National Daily

President's health crisis: Jonathan to emerge President this week

• As Yar'Adua's men bow to pressure • Ministers panic over cabinet reshuffle • Tanimu lobby Jonathan for top post • How Turai finally surrendered

By DANLADI BATURE

QUE sera sera, an adage which translated in English means what shall be shall be.
Whatever that is divinely ordained shall surely come to pass here on earth.

Vice President Goodluck Jonathan may become the Acting President of Federal Republic of Nigeria before the end of the week, unless unforeseen circumstances change the cause of History.
Competent sources said that Yar'Adua is not physically well enough to write the letter himself, one of his close aides sources said have been mandated to write it on his behalf.

National Daily learned from competent sources that ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua and his kitchen cabinet have finally agreed to temporary handover the reign of power to Jonathan. Sources disclosed that the decision was seated a few days ago after the first lady, Hajia Turai conferred with the Yar'adua family on the next step forward after discussing with the kitchen cabinet.

The President's kitchen cabinet led by the Economic Adviser to the President, Alhaji Tanimu Yakubu, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Yayale Ahmed Kurfi and Attorney General and Minister for Justice Michael Andoaaka were said to have held several crucial meetings after the Federal Executive Council meeting last week during which Information and Communication Minister, Dora Akunyili raised a memo requesting FEC to rescind its earlier decision and ask President Yar'Adua to write a letter of vacation to the National Assembly to enable his Deputy, Goodluck Jonathan act as President.

Akunyili said in the memo that: “We have a local proverb that says that: A goat does not get strangulated by the rope used in typing it when an adult is present. We are all in a better position to know that the polity is overheated to a frightening level. Posterity will judge us harshly if we do not positively intervene to resolve this logjam.”
Sources said the memo Akunyili submitted for urgent deliberation was actually influenced by eminent Nigerians across the country who wanted to use her to achieve constitutional provision that said the Federal Executive Council can determine that the President is incapacitated and therefore unable to discharge his duties and in that case he must handover to his deputy who will then act as President.

Though the council decline to deliberate on the Memo that day on the grounds that it should have been submitted earlier, it caused quite a stir in the chambers as the cabinet was divided on the matter. Sources disclosed that majority of the Ministers were tacitly in support of Akunyili despite their pretentions mien during the meeting.
However, Yar'Adua's loyalists were said to have been thoroughly rattled by the Memo and its timing and quickly alerted the First Lady, Turai, before going into a meeting to discuss strategies on how to “kill the memo before it wrecks further havoc”

National Daily gathered further that other pro-Yar'Adua group consisting of Minister for Agriculture, Sayyad Abba Ruma, Senator Adi, Special Adviser on National Assembly, Mohammed Abba-Aji met with the kitchen cabinet in a concerted effect to resolve the crisis caused by the President's long absence as result of a heart and kidney related disease.

Competent sources said that Turai was initially reluctant to consider the inevitable option of her husband handing over power to his Deputy but apparently succumbed when she agreed to talk with her indisposed husband.
While one reliable source said that Turai as she once did sneaked into the country to meet with the kitchen cabinet in a secret location, another inside source said she communicated the final decision on the President's vacation letter through coded phone discussion and e-mail.

“I know she has informed trusted associates like TY (Tanimu Yakubu) Ruma and Senator Adi that the President will soon send a letter to the National Assembly requesting for vacation on health grounds and that his Deputy, Jonathan Goodluck should act as President's, our source said.

Turai was said to have personally informed Yar'Adua's mother, Hajia Dada Habib about her son's impending resignation from office before she told the rest of the family member that what they agreed upon is about to be implemented.

Sources said the Yar'Adua family were previously divided over the issue of the President's continue stay in office with late General Shehu Yar'Adua's immediate family said to be critical of Turai's behavior as a result of which they almost dismissed her as a persona non grata.

National Daily sources said that some Ministers have become jittery that they will loose their job if Jonathan takes over as acting President. They are also said to be afraid of being made to account for their stewardship in office.
Such ministers according to sources, includes Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Michael Aaondoaaka.
Competent sources further revealed that the most recent meeting of the kitchen cabinet and the Ruma group was held last weekend to fine tune strategies on how the President will eventually step aside. They also want to ensure that he gets a concrete assurance from Jonathan that he will be given a soft landing.

