There were indications last night that Presi-dency officials have invited not less than four Christian leaders to join President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua for an Easter prayer session in Aso Rock Villa tomorrow.

The proposed Christian prayer session with President Yar’Adua comes on the heels of a similar meeting between the ailing President and four Muslim clerics which held last Thursday. The Christian leaders are being invited by Yar’Adua to pray with him for his quick recovery. No other details have been released by Presidency officials.

However, one of the four Islamic clerics who met ailing President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in Aso Rock Villa last Thursday, Dr. Ibrahim Datti Ahmed yesterday told THISDAY that the group had held previous meetings with Acting President Goodluck Jonathan and his National Security Adviser (NSA), Lt. Gen. Aliyu Muhammed Gusau on separate occasions.

Ahmed who is the President-General of the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria (SCSN) also said before meeting Yar’Adua the four clerics had held two meetings with the first lady, Hajia Turai and that it was at the second meeting with the President’s wife that they concretised the appointment for them to see the President.

Yar’Adua had been sick since November 23, 2009 when he was rushed out of the country for treatment in the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Jeddah. He has not been seen in public since then though he returned to the country on Feberuary 10.
Speaking on the parley between the clerics and the Acting President, Ahmed said the meeting held last Sunday.

"We first met with the NSA (General Aliyu Muhammed Gusau) and told him our fears over the way things are going in the country. He later briefed the Acting President who then demanded that he wants to see us. We went to see him and we had fruitful discussions."

He, however, declined to disclose what his group discussed with the acting President. He said: "you want to know how we met the President. Let us not be distracted by other things."
But THISDAY learnt that the group led by Datti to see Jonathan gathered under the aegis of the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria (SCSN).

The Islamic leaders who met with Jonathan under the aegis of the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria (SCSN) had demanded that the acting president should investigate the injustice meted out to Muslims in the Jos crisis. They also expressed their dissatisfaction with how Christian leaders are calling for removal of army officers who are Muslims.

They demanded that equity and balance should be given primary consideration in the appointment into key government posts.
A source at the meeting said: “Our discussion was based on three key issues. First, we told the Acting President of the perceived injustice meted to Muslims in Jos and the double standards exhibited by some Nigerians and foreigners alike. We told him that Muslims were massacred in Kuru Karama in Plateau State but no one said anything.

But when a retaliatory attack took place in Kuru Jenta, the whole world and the Federal Government inclusive called for drastic action against the perpetrators. Since we do not condone killing, the Christians who killed in Kuru Karama should also be fished out and prosecuted.

“Second, we told him of our unhappiness with the way Christian leaders are calling for the removal of Muslim army officers serving in various positions in the country. During Obasanjo’s time, Christian soldiers held very sensitive positions in places where there were crisis but no Muslim called for their removal.

“Third, we told him to be sensitive in his appointments so as to reflect religious and ethnic balance in the country. The Acting President promised to look into our demands and told us that Nigeria has been surviving due to the prayers of her people. He asked us to pray for the country and not to lose hope in the development and progress of Nigeria,” he said.
Those who attended the meeting include Ahmed, Yakubu Musa Katsina, the leader of the Izala Muslim sect in Katsina and Mallam Jamiliu Haidara, who is a senior member of the SCSN.

However, giving the details of how the clerics’ meeting with Yar’Adua was arranged and what transpired at the parley, Ahmed said: “We actually met with Turai on two different occasions where we discussed various issues of national importance. We then told her that we wanted to see the President in order to dispel rumours that he was not even in the country or that he is still in some kind of intensive care. Our mission was to see him and confirm for ourselves that he is still alive and that he is recuperating as we were told.

“She agreed to our request and said she will get back to us. We told her to please give us a day notice any time they decide we should see him. That was what happened. They called us last Wednesday and said we will see him the following day which we did," he said.

