The situation in Nigeria is as amusing as it is annoying. It shows the extent of rot in leadership in a country with limitless possibilities but unfortunate to be blessed with the worst crop of leaders anywhere in the world. Few days after the budget imbroglio over the venue for the presentation of the 2009 Federal Budget, the Presidential Spokesman, Segun Adeniyi announced that the president was due for medical check up in Saudi Arabia.
Few days thereafter the nation was informed that the president is critically ill - He was said to be suffering from a heart condition known as acute pericarditis, (an inflammatory condition of the coverings of the heart).
The issue for most Nigerian’s is not that the president is sick. After all, he has always been. Who does not remember the now famous “Umoru, they say you are dead. Are you dead?” campaign call of former president Obasanjo or the fact that since assumption of office the president has spent 59 days outside the country on sundry medical treatments. How about his disappearance from the 27th of August to the 6th of September 2008, or the January 26 to February 8, 2009 leave inside Nigeria. It is no secret that the president has medical challenges but what baffles most right-thinking people (except Nigerian political office holders), is the official and unofficial responses from those whom Nigerians call their leaders.
First, the president failed, refused and or neglected to hand over to the Vice President as constitutionally provided for. The National Assembly, comprising the Senate and Federal House of Representatives simply asked Nigerians to fast and pray for the president’s recovery. The Federal Executive Council told us that all was well and that SOON the president would be home – first, within two weeks and then changed that to as soon as the Saudi doctors permit.
But the most telling response was that of the Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Michael Aondoakaa who retorted thus (when questioned as to the leadership vacuum inherent in the president’s refusal to hand over to the Vice President as constitutionally provided): ‘The powers of the President are not exercised territorially. Yar’ Adua can exercise his powers anywhere in the world, on the plane, at the meeting of the United Nations or even on his sick bed, as long as he is not incapacitated by the sickness."
While the dust raised by the Attorney General is yet to settle, Nigerians have just been informed by its Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Alhaji Abdullah Aminchi that the president is ‘sound and fit’, and “He is recuperating in a royal suite attached to the hospital for VIPs. He is sound and fit. He sits, eats and walks very well. He is recuperating to have enough rest before he goes back to the office,” Asked when the return might be he said that: “It is the doctors who will say when.” (Punch Newspaper of Saturday 9th January 2010 - online edition).
Ordinarily, the Ambassador’s statement would not have attracted my attention but against the background of the Attorney General’s statement and the recent act of taking the 2009 supplementary budget to Saudi Arabia for presidential assent, it does has grave implications.
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If our president has recovered to the extent that the Ambassador described him as sound and fit, why does he prefer to stay back in Saudi Arabia rather than get into the next available presidential plane home? Does he not realise that as the President and Commander–in-Chief his duties are suffering and would continue to suffer unless he comes home (Even if he is not at his desk).
The reasonable conclusion is that our president has joined the millions of Nigerians in Diaspora, given that his Justice Minister has assured him that he could be president from anywhere so long as he has not been pronounced dead medically.
It is most disturbing that while the nation is literally on fire those who claim leadership are not interested in putting it out. They are afraid that addressing the issues at stake would deprive them of the spoils of office.
Nigeria has lost its respect and presence in the comity of nations. Our president did not make it to the last General Assembly of the United Nations because our president was sick and the Vice President could not go in his stead-The Foreign Minister’s presence was rightly regarded as a joke.
The last has not been heard on the recent change of guard at the Supreme Court, because the president is ill (now sound and fit) and the Vice President could not swear in the Chief Justice because he lacks the legal capacity to do so.
The Governors, Senators, Representatives and party leaders are all carrying on as if nothing is amiss. They think that they are better off playing the ostrich with the destiny of Nigeria and Nigerians. History has a way of extracting payment even though Nigeria is no example given the prominent role that antidemocratic elements continue to play despite their known opposition to democratic reforms.
If experience were anything to go by, I doubt that the reported debate on the President’s absence due in the Federal House of Representatives would make any difference . The Senators and House Members have shown that their interest is not in accord with the interest of those whom they claim to represent. Like the recent meeting of Governors `the ruling PDP, I doubt that they would say anything new from what they have been saying in the last 48 (then 50days) days of the president’s continuous absence- NOTHING. The Senate may make it more laughable by asking Nigerians to start a 30 days fasting and prayer session for the president to accept to come back home rather than remaining sound and fit Saudi Arabia.
Many times, I weep for the type and quality of leaders that we have in Nigeria. While leaders in other countries focus on how to better the lot of their nation and people, ours are more interested in how to up the bar of treasury looting than dealing with the development challenges that Nigerians face.
If President Yar’ Adua is sound and fit let him come back and recuperate among family friends and citizens in Nigeria rather than remain in Diaspora. If the President is still ill, let us do the right thing and save Nigeria and the people of Nigeria. The nation does not belong to any one person or small group of people but to long-suffering Nigerians who are in the majority and who bear the brunt of leadership irresponsibility.
It is obvious that Nigerians need to get back to the barricades in one form or the other to redeem the nation from the grip of the present crop of irresponsible leaders.
John Onyeukwu
Sunday 09 January, 2010
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