The Plot To Keep Yar’Adua In Office

Despite showing no visible signs of improvement in his condition, President Umaru Yar’Adua’s aides and friends get desperate to keep him in office

By Babajide Kolade-Otitoju

Thursday 22 January was an unhappy day for members of President Umaru Yar’Adua’s kitchen cabinet and his friends. Since the sick President travelled to Saudi Arabia to attend to his failing health 23 November 2009,  they have not just been ruling Nigeria on his behalf, they have been doing their utmost to mitigate the damage caused by the President’s absence from work without being on leave.

One of the most remarkable damage control measures they believe they had taken was the decision 12 January to have the President speak to a correspondent of the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, amidst rumours that he was either brain dead or had died. Dr Tanimu Yakubu Kurfi, ex-student union leader and the President’s Chief Economic Adviser, facilitated the interview. Although the interview reassured Nigerians that Yar’Adua was alive, it created even more problems that Tanimu and Yar’Adua’s other confidantes did not envisage.

For instance, the audio interview did not stop the strident agitation for Yar’Adua to resign or properly handover to his deputy Goodluck Jonathan. Second, the fact that the President’s voice was shaky in the interview, and that he did not announce a return date nauseated the army of critics more. Most Nigerians wanted the president to return home, but the President was just too vague on this.  Only his doctors can tell, he said. Though he claimed to be recovering fast, his quavering voice did not convey that assurance to his worried countrymen and women. And the fact that the President elected to talk to his compatriots through a foreign medium also rankled. Till now, some Nigerians sustain doubts that Yar’Adua was the person who spoke that morning of 12 January.

Since that broadcast, more Nigerians have continued either to call on the President to handover to his deputy or resign. Former Kaduna State governor, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, who was unmoved by the Yar’Adua interview, affirmed the next day that it was time Yar’Adua was removed from office. He had earlier made the point that Nigeria’s presidency was not for sick people. There have also been rallies staged in Abuja and Lagos by the Save Nigeria Group seeking to force Yar’Adua’s hand.

The rallies, with the theme ‘Enough Is Enough,’ drew very large crowds. The protesters, led by such prominent persons as Professor Wole Soyinka, Pastor Tunde Bakare, Hon. Farouk Adamu, Malam Naseer Galadima, Femi Falana and Ayo Obe, demonstrated their anger at the President’s indefinite stay in Saudi Arabia without transmitting a letter to the National Assembly as required by Section 145 of the Constitution, which would have automatically allowed the Vice-President to assume the responsibilities of the President in acting capacity.

Nigerians can see that there are grave consequences of their President’s continued absence from the country, with state matters requiring his attention neglected. Three major law suits were also instituted with the motive of forcing the President’s hand.

But some Yar’Adua aides do not see anything wrong in the President’s absence and are keen to frustrate any attempt to have the President handover power, albeit temporarily to his deputy. Prominent among these aides of the President are Tanimu, Yusuf Tilde, the Chief Security Officer, CSO, and Attorney-General of the Federation, Michael Aondoakaa, who has already boasted that the President can rule Nigeria from any part of the world! Their goal is to keep Yar’Adua’s of absence indefinite. But they continue to wallow under severe pressure as more and more Nigerians, convinced that the President is too sick to discharge his duties, want him to go.

On 21 January, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who infamously imposed Yar’Adua on Nigerians in 2007, was the chairman at the 7th Trust Annual Dialogue, where he publicly advised Yar’Adua to take the path of honour and morality by resigning from office in view of his very serious health challenges. Obasanjo was responding to a question by a member of the audience, who asked if his choice of Yar’Adua was informed by wickedness.  The former president admitted knowing that Yar’Adua had kidney problem and was undergoing dialysis, but claimed that Yar’Adua gave him a medical report that indicated he had gone off dialysis.

“I asked experts who then told me if you were under dialysis or you are on dialysis and you are no longer on dialysis, it means you have had a successful kidney transplant and that you can live for as long as God may wish you to live… How can I put so much into this country… And then think of giving this country to somebody who will run it down. Even if you didn’t have the fear of God, you will not think that way… If I did that God will punish me,” he said.

Many Nigerians were not impressed with Obasanjo’s effort at washing his hands off the Yar’Adua debacle. Many also scented a ploy by the former president to avenge the perceived rubbishing of his legacy by Yar’Adua and the trial for alleged corruption of his former aides namely, Nasir el-Rufai, Babalola Borishade, Femi Fani-Kayode. Yet a significant number of Nigerians recognised the statement as a lethal  body blow for Yar’Adua’s supporters.

And the Yar’Adua  acolytes have responded. Their response was to organise a pro-Yar’Adua rally in Katsina. Katsina State governor, Ibrahim Shema, was said to have directed the 34 council chairmen in the state to mobilise people for the rally. The thinking of the Yar’Adua people is that if a rally was not organised in Katsina as a response to the rallies held in Abuja and Lagos, it could give the impression that even in his home base of Katsina, Yar’Adua lacked sympathy and support.

At the rally held at the Kangiwa Square, the protesters carried placards denouncing Obasanjo and assuring that the President will be back soon. One placard even warned that Northerners are ready for a showdown should Yar’Adua be forced out of office. The rally and prayer session was attended by Emirs of Katsina and Daura, Action Congress Chieftain, Alhaji Lawal Kaita; PDP Board of Trustees members, Alhaji Iro Dan Musa, and  clergymen from the 34 councils of the state. The rally in Katsina is most likely to lead to other rallies in the northern part of the country. Indeed THeNEWS learnt that seven of such rallies have already been planned.

Pro-Yar’Adua elements opposed to suggestion that he should handover of power to his deputy have been going about with the claim that Vice President Goodluck Jonathan must not be allowed to become president in acting capacity because it would mean giving Obasanjo another opportunity to return to power. They see Jonathan as someone beholden to the former president. This position has already been debunked by political pundits who recalled that former Rivers State Governor, Peter Odili was Obasanjo’s original choice as Yar’Adua’s deputy. It was Yar’Adua, they said, who  asked for Jonathan because he believed he would be loyal to him.

TheNEWS gathered that in the desperation of the Yar’Adua kitchen cabinet to ensure that the status-quo is maintained, they plan to move the president home even before he is passed fit to embark on such a long journey. They have reportedly acquired a Ford E-250 advanced ambulance fitted with intensive care unit-type equipment. News reports last week revealed that the ambulance arrived Lagos via a Saudi Airline cargo on 20 January, and reached Abuja on 23 January. An air ambulance is similarly being hired to airfreight Yar’Adua from Jeddah to Abuja, if the pressure gets unbearable. They are convinced that bringing Yar’Adua home even in a bad state will have tremendous impact. However, the snag is that the President’s doctors oppose  such a move and would rather hand a disclaimer form to his next of kin, Turai, to sign if the aides insist  on bringing the president home. Moves last week to bring the president home were quickly jettisoned based on the reality that the president was not even fit to undertake a journey by flight from Saudi Arabia. There were also reports, quoting sources close to the King Faisal Hospital, that the president already emasculated by his protracted illness, has further lost at least 10 kilogrammes.

It was also gathered that the Yar’Adua kitchen cabinet is spending good money on  traditional rulers and spiritualists. Already, a spiritualist based in Katsina, whose son is said to be a member of the National Assembly, has assured Yar’Adua’s wife and others that the president will make a remarkable recovery.

Last week, TheNEWS was told by usually impeccable sources that President Yar’Adua’s eldest daughter, Maryam, who is married to Badamasi Kabir Usman, visited her dad recently and brought back a memo on the restructuring of the Presidency. The ‘restructuring’ could see the sack of prominent ministers, if implemented. The thinking of the group is that this will cause enough tremor in the party as to deflect attention away from Yar’Adua and give president some time to recover before coming home. The group, TheNEWS was told last week, was considering the most opportune moment to make its move.

With pressure ramped up on the Pro-Yar’Adua elements bent on keeping the infirm president in power by all means possible, it was a combative Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation that addressed journalists after the Federal Executive Council meeting last Wednesday. The Minister told journalists that the Federal Executive Council did not share the apprehensions of Nigerians on the continued stay of President Umaru Yar’Adua in Saudi Arabia and therefore declared that the President is capable of continuing in office.

This was the cabinet’s response to the directives of the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Dan Abutu of 22 January, requiring it to make public within two weeks the capability or otherwise of the President to remain in power. Aondoakaa told journalists that the Council also resolved that Yar’Adua who has been in Saudi Arabia for over two months because of ill-health is not incapable of discharging the functions of his office. Members of the cabinet also resolved that the medical treatment undertaken outside the country by the President since 23 November , 2009, does not constitute incapacity and therefore, should not be the basis of asking the President to vacate office as stipulated by Section 144 and 146 of the Constitution. Aondoakaa also maintained that the issue of the President’s transfer of power to the Vice-President is discretionary and can only be done by the President if he is willing to do so. “It is a pure discretional matter left to the President and it can only commence with the President writing the letter and it is a voluntary transfer of power, which neither of us, nobody has control over it except the President himself,” the minister argued.On whether the cabinet consulted medical experts before reaching the decision, Aondoakaa simply said the Council followed the constitution. He added that the constitution does not demand that the cabinet should consult with medical experts before taking a decision on the issue of the president’s incapacitation or not. “The issue of medical team comes after the decision is made whether or not the president is incapacitated. So, I cannot bend the Constitution,” he said. The minister added that the decision of the council was based on the provisions of Section 144 of the Constitution and any one who is aggrieved should go to the court.

