Nigeria’s sickly leader, Umaru Yar’Adua left Saudi Arabia today for Nigeria after another round of medical treatments to care for ailments he would not disclose to his country. He left Nigeria 10 days ago, without constitutionally transferring power to anyone, and returns only after popular concern about his trip again jumped to the headlines in Nigeria.
Yar’Adua’s medical trip, which officials said would last only one week, dragged into a second week, leading to a Saharareporters report which compelled his handlers to announce that he would return today. Prior to our report, Yar’Adua’s trip had been shielded from the foreground by the on-going controversy over the sack of five bank CEOs and the circus put up by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission that declared two of the fired CEOs wanted five days after they had bolted from the country.
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Yar’adua and his team staged an elaborate media circus last weekend using the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) to spread the misinformation that he had completed his so-called “medical check-up” and embarked on the lesser hajj in the city of the holy city of Mecca. But Saharareporters found out that the media circus was diversionary, and the NTA did not show him engaged in any of these lesser hajj obligations for hajj pilgrims nor even reveal the hospital where he reportedly concluded his "medical check up.”
In his condition, Yar’Adua lacks the capability to engage in the tedious process of Umrah, which requires that he dress himself in a white garment known as Ihram and perform the Sa'i in the 400-meter covered arcade. That meant that he would have to run seven times between the hills of Safa and Marwah, a task Yar’Adua cannot currently complete even in a dream.
Medical sources involved in his treatment confirmed to Saharareporters that Yar'Adua could not engage in the physical demands of the Umrah. Even if Yar’Adua were to undertake the Umrah, it takes less than 2 hours to complete. Yar'adua’s long absence after he was supposed to have completed the process is further proof he had remained in Jeddah until tending to his medical troubles.
To fool the pubic, however, his aides reportedly moved him to a mosque in Mecca where he prayed, dressed in Kaftan. It would be recalled that Yar’Adua used the same “lesser hajj” excuse to bamboozle Nigerians in August 2008 when he disappeared into Saudi Arabia without any formal announcement. In that instance, his aides and government officials insisted, despite evidence to the contrary, that he was observing the lesser hajj.
Our sources at the Saudi Arabia General Authority of Civil Aviation said Yar’Adua left King Abdul Aziz International Airport, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia at about 3: 00 PM Saudi local time but they could not tell us if his plane was traveling directly to Nigeria. Yar’adua is expected to arrive in Abuja at about 7 PM local time, according to sources at the presidency. That would be just about just dark enough to sneak into Abuja after a discreet airport ceremony, without too many prying eyes.
Yar’Adua was accompanied on his visit to Saudi Arabia by several family members, including his mother and children.
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Yar’adua’s health condition has become a drainpipe, costing Nigerian taxpayers several millions of dollars annually.
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