On how the last Thursday meeting with Yar’Adua went, Ahmed who is a medical doctor and former medical director of Asmau Hospital, Kano, said: "We met him (President Yar’Adua) sitting on a dining chair supporting himself. No one held him or supported him. He was wearing a jumper and wando (trouser). Both the First Lady Hajiya Turai and his ADC were by his side and as soon as we were ushered in, he extended his hands to us which we received.

"Thereafter, we offered prayers for him and he joined us in the prayer by lifting his hands to pray with us. We then decided to go and he then extended his hands and shook us again."

Ahmed however urged for caution in the way the yet-to-be-constituted Executive Council of the Federation (EXCOF) under Jonathan would treat the case of the ailing President. He said Yar’Adua should be allowed to fully recover without mounting unnecessary pressure on him through a campaign for his impeachment.

He said those calling for the removal of the President on health grounds will likely push the country into serious crisis whose ramification cannot be comprehended.

According to him, "All the stories being written in the media concerning the president are wrong and divisive. If the aim of the sponsors of these write-ups is to remove the president from office, then I think they are making serious miscalculations.
“Attempting to remove him is a needless diversion and needless waste of time. The move will not only be problematic, but not in the best interest of Nigeria.

“Goodluck Jonathan has all the presidential powers at his disposal. Why do they need to remove Yar'Adua from office before they could exercise these powers? My advice is that he should continue to exercise these powers even if it means doing so until the end of this tenure.

“He has already dissolved the cabinet even if you will ask why. He has gone ahead to constitute another one, so why ask for the removal of a sick man from office? If there is no hidden agenda in all these, let Goodluck continue to run the government as acting President. Asking for anything more will not augur well for this country.

“We must be considerate in the way we handle this situation or it may lead us to where we do not foresee,” he said.
THISDAY had on Friday reported that President Yar’Adua met with some clerics, friends and associates on Tuesday and Thursday. The Chief Imam of the Abuja National Mosque, Ustaz Musa Mohammed, leader of the Izala Muslim sect in Katsina State, Sheikh Yakubu Musa, Sheikh Isa Pantami and Ahmed were the clerics who saw Yar’Adua.

The report also stated that last Tuesday, the President had audience with his close friend and political associate, Alhaji Dahiru Manga, a member of the House of Representatives, representing Faskari Constituency, Alhaji Inuwa Shehu and his son-in-law who is governor of Bauchi State, Mallam Isa Yuguda.

Ustaz Muhammed, the Chief Imam of Abuja National Mosque, had after different prayer sessions given detail accounts to members of the congregation on the meeting his team had with Yar’Adua.
His account is however not different from that of Dr. Ahmed.

this whole drama is begining to take the shape of a
book written by hadley chase
and a movie directed by steven spielberg

i hope that the aso rock directors sorry meant to say nollywood directors
would do a good job to keep this country in one piece

God Help us

Let him invite journalist and give a interview if he is really sure he is well enough.

Assuming Yar A'dua is in control of his faculties, Is this the way he can manage the affairs of his health and the national interest?  Assuming he is not in control of his senses, is it how he has been managing or used to manage the affairs of the state that his cronies/cabals/kitchen cabinet managed it on his behalf and he is happy or will be happy?.

Either way, Yar A'dua is not fit to be the President of this country, the job is well above his paygrade.

Giving interviews or prayers with clerics, muslim or christians is not the way to address the 150million citizens of this country.  If, he cannot address Press conference he should just avoid being in the news and allow the country to be govern properly.

So, Next his wife will organised 4 sango worshippers, then 4 amadhioa worshipper, then 4 budhist etc where is the money for all these staged managed events coming from?

WE DON'T NEED THE USELESS DISTRACTIONS.

Propagandist,

Who are you fooling?

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=423568538221&ref=nf

The christian leaders if invited should shine their eyes well, because the so called Yaradua might actually be Jimmy IKye, Musa Daba or any other Nollywood actor with the stature of the president. They would most likely use poor lighting, heavy make up and costume to fool them.

Yar'Adua invites Chistian leaders for prayer?

Which God do are they going to pray to? Yahweh or Allah?