Sources disclose that a meeting was held between Yar'Adua's loyalists and Vice President's representatives to reach an agreement on very vital issues.

Some of the concessions allegedly being sort by Yar'Adua loyalists include a firm promise that Ministers, Advisers and Heads of parastatals who openly supported the President or those who are perceived to prefer him to remain in office will not be sacked from their positions.

The issue of the candidate for the Vice President position was also carefully considered. Yar'Adua's loyalist named either Bauchi State governor Isa Yaguda or Minister for Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Adamu Aliero as their choice. Kebbi State governor Usman Dagingari was also listed as another acceptable person for the position.
Sources said the Vice President was given the assurance that a tentative draft of the handover letter to the National Assembly is ready and is being fine tuned before being forwarded to the lawmakers later this week.

It was further gathered that some top officials of the Yar'Adua administration have been seriously lobbying Vice President Jonathan for appointment into plum positions when he eventually take over as acting president.
For instance, Yar'Adua's Economic Adviser, Tanimu Yakubu was said to have requested to be made the new chief of staff in Jonathan's presidency. Tanimu was Deputy Chief of Staff under General Mohammed Abdullahi who served under the Olusegun Obasanjo government and briefly under the Yar'Adua administration.
The SGF, Yayale Ahmed according to sources showed interest that he would like to succeed Jonathan as Vice President.

The First Lady, Turai, initially mounted pressures for her to become the new Vice President as a concession to compensate the Yar'Adua family when it seemed that the President will resign instead of stepping aside from the presidency but now she wants assurance from Jonathan she and her business partners will not be prosecuted or made to loose their wealth when he eventually takes over as acting president.

It was learned that the nation's top security chiefs have been tactically informed about President Yar'Adua's decision to handover governance to his Deputy Goodluck Jonathan. Relevant security agencies, according to sources, have been instructed to prepare the enabling environment for the enthronement of Vice President Goodluck Jonathan as Yar'Adua's successor.

President Umaru Yar'Adua's Adviser on National Assembly Matters. Mohammed Abba-Aji last week raised the hope that the ailing President will transmit a vacation letter to the National Assembly. He said the President has no reason to ignore the resolution of the Senate on the issue of his long absence from office:

“The Senate has resolved and the resolution has been transmitted. We all know the President to be a man who respects the rule of law. So, I have no doubt in my mind that the President has never refused to comply with a law passed by the legislature, not to my knowledge” Abba-Aji said, adding:

“We are complying with the resolution. Now you know that the situation is different from ordinary vacation. The President situation has something to do with ill-health. The President will not ignore the resolution of the Senate. We only need to exercise patience for a while.”

There has been a controversy over a vacation letter purportedly sent to the National Assembly by the President in 2009.
The Presidential Adviser denied the allegation by the Secretary to the Government of the Federal Yayale Ahmed, that he kept the vacation letter sent by Yar'Adua to the legislature.
Abba-Aji said the letter never saw the light of day because it was withdrawn.

“The SGF got it wrong. We discussed the issue of the letter which has generated a lot of controversy as you all know. Many people thought that the President gave a letter when he was leaving the country for Saudi Arabia and that I am still sitting on the letter. That was not true because there was nothing like that Abba-Aji said, adding:
“There has never been a time when the President was leaving the country and he transmitted a letter. But there was effort to transmit a letter and that was in January 2009 when the President went on leave.

At that time there was a letter that the President was in the process of transmitting when Senator Mamman Ali the then Governor of Yobe State died, just a day following the commencement of his leave. So because of the death, the President shelved his holiday travel plans”.
The Northern Governors forum in its reaction said that President Yar'Adua does not need to write the National Assembly about his absence.

The logic of NGF is that since the issue of acting president can be verbal or written, Yar'Adua does not write the legislature before his Deputy, Goodluck Jonathan can become acting president.
The Governors in a statement read by Chairman of the Forum, Niger State governor, Mu'azu Babangida Aliyu said that “History and posterity will be harsh on us if we fail to do what is appropriate to save the situation in the interest of the nation. We should learn from our recent history and be more vigilant so that some people do not hijack the situation and sow the seed of disharmony in our body polity by claiming to be protecting or speaking for the north” the governors said, adding:

“Some of us may recall a situation during the era of the late General Sani Abacha when the Commander-IN-Chief was kept out of public view for whatever reason for a prolonged period, and some officers took advantage to be running the affairs of state while creating the impression that the General was in charge”.
For weeks, Nigeria has been inundated with rumours and hoaxes over whether the president is alive or dead.
His failure to transfer powers to his deputy before he left created a power vacuum - in which fear and false reports flourished, she says.

There were even reports saying that the president was brain dead.
There were also official statements claiming the president was discharged from hospital. They later turned out not to be true.

Political tensions have been high - government business has stalled and legislation frozen and cracks have appeared in the uneasy peace in the oil-producing Niger Delta.
Last week, the first signs of a split emerged in Nigeria's cabinet, when Information Minister Dora Akunyili urged her colleagues to admit that the president was no longer fit to govern.

The federal high court has ruled that there is no constitutional requirement for the president to hand over power when he is abroad receiving medical treatment.
But he now appears to have given in to all the pressure.
Nigeria's split between the mainly Muslim north and the mainly Christian south has complicated the issue, analysts say.

Northern power-brokers may be reluctant to see President Yar'Adua, a northerner, hand over power to Vice-President Jonathan, from the south, before the next scheduled presidential elections in 2011.
Since the return to civilian rule, power has usually rotated between the regions.

But the larger Nigeria state governors Forum seem to have convinced their colleagues from the north by calling on the country's absent president to cede power to the vice president to calm a growing constitutional crisis in the West African nation. The governors said in a statement that President Umaru Yar'Adua should issue a decree transferring power to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, as required by the nation's constitution in a prolonged absence.
Yar'Adua, who suffered from kidney problems and an inflammation of the sac surrounding the heart, left for Saudi Arabia late November 2009 for treatment. Since then, lawsuits and protestors have called on him to cede power.
The 36 state governors wield tremendous political power, as each controls a budget fueled by oil revenues that rivals the entire funding of other countries.

In a widely condemned statement the Federal Executive Council said Yar'Adua is fit to govern. Sixty five days after leaving the country rudderless while seeking medical attention in Saudi Arabia, the Senate directed President Umaru Yar'Adua to hand over power to his deputy in a decision that signaled the triumph over the antics of the president's hard line kitchen cabinet.

After two days of heated debate behind closed doors by Senators on the state of the health of President Umaru Yar'Adua who on that day marks 65th day outside the country, the upper chamber yesterday resolved to ask the President to comply with the constitution and formally notify the National Assembly of his medical position.
“President Yar'Adua has to honour the Constitution by writing that he has proceeded on medical vacation even though in arrears”, Ayogu Eze, Senate spokesman, said while briefing journalists on the outcome of its two-day deliberations.

However, no timeline was given for Yar'Adua to comply with the directive. “When you look at the issues concerned, you don't exacerbate the problems. There is no need for any ultimatum as practiced under the military institution”, Eze said of Senate's decision not to give Yar'Adua a deadline on the transmission of the letter.
Eze explained that the Senate had been “treading carefully” before its taking its stance and that “that provision has to be respected” by the ailing president.

“The medical treatment outside the country does not constitute incapacity to warrant or commence the process of the removal of the president from office,” the FEC said in a statement read by Aondoakaa. “The medical treatment outside the country does not constitute incapacity to warrant or commence the process of the removal of the president from office.” Eze explained that the resolution of the Senate will be transmitted from the office of the Clerk of the Senate to Clerk of the National Assembly who will then convey the resolution to the president.
President Yar'Adua left the country for medical attention in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, without formally notifying the National Assembly as required by the 1999 constitution.

The prolonged absence triggered a constitutional crisis as Vice President Jonathan could not exercise executive powers, creating a vacuum in leadership.
However, from all indications, the vacuum will be erased this week with the emergence of Vice President Goodluck Jonathan as acting president.

But the vote by the FEC, all of them Yar'Adua's appointees, has set it on a collision course with the Senate, which said the president should formally notify parliament of his absence, a step which would effectively open the way for Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to take over as acting president.

Also, the groundswell of public opposition to the political logjam equally forced the hands of Yar’Adua’s men. Already the Media Executive Group, Civil Liberty Organisation (CLO), the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) and the former Senate President, Ken Nnamani led-group have slated series of meetings for this week, all targeted towards ensuring that Jonathan becomes Acting President.