A reliable source in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where Mr. Umaru Musa Yar’adua has been undergoing medical treatment for more than two weeks, has told Saharareporters that several People's Democratic Party (PDP) politicians led by its chairman, Vincent Ogbulafor have besieged Jeddah to persuade Yar’adua to hasten home before his absence creates a serious security crisis.
Our source also named Governors Bukola Saraki of Kwara and Ibrahim Shema of Katsina, Yar’adua’s home state, as among the list of those who have visited Saudi Arabia since yesterday to make the case for Yar’adua’s urgent return.
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Other visitors include businessman Aliko Dangote and Alhaji Dahiru Mangal, one of Yar’adua’s closest confidantes who is a notorious cross-border smuggler. Mangal is also one of Yar’adua’s friends entrusted with arranging marabouts—or spiritual healers—for the ailing “president.”
“Governor Saraki and Governor Shema as well as the other visitors spent hours trying to convince Yar’adua’s wife, Turai, to ensure that her husband returns to Abuja. They told Yar’adua’s wife that only his return can put a stop to further speculations about his presidency and arrest alleged growing plots to declare him unfit to rule as Nigeria's “president,” a position he acquired through the fraudulent elections of April 21, 2007.
An unconfirmed source told Saharareporters that Senate President, David Mark, has also joined the bandwagon to persuade Yar’adua to immediately return to Nigeria.
An Abuja-based Northern politician told our correspondent two days that a coalition of northern politicians who met in Kaduna during the week have encouraged “Vice President” Goodluck Jonathan to get himself sworn in by Tuesday, if Yar’adua is unable to return for another few days. Our sources close to Jonathan revealed that the “VP” is unhappy that Yar’adua’s insider group has kept him in the dark about the man’s condition. One of the sources disclosed that Jonathan’s recent habit of wearing Hausa-style attire is part of a design to make himself acceptable to the Northern political establishment. However, our Abuja-based political source told us that many northern politicians are opposed to ceding power to the south after eight years of Obasanjo’s presidency. “The other group favors new elections to ensure that power stays in the North.”
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The desperate attempt to bring Yar'adua to Nigeria is in conflict with the recommendation of his Jeddah-based doctors who want him to conclude a series of tests meant to determine his compatibility with potential kidney donors.
Yar’adua had told his doctors and family that he had decided to end his “kidney challenge” by getting a transplant. Sources close to his medical team in Jeddah insisted to Saharareporters that he was yet to undergo surgery to replace his kidney.
Another source told Saharareporters that the feverish campaign to persuade Yar'adua to return is ill-timed, since the ailing "president" has additional health burdens bordering on his mental state. “The man’s mental state is now of greater concern to his handlers than the kidney transplant surgery,” said the source. He added that family members including all but two of his daughters said to be heavily pregnant have moved to Saudi Arabia to shield Yar'adua because they do not want the increasing traffic of visitors to find out anymore about his troubled mental state.
Our source, who has known Yar'adua from his childhood days, said it is common knowledge that Yar'adua has intermittent mental issues. He added that the episodes of mental breakdown have increased since the sharp downturn in his physical health. The source also told SaharaReporters that two of Yar’adua’s siblings, Amina and Ali died in the late 1970s of mental illness, citing that Amina fell into a well and died after a long spell of untreatable mental illness while Ali died a few years later.
Saharareporters learnt that Yar'adua's plane had already filed a return plan with the Nigerian aviation authorities as of Friday night with the aim of returning to Nigeria early on Saturday morning.
However, our sources in Saudi Arabia were unable to obtain information from Saudi authorities tonight about the take-off of Yar’adua’s plane.googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });