January 25, 2009
In an unusual press briefing today in Abuja, Olusegun Adeniyi, the former Thisday editor who is now spokesperson to Yar'adua, sensationally disowned the statement by the SGF last week that Yar'adua had handed over to Goodluck Jonathan.He also commented on the "two-weeks" vacation being taken by his boss, declaring that Yar'adua planned to spend the time within Nigeria. That information had already been leaked to the pro-regime Thisday newspaper yesterday. Yar'adua also re-appeared in Aso Rock today.
According to Mr. Adeniyi’s version, Yar'adua would spend:
"a few days at the Presidential Resort Obudu Cattle Ranch near Calabar, Cross Rivers state, another few days in Dodan Barracks Lagos and another couple of days in Katsina".
SaharaReporters had reported in December that Yar'adua was planning a prolonged medical vacation, and disclosed that his handlers were in a big dilemma concerning how to arrange a respectable explanation for it. His last medical travel had been passed off as a religious trip to Saudi Arabia, but that was embarrassingly bungled, and Yar’Adua spent weeks in a Saudi hospital and missed a scheduled state visit to Brazil.
Last week his handlers decided on the somewhat ingenuous plan of routing him through Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he would attend a meeting of the African Union (AU) in his capacity as the chairperson of the sub-regional ECOWAS. An advance party of the government led by the Attorney-General, Michael Aondoakaa, was already on ground in Abuja enroute Addis Ababa for that purpose. However, a series of inside reports by SaharaReporters, and medical tests showing that Yar'adua may be unfit to undertake long haul flights seem to have led to the cancellation of the international medical sojourn, which was supposed to have begun today. Mr. Adeniyi said VP Jonathan might attend the AU conference in place of Yar'adua, starting tomorrow.
In another development, a government source told Saharareporters this afternoon the AGF will himself not be attending the AU meeting as he is reportedly battling a serious sinus condition that requires surgery. The source said Aondoakaa plans to travel to Abu Dhabi where he will have surgery to remove some sinus tissues, and will be away for two weeks.
Also in today’s briefing, the spokesperson suggested that the subject of handing-over power to Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan may not have been resolved. "It is not a handover per se,” he said. “I mean, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) was just stating the obvious. When the 'President' is away whatever issues arise, the VP will deal with [them]."
But this counteracts the position of the SGF who stated in a terse press release last week that Yar'Adua was leaving on vacation and that the VP would take over his duties while he was gone. It is not clear how the Vice-President can take over the constitutional responsibilities of the president unless he is legally authorized to do so.
Saharareporters has learned that since the announcement was made last week, serious political forces have gone underground to unseat Yar'adua from office. Sources say those forces are working on eventually approaching the Supreme Court to declare him unfit, and also approach the National Assembly to remove him since he did not apply to the National Assembly notifying them about his vacation as is required by the 1999 constitution. Also a report in The Punch newspaper said the core North may be shopping for his replacement. Some analysts believe these moves and feelers may have forced Yar'adua to stay back in the country while working on other alternatives to get much-needed medical help. One analyst pointed at last week’s “disquieting” interview in Vanguard newspaper in which former Head of State, Ibrahim Babangida, even justified a coup d’etat in Guinea as “patriotic.”
Meanwhile, our sources said Yar'Adua was definitely billed to seek months-long medical intervention at a kidney transplant facility in Ohio, in the United States. But unrelenting information about the negotiations led to more increased demands for privacy or possible use of the facility's aircrew to provide the treatment either in Nigeria or somewhere with less visibility. Part of the confirmation of Yar'adua's planned presence in the US was unveiled by the Voice of America's (VOA) Hausa Service which planned its 30th Anniversary for January 29th 2009 at the VOA headquarters in Washington DC. The service, through the US-based Northern Nigerian socio-cultural diaspora body, Zumunta, invited the public to attend and said in its invitation that the "first lady" Mrs. Turai Yar'adua had agreed to attend. It is currently unclear if she will still attend in the event that Yar'adua cancels his trip to the US, as has been announced by his aides. A source in the presidency told Saharareporters today that Yar'adua's sudden announcement that he was staying in Nigeria might be a decoy.
“Mr. Fix-It” Tony Anenih returns, to head NPA:
But to further underscore his resolve to prove critics wrong about his deteriorating health and deflect public attention from the issue, Yar'Adua has begun his campaign for a second term in office with the appointment of Chief Anthony Anenih as the "leader of his campaign team".
Anenih, the former Works and Housing Minister and former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the PDP, is notorious for corruption and disregard for democratic principles when it comes to elections. He has also become a political enemy of former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, who manoeuvred him out of the leadership of the BOT.
In a sign of Anenih’s returning influence in the party, SaharaReporters learnt today that Yar'adua has appointed him to the position of chairman of the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA), which is expected to broaden the financial base for Yar'Adua’s re-election plans. He has also quietly returned to Anenih an oil block taken away from him by Obasanjo.
Political analysts told Saharareporters that the re-emergence of Anenih, who was known as PDP’s “Mr. Fix-It” for his electoral and party manoeuvres before Obasanjo set about cutting him down to size, as well as the continued retention of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Maurice Iwu, make nonsense of the so-called "electoral reform" that Yar'adua promised Nigerians.
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