January 21, 2009
Our sources inside Aso Rock have revealed that Umaru Yar'adua's handlers are having a hectic time finding a "politically comfortable exit strategy" to enable him to embark on his much-needed medical leave that is expected to last several weeks.
Last December, Saharareporters had leaked a plan by Yar'adua to seek medical treatment abroad as soon as the Supreme upheld his "election." Presidency officials had kept mum about our report until Reuters and Businessday newspaper confirmed our story last week.
Even though presidential spokesman, Segun Adeniyi, described the news as "media speculation and arrant nonsense," he also told Reuters that "he would neither confirm nor deny the story" that Yar'adua would be gone for a prolonged period of time. Our sources have revealed that Yar'adua's treatment may last eight weeks or longer.
Sources close to Yar'adua said the ailing "president" has relied heavily on spiritual marabouts who are camped out at his official residence. The most prominent of these is a woman simply named "Umah" who is a Nigerian-born marabout but based in Saudi Arabia. Yar'adua has also recruited marabouts from Niger Republic who currently occupy the "Defense House" near the Aso Rock Villa.
Yar'adua, who is afflicted with the Churg Strauss Syndrome, also suffers from a chronic kidney disease that has left him fragile over the years. Latest information regarding his controversial secretive trip to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia last year indicates that he was also diagnosed with cancer of the lungs. Yar'adua is a long-time smoker.
Yar'adua's dilemma is whether to embark on a prolonged but uncertain trip for kidney transplant before checking out his lung cancer troubles. Sources told Saharareporters that attempts by Yar'adua to build a N10 billion "State House Clinic" which was advertised in the SUN newspaper of July 5 2008 – shortly after Yar'adua returned from Germany – did not quite work as expected. The contract, SaharaReporters learnt, was awarded to one of Yar'adua's brothers who did not execute it to expectation, but made away with a large chunk of the contract sum. He recently brought in a dialysis machine and ICU unit that are lying in Building # 7 at the Aso Rock Villa.
Yar'adua, who is said to have moved lots of luggage to Katsina, is expected to travel from Katsina to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where he will attend a meeting of the African Union (AU).
Earlier today before heading out for Katsina for his daughter's wedding to Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi state, a frail and emaciated Yar'adua appeared at the National Assembly to sort out budget issues. Four doctors and medical personnel, with first aid equipment, accompanied him to the National Assembly building.
It is expected that Yar'adua will travel from Addis Ababa to his medical appointment either in Germany or the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.
A source told us that Yar'adua's team had earlier engaged in secret negotiations with doctors to carry out a kidney transplant at the Cleveland Clinic Transplant Center under the care of Dr. Stuart Flechner. The source added, however, that our revelation that Yar’adua was headed for the US has raised “privacy” fears in his inner circle. “He might be forced to put the Cleveland option on hold until his privacy can be guaranteed at the clinic,” said the source. He added that Yar’adua wants “airtight privacy” if he decides to undertake treatment in Cleveland.
Our efforts to get the hospital to confirm Yar'adua's planned treatment at the Cleveland Clinic were unsuccessful. Hospital officials, including a case manager in the clinic's Global Services Unit, said the clinic does not give information on current or potential patients as a matter of policy.
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