By Everest Amaefule and Fidelis Soriwei, Published: Tuesday, 8 Dec 2009
The controversy surrounding President Umaru Yar’Adua’s health deepened on Monday with his mother, Hajia Dada, denying reports that she asked him to resign.
She said in a statement by her daughter, Hajia Mairo Yar’Adua, that it was untrue that she was at loggerheads with her daughter-in-law, Turai.
Hajia Dada was reacting to media reports (not in THE PUNCH) that she was unhappy with the President’s continued stay in office in spite of his ill-health and that she was not in the best of terms with Turai.
The statement by Mairo coincided with fresh revelation that Yar’Adua’s health had not recorded significant improvement. It also came just as a former President of the Senate, Chief Ken Nnamani, called for the President to prove his reported recovery by addressing Nigerians through a video conference from Saudi Arabia where he is receiving treatment.
In the statement, Hajia Dada warned those playing politics with the President’s health to desist and join her family and other well-meaning Nigerians in praying for the President’s quick recovery.
The statement reads in part, “The attention of President Yar’Adua’s family has been drawn to the false, malicious and obviously sponsored media reports that suggested that the President’s mother, Hajia Dada, asked Mr. President to resign from office on account of his ill health.
“The reports also insinuated that Hajia Dada was at loggerheads with the President’s wife, Turai, whom the newspapers claimed was urging the President to sit tight. Since this reportage, the President’s mother has been very sad because there was never a time that such statements were made by her.
“To put the records straight, the President’s mother has never spoken to the media. She enjoys a cordial relationship with her daughter-in-law, Turai. The President’s mother, contrary to media reports, is supportive of Mr. President’s foray into politics and has always encouraged him to render selfless service to the good people of Nigeria.
“All the President’s mother has been doing since her son travelled abroad for medical treatment is offering fervent prayers for his speedy recovery. She believes it is normal for human beings to fall sick and recover. She has therefore never contemplated asking the President to resign.
“It is therefore highly irresponsible for anybody to drag the President’s mother into the politics of the President’s health. What she expects from Nigerians is to pray for the quick recovery of her son.”
The statement also urged those that had dragged the name of the President’s late brother, Maj.-Gen. Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, to leave him to rest in peace.
“It is distressing that some media houses even involved the late brother of Mr. President, Gen. Shehu Musa, in this unhealthy rumour and gossips. Hajia Dada is asking these journalists and political opponents of Mr. President to leave her alone, and allow her late son to rest in peace.”
The President’s mother also threatened legal action against those she claimed had been peddling rumour with her name if they failed to apologise to the family.
She advised the media to always “strive to be more responsible in their reports and desist from being used as tools of blackmail by disgruntled politicians.
“The media should cross-check their facts before going to press. At this critical stage of the nation’s development, the media should concentrate on issues that unite us and not heat up the polity.”
Meanwhile, our correspondents learnt on Monday that there was a huge pressure on the King Faisal hospital where the President is receiving treatment in Jeddah, to transfer him to Abuja.
Our sources claimed that those behind the pressure believed that specialists could be brought into the country to continue his treatment.
“Their thinking is that if the President is in Nigeria, he will be able to carry out his functions and thereby reduce the controversy over who is in charge of government,” one of the sources claimed.
The source, however, added that going by the Saudi hospital’s calculations, it would take at least two weeks to put everything in place to move the President to Nigeria.
Some of the things that will be needed, according to the source, are an intensive care unit in the presidential jet; first-class medical facilities in the Presidential Villa; at least four specialists in oncology, nephrology, cardiology and cardiovascular surgery; as well as nurses.
The source added that a specialist on churg strauss syndrome from the United States was already in Saudi Arabia to assist in getting the specialists that would be willing to accompany the President to Nigeria.
The source said, “An alternative to the presidential jet could be the use of an air ambulance to bring him to Abuja.
“It is believed that with an air ambulance, the specialists can be arranged within one week. This means one week would be cut off from the two weeks envisaged by the hospital authorities,” the source said.
The source claimed that if the Saudi hospital yielded to the pressure, Yar’Adua would be brought into the country late at night to avoid media scrutiny.
“He will then run the country by proxy. The plan is to have him address the nation on the television or by video conference for us to know he is the one talking.”
But as the controversy on the President’s health rages, Nnamani, a former President of the Senate, has challenged the Federal Executive Council to organise a video conference in which Yar’Ádua could address Nigerians.
Nnamani, who is also the Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Good Governance Group, urged the FEC, the National Assembly and the Peoples Democratic Party to address the issues raised by the President’s sickness in compliance with the stipulations of Section 144, 145 and 146 of the 1999 Constitution.
Nnamani, who wished Yar’Adua quick recovery, said that the announcement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media, Mr. Segun Adeniyi, on November 26, 2009 that the President had acute pericarditis had triggered speculations in the media.
He noted that the management of information on Yar’Adua’s health and the functioning of the Executive arm of government had become sources of disunity in the country.
Nnamani said that it was the position of the GGG that the controversy generated by the President’s health was partly due to Yar’Adua’s failure to write to the National Assembly in accordance with Section 145 and 146 of the constitution.
He added, “The increasing politicisation of Mr. President’s health arising from the inherent gap due to his current absence from the country without complying with the enshrined constitutional process of authorising the Vice-President to serve as the Acting President of the country as provided by section 145 of the constitution further sharpens divisions and encourages all manner of political permutations, including some contemplated unconstitutional, undemocratic and clearly desperate manipulative arrangements.
“The absence of any form of direct contact between Nigerians and President Yar’Adua is a major source of legitimacy for all the speculations and the contemplated unconstitutional permutations.
“Interestingly, the response of the FEC as stated by Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, the Secretary of the Government of the Federation as reported by THE PUNCH on December 3, 2009 is to the effect that ‘issues that would require Mr. President’s express approval, contacts are being made and such approvals do come’ is further disturbing. This confirms the absence of legitimate Presidential authority in Nigeria.”
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