach president on health grounds no be two weeks job o. If una no know make i tell una. With that approach he would have so heated up the polity that both him and the entire country could have been consumed.


The only thing Jonathan needed was the true picture of yaradua's health and the chances of his survival. ThIs I can be sure he  haD, by the grace of OBJ, USA and the UK. With this he would have known that all the IGG (initial gra gra ) of yaradua's camp will wane in a matter of days. Why over react and set himself up for suspicion? Jonathan wants to give the the average northerner the impression that he is the kind of southerner they can entrust with power and he will gladly relinquish come 2011. The man na korny man.

Would guys have preffered an okadigbo-like forceful approach? then u must be kidding

Na so

This battle was always Jonathan's to loose and I must say his coolness was good to some degree but he himself almost plunged the country into crisis because of his passive attitude.

I was never in support of dissolving the FEC because I do know that appointing Ministers was the easy bit. Getting them approved in Senate would have taken the rest of this administration.

But the fact remains that just like it was very necessary to move Aondoakaa, so it is to remove the NSA and tincker with the security network a little. The guy was not in charge of security and that was very dangerous. If not for the times we live in, the importation of Yar'adua would have stoked up enough fear to stage a coup and it will take root. Information availablility helped undermine the Yar'aduas and their agenda.

Forget about the noise from US and UK, there is not a lot they will do other than isolation and sanctions. They wont invade Nigeria. So Jonathan should have taken charge of security and led the country in the absence of his boss. He dithered too much on certain issues and we need to thank God that the composition of Nigerian Army has changed a lot. All credits to OBJ.

Jonathan's behaviour to some extent was very risky security wise.

The most unfortunate tragedy in all this is that, the so-called enlightened and educated nairalanders have turned the resent saga into a tribal battle. It is now an issue of Jonathan vs some so-called Cabal, or Jonathan versus Northerners.  People do not realize that deals have already been made between all enemies of the people (i.e. the thieving elite including Jonathan, the NASS, and other power brokers).

None of our in-house educated people is calling for following our constitution in resolving the issues at hand. This, in my humble opinion, is the greatest tragedy.

None of our in-house educated people is calling for following our constitution in resolving the issues at hand. This, in my humble opinion, is the greatest tragedy.

Are u mad?. . .what constitution,the one yar adua violated by not writing a letter to the NASS b4 jetting out?

stop trying to be clever by half

paddy_lo:

Are u mad?. . .what constitution,the one yar adua violated by not writing a letter to the NASS b4 jetting out?

stop trying to be clever by half

Please don't be rude, sir.

You just made my point, by the way. Did you urge your representative in the NASS to start an impeachment proceeding, if that was the necessary action that should have been taken? Please explain what you mean by clever by half - if your opinion differs from mine, please state your own position and I may learn from it.

Please don't be rude, sir.

You just made my point, by the way. Did you urge your representative in the NASS to start an impeachment proceeding, if that was the necessary action that should have been taken? Please explain what you mean by clever by half - if your opinion differs from mine, please state your own position and I may learn from it.

by clever by half i mean there are constitutional ways to end this but the yar adua camp are the ones blocking this from day one

the man is incapacitated,but u hide the fact because if it is known then its all over

In other sane countries do u think something like this would happen?
and if it did,who do u think the citizens would hold responsible if not the ones hiding the truth,remember watergate and Nixon?

the point is sir,our president should be examined ASAP and the verdict given to the ECF and NASS to enable them do the right thing for Nigerians

paddy_lo:

by clever by half i mean there are constitutional ways to end this but the yar adua camp are the ones blocking this from day one

the man is incapacitated,but u hide the fact because if it is known then its all over

the point is sir,our president should be examined ASAP and the verdict given to the ECF and NASS to enable them do the right thing for Nigerians

I don't think everything you wrote above is in conflict with my initial statement to which you responded. What I was lamenting was that, my fellow forumites were not calling for following our constitution in resolving the issues at hand as loudly as I had expected. Instead some have turned the resent saga into a tribal/regional battle. It has become an issue of Jonathan vs some so-called Cabal, or Jonathan versus Northerners.

What is needed is what you stated i.e. president should be examined ASAP and the verdict given to the FEC and NASS to enable them do the right thing for Nigerians. The FEC and NASS need to do their constitutional duties, period.

I hope you now see my point. By the way, I had fun at Penn's Landing last summer.