Drawing analogy with the situation in the United States of America, Aondoakaa said the presidents of United States transferred power to their deputies when they went for surgeries and were placed on sedation. But when he was asked if the fact that the President of the US which example he has cited can ask their deputies to act though they are only going for surgeries which lasted for some hours does not indicate that they are more of patriots than the Nigerian president who has been away for more then two months without handing over to his deputy, Aondoakaa said the nature of the ailment afflicting the Nigerian president is different: “We followed the letters of Section 144 and I think Section 144 allows and if anybody thinks it doesn’t, he can go to court,” he said. The Minister also said the earlier ruling by Justice Abutu that the Vice President can exercise powers of the president should have put an end to all the controversies over the issue. But when he was asked if Vice President Jonathan can dissolve the cabinet in exercise of that power, he said: “We do not answer speculative questions. The law deals with actual questions and a positive mind does not think in the negative.” Aondoakaa who seemed to have made up his mind on what he will say at the press briefing later stormed out of the venue to the chagrin of reporters. The resolutions of FEC was more or less the affirmation of the one it passed last December on the President.

Many critics argued last week that the cabinet should have consulted medical experts who will study the president’s medical records and recommend the appropriate steps that should be taken by the cabinet.  As it is, the kitchen cabinet which appeared bent on ensuring that the President did not hand over in spite of his ill health seemed to have had their way with the resolutions passed last Wednesday.

“The resolution by the FEC is illegal because it violates section 144 of the constitution. They have no power to make that resolution,” Bamidele Aturu, who instituted the suit that led to the order by FEC, said in reaction to the resolution last week.

About the time the FEC gave Yar’Adua a clean bill of health, the Senate, after a two day closed-door session resolved that the ailing leader should  comply with Section 145 of the Constitution by writing to the National Assembly to inform the legislature of his absence from work. .

In the resolution passed after three hours of deliberations at an executive session, the Senate urged the President to “formally notify the National Assembly of his medical vacation pursuant to Section 145 of the Constitution. “We are satisfied that what we have done now is in the best interest of the country to ease the tension and move Nigeria forward and that is why we have resolved to urge the President to honour Section 145 by notifying the National Assembly that he has proceeded on medical vacation, even though it is going to be in arrears as it were. We have come to the conclusion that it is right that the spirit of that provision be respected. We also asked that this matter be committed to our committee on the review of the 1999 Constitution so that they will take into consideration the kind of confusion and the kind of unanticipated problem that arose from Section 145 because of its lack of specificity,” Ayogu Eze, Chairman, Senate Committee on Information and Media, told reporters on the resolutions.

David Mark, President of the Senate, had also put the resolution to vote at the plenary session of the upper chamber held after the executive session. Reporters immediately picked holes in the resolution as there was no stipulated time frame in which it must be complied with just as there is no sanction spelt out for non-compliance. But when Eze was confronted with these concerns, he said: “When we looked at that issue, we considered that what we are trying to do was to find a political solution to a very difficult problem and, in doing so, you do not exacerbate the situation by giving ultimatum and sounding like a military institution. I believe that the notice from the Senate on the need for Section 145 to be respected is strong enough and I believe that we have delivered the message, the entire message that needs to be delivered.” And on the steps the Senate will take if the President did not heed their resolution, Eze said: “I think that it will be irresponsible on the part of the Senate to begin to anticipate what the President will do or not do.I think that we have put the matter the way we should put it and we expect that it will produce result. We do not want to begin to engage in dangerous speculations that will further heighten tension in the land; and we are convinced that the right thing will be done.”

It was gathered that the resolution was a middle ground between the pro-Yar’Adua group and the group which  wants Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to become the acting President. It was gathered that though the pro-Jonathan group of Senators are in the majority, Mark had adroitly ensured that the issue is not put to vote so that they will not carry the day. “The resolution by itself is mainly a pressure on the President. It doesn’t translate into making the VP the acting president. It has no binding effect on the President. It only has a moral and political effect, but not a legal effect. The Vice President can only become the acting president if the President acts on the pressure and translates a letter to the National Assembly,” Professor Itse Sagay said on the resolution last week.

Before the Senate’s decision, three distinctive groups had emerged in the upper chamber: the pro-Yar’Adua group, made up of the Senate President David Mark; Chief Whip, Senator Kanti Bello; Deputy Whip, Mohammed Mana; Senators Ibrahim Ida, Garba Lado, Umaru Argungu, Tanko Ayuba, Saminu Turaki, George Akume, Joseph Akaargerger, Jibril Aminu, Otaru Ohize, Nicholas Ugbane, Ahmed Makarfi, Odion Ugbesia, Gbemisola Saraki and many others.

There is also the pro-Jonathan group, made up of senators from the southern part of the country, especially from the South-South.  In this group are Senators Emmanuel Paulker, Heineken Lokpobiri, Edobor Uzamere, George Thompson Sekibo, Wilson Ake, Victor Ndoma-Egba, Bassey Ewa-Henshaw, Greg Ngaji and Annie Okonkwo.

There is the anti-Yar’Adua group, but not particularly pro-Jonathan, as one newspaper put it. Among them are Senators Maina Ma’aji Lawan, Suleiman Nazif, Mohammed Mohammed, Bala Mohammed, Caleb Zagi, Joel Danlami Ikenya, Hassan Gusau, Omar Hambagda Abubakar Gada, Adamu Talba, Abubakar Sodangi, Grace Bent, Dahiru Awaisu Kuta, and Anthony Manzo.

The last two formed what is known as National Interest Group, NIG. It is made up of 94 members––out of 109––including Ike Ekweremadu, Deputy Senate President. Disunity in the upper chamber worsened when it decided to  invite the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Mahmud Yayale Ahmed, to brief it on Yar’Adua’s health.

As reported last Tuesday, Senate President Mark had deftly ensured that the prayer to visit Yar’Adua did not sail through. He had also blocked attempts by some senators to, through constitutional points of order, raise Sections 143 (on impeachment for gross misconduct of being away from his duty post for more than 42 days), 144 (on incapacitation) and 145 (on transmission of letter to enable Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan step in as Acting President), saying the sections were not within the purview of the Senate.

The Senate’s decision on Wednesday climaxed two days of closed sessions, beginning  Tuesday.  The Tuesday meeting ended in a deadlock. For one thing, not all the senators contributed to the debate before it was adjourned because the groups could not reach a compromise. While some senators resolved to defend the constitution, others wanted to preserve the status quo ante.

For example, Suleiman Nasif (PDP Bauchi State), was reported as saying “since the court is hinging its ruling on section 144, we believe section 145 should apply. Since Mr. President recovered when he wanted to sign the supplementary budget, it should be easier for him to sign the letter and transmit it to the National Assembly.”

At a point, some senators began to shout “all we are saying is, hand over to Jonathan”. The number of Senators that wanted Yar’Adua to hand over rose to 69, while some were, because of an Abuja High Court ruling that the Vice President should assume power, remained non-committal.

The Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP,  hailed the Senate for being patriotic and democratic in the resolution of the constitutional crisis engendered by the absence of the ailing President and his cohorts and  called on the House of Representatives to toe the same line.

“CNPP has maintained that it is incongruous, unpatriotic and undemocratic for President Yar’Adua and his handlers to subordinate constitutional order under personal survival; in other words, the survival of our fledging democracy under self-glorification and self-service,” the statement signed by Osita Okechukwu, National Publicity Secretary of CNPP said.

Junaid Mohammed, National Chairman of the Peoples Salvation Party, PSP, however, criticised the Senate for passing a belated  resolution. Mohammed howver advised the President and his advisers to implement the resolution immediately. He  chastised those agitating for the North to remain in power, adding that it is pointless vesting powers on some cabals in the name of the North. “If, however, out of the sense of desperation, of foolhardiness, some people, whether in Katsina or some of the so-called die-hard in the PDP in both the South and North decide that somehow they are going to be intransigent and refuse to effect the necessary processes which had been envisaged by the constitution, we are going to resist that with the last drop of our blood,” he said. Mohammed added that his call was made out of genuine patriotism and not out of malice. According to him: “Are you telling me that the North stands to gain by having an invalid  as President? There is nothing in the northern culture, which is predominantly Islamic culture, which says that a man who is an invalid should lead sane people. It is not about injustice, hypocrisy, religious or some kind of tribal chauvinism,” he concluded.

As pressure continued last week to make Yar’Adua transfer power to Jonathan, the elements that do not want Yar’adua to yield power, got a boost from Eastern Nigeria, when the governors in the region endorsed the standpoint of the Federal Cabinet: that Yar’Adua is still fit to continue to rule Nigeria and that he should ignore the clamour to handover to Vice President Jonathan. TheNEWS learnt governors in the other geo-political zones may adopt a similar position in the nexty few days.

– Additional reports by  Ademola Adegbamigbe and Oluokun Ayorinde.

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