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Lagos AC Demands Full Disclosure On The President’s State Of Health

November 24, 2009

While sympathizing with President Umar Musa Yar. Adua on his continued ill health, the Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress has advised him to make full disclosure of his health condition so as to help Nigerians ascertain if indeed he is capable of continuing as president.   The party says this option will save both the nation that is adrift from a weak and incompetent leadership and a President that has found it difficult combining his deteriorating state of health and the tasking demands of statecraft from embarrassing situations.


In a release in Lagos, signed by the Lagos State Publicity Secretary of AC, Joe Igbokwe, Lagos AC says it is unfortunate that the president is saddled with a demanding health challenge, which had seen him making unending rounds to foreign hospitals for remedy. It insists that the prostrate state of the nation demands a healthy and capable president to manage, which is the reason we call that President Yar’Adua should tell the nation what is afflicting him and let us all know if he can honestly continue in office .

“While we see the president’s illness as regrettable, we believe that God knows best in the affairs of men. We wish him speedy recovery in the latest experience and hope his condition does not get worsened by the tasking demands of his office. We are sincerely affected by the president’s frail health and wish he lives longer but we are more concerned about the sorry state of the country under his watch.

“We are however compelled to posit that the president’s health crisis, as well as its handling by the presidency and the PDP, has become a huge source of embarrassment to the country. More embarrassing is that after over ten years of rulership, the PDP has not built any worthwhile health institution that will attend to the health needs of not only President Yar’Adua but other Nigerians. It is indeed a terrible indictment of the government the PDP has been running since the present Nigerian queer democracy dawned in 1999. Nothing makes the case for full disclosure of the president’s state of health more compelling than the fact that he still presides over the affairs of such a sick and troubled nation that requires the full services of a competent and healthy president.

“Beyond this proven instance of PDP failure is the fact that the president, by holding fast to the office he has no health capacity to manage, is holding down the nation as well as himself. Our constitution is clear on a case as that of President Yar’Adua when it prescribes resignation for a president who cannot fully discharge his duties on health grounds. We firmly believe that the ceaseless health afflictions of the president, which sees him making endless rounds to foreign hospitals, have made it compelling for Nigeria to test that constitutional provision or relieving the president of this burden and relieving Nigeria of the burden of incapacitated leadership. This is after a full disclosure is made of what is really afflicting our president. Trying to keep it under wraps is counter productive and portends graver danger for a country as Nigeria where restiveness and anger are at boiling points.

“But most importantly, we expect the president and his men to stop living in denials and do the needful in a situation such as we have now, which is making a full disclosure of the state of health of the president. We are afraid that the alternative is for the president is to throw in his letter of resignation. We are beginning to believe that any further day the president stays in power is a disservice, both to himself and the country. While we want him to live longer, we believe he has no option than to tell Nigerians what is afflicting him as well as aligning that with his capacity to continue ruling a challenging and badly administered country, such as Nigeria.

“We want to state that sympathy apart; Nigeria is too demanding and too complicated to be left to an incapacitated leadership. We believe that Nigeria has been run into a very deep gorge and only a strong and efficient leadership can pull it out from such valley. We are not seeing that happen at present, which is why we demand for affirmative action from the president on his state of health. We want him to do this with a view to answering the key question of whether he is capable to continue ruling Nigeria. We believe that making such a critical decision requires firmness of mind and sincerity and is devoid of the selfish sycophancy and permutations of the members of the president’s cabinet and his party”.

 

Joe Igbokwe

Publicity Secretary,

Lagos AC.

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