I don't think everything you wrote above is in conflict with my initial statement to which you responded. What I was lamenting was that, my fellow forumites were not calling for following our constitution in resolving the issues at hand as loudly as I had expected. Instead some have turned the resent saga into a tribal/regional battle. It has become an issue of Jonathan vs some so-called Cabal, or Jonathan versus Northerners.

What is needed is what you stated i.e. president should be examined ASAP and the verdict given to the FEC and NASS to enable them do the right thing for Nigerians. The FEC and NASS need to do their constitutional duties, period.

I hope you now see my point. By the way, I had fun at Penn's Landing last summer.

ok we seem to be on the same page,i am also saying its time for the hide and seek to end
let Turai stop hiding her husband from everybody,and let the doctors examine him on behalf of nigerians

Its cool u came to philly,its fun in the summer but cold as hell now. .
did u do a cruise on the boat in the river?

mikeansy:

Na so

This battle was always Jonathan's to loose and I must say his coolness was good to some degree but he himself almost plunged the country into crisis because of his passive attitude.

I was never in support of dissolving the FEC because I do know that appointing Ministers was the easy bit. Getting them approved in Senate would have taken the rest of this administration.

But the fact remains that just like it was very necessary to move Aondoakaa, so it is to remove the NSA and tincker with the security network a little. The guy was not in charge of security and that was very dangerous. If not for the times we live in, the importation of Yar'adua would have stoked up enough fear to stage a coup and it will take root. Information availablility helped undermine the Yar'aduas and their agenda.

Forget about the noise from US and UK, there is not a lot they will do other than isolation and sanctions. They wont invade Nigeria. So Jonathan should have taken charge of security and led the country in the absence of his boss. He dithered too much on certain issues and we need to thank God that the composition of Nigerian Army has changed a lot. All credits to OBJ.

Jonathan's behaviour to some extent was very risky security wise.

You made a good point there.

However I still remember your posts on Jonathan when Dora first presented her "popular" memo, hence makes me feel like there is a jonathan you have always percieved which you are struggling to sustain.

If salisu banye is missing he may likely be with yardua in d ambulance or wherever hes been kept.  Anyway i hope Goodluck jonathan will get rid of whoever is not loyal or ready to work with him in order to move this country forward cos we've enough of this game.

Removal by the Federal Executive Council under section 144 of the Constitution

Although there is no direct constitutional mechanism to force an incapacitated President to remove himself voluntarily, the provision of section 144 requires the Federal Executive Council to instigate his permanent removal on the grounds of incapacity. The relatively simple procedure under section 144 operates as follows:

i.    The Federal Executive Council passes a resolution by two-thirds majority of all the members declaring that the President is incapable of discharging the functions of his office.

ii.    The President of the Senate appoints a medical panel of five medical practitioners in Nigeria comprising the [size=16pt]President’s personal physician[/size] and four other medical practitioners who have, in the opinion of the President of the Senate, attained a high degree of eminence in the field of medicine relating to the President’s illness.


I figured out why the personal physician is missing. . . .Its because of the bolded part above
they need him to invoke section 144. . . . .this turai is a barstd

Very funny! Suspence fills d air but lets see how d drama unfolds. I don tire to dey talk na siddon dey look i dey now.

Jonathan is doing just fine for now. Playing it by the ear. People are already saying he has no balls, why? He is just two and half weeks into the job and the cabal has already pulled a joker on him by bringing in(?) his boss to destabilize him. I think he needs a lot of prayers and support from all. He is not ambitious so was not expecting the president to be so ill that he would have to act or even take over. He just wanted to be the vice so all the present developments are new to him and he is just adjusting to them. people should not push him to over-reach himself and act out of character. They are those that will accuse him tomorrow of being over-ambitious and power drunk. He has to be close to God for directions, wisdom and a blueprint for Nigeria. With that he will take actions that will not be faulted. He was commended in the different handling of Aondakaa and Lukman but probably missed it in the niger dredging issue. The blueprint will pleasantly surprise all and set nigeria on the part to greatness. People talking about US and UK coming to help Nigeria against the cabal sound childish. We must ensure that Nigeria succeeds by ourselves. No other Nation will do that for us. They all have their own national and international challenges. Their assistance can only be moral. Abacha ruled for how long? We must take our destiny in our hands. More folks like Akunyili, Soyinka, David Mark,etc are needed.

na_so:

. . .
Bravery is not same as playing to the gallery. One of the first challenges of a real man is the ability to conquer himself. Yes conquer yourself when provoked but you have to choose between temporay insult but an accomplished end OR Fighting the commando style for "pride" ,get some public applause but miss the goal. . .

This is one of the most profoundly wise statements I have ever heard. Keep it coming.