Skip to main content

Jonathan must not resign – Unity Forum

December 2, 2009

The Unity Forum at its weekly meeting of Wednesday, December 2, 2009 deliberated extensively on the unfortunate dimension of public discussions on the state of health of Mr. President.



When Dr David Owen (Now Lord Owen) wrote his book In Sickness and in Power – Illness in heads of government during the last 100 years, one would have thought that he had Yar’adua in mind. The book though published last year did not capture Yar’adua in its list. But the book gives a lot of insight into such cases, how it affects major national decisions and public perceptions. No doubt, the President’s health is very important as it is tied to the economic and political well-being of the Country in view of the enormous powers conferred on the office of Mr. President. Little wonder therefore, the issue is generating so much public discourse.

Like most such cases, the handling of the President’s state of health has unfortunately been less than transparent. In the past, the President’s image makers denied that the President was sick, even though physically he appeared so. Even this current trip was initially down played. The President was said to be off to Saudi Arabia and would also do medical check up while there. Rumours had it however, that the President was already air-borne or even in Saudi Arabia when the release was issued. No footage of his take-off was shown, fuelling the impression that he was too sick at the time.

As pointed out above, as well as by many others, good health comes from the Almighty God, and He alone. He gives it to whom he likes and takes it from whom he likes. Accordingly, a very healthy person now could be very sick the next minute and vise-versa. Our President could therefore come back healthy, if God so wishes. Indeed, it is our fervent hope and prayer that the President fully recovers. The above notwithstanding, God gave us eyes to see, ears to hear and head to reason.

The call by some people that the Vice-President should resign as it is the turn of the North to rule, is to say the least, most unfortunate, callous and irresponsible. Moreover, the talk of rotational presidency is alien to the Constitution of the Country, and is in fact, an admission of failure of leadership. We in Unity Forum believe that what is necessary is to guarantee free, fair and transparent elections. Once Nigerians are able to vote in and out their leaders, it would no longer matter where they come from. Free and fair elections will ultimately also usher in era of good governance, which is what Nigerians desperately desire.

If Mr. President comes back healthy (or at least much stronger), we urge him to take the issue of electoral reform much more seriously. He should work assiduously to ensure that all elections henceforth are conducted in a most transparent manner.

If on the other hand, the President’s health remains in a precarious situation, he should toy the path of honour by resigning from the office, and ensuring that the letter and spirit of our Constitution are adhered to. In this case, the President will do well to ignore those political jobbers who eat fat on our collective resources, and who will most likely call on him to stay put, and even go for a second term. These people neither wish the President well nor the Country.


Alhaji Musa Maigida Abdu (Signed)
(Chairman)

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });