May 7, 2010
Dear All: After three years to the day less three weeks (May 29, 2007 to May 6, 2010), the presidential torch of Nigeria has now passed from late President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, 58 (August 16, 1951 - May 5, 2010) to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, 52 (November 20, 1957 - ?)
A pair of videos will make the point clearer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOaskmPtNPU&NR=1
I believe that President Yar'Adua died due to three reasons:
1. a pre-existing multi-organ-effect Chaurg-Strauss illness - with cancerous complications towards the end - that ravaged his heart, his lungs, his kidneys, his throat and his skin, even while governor of Katsina from 1999 - 2007 when, according to later revelations, he took off six months at a time;
2. the stresses and strains, even the pomp and pageantry, of the presidential position that he assumed in May 2007. The presidency of a multi-ethnic, 140-million-population nation like Nigeria with a much higher profile in Africa and the world than it really deserves from success (or lack thereof) at home is not a laughing matter.
3. his early nocturnal return on February 23, 2010 from intensive care in Saudi Arabia since November 23, 2009 simply in order to beat political machinations at home that threatened to remove him prematurely from office. His return and seriously-reduced health care turned him from a man in political hospice to one also in medical hospice.
We wish to be clear here. First, his pre-existing condition was not his fault. Secondly, there is strong possibility that since November 20019, he was not aware of his surroundings with respect to the decisions being taken around him in Saudi Arabia and in Nigeria - allegedly by his wife Turai and that proverbial "Cabal". However what Yar'Adua had firmly under his control was a decision whether or not to take on a job in 2007 for which he might not have been emotionally, mentally or physically prepared. He had a choice not to be cajoled into it by those political shysters who would sweep the rug from under his carpet when push came to shove, and who, in typical byzantine fashion, might have conveniently considered his time up for regional political calculations and done him in when he became dispensable.
It is a tragic turn of events.
Now, that the Jonathan presidency begins, Goodluck will have to decide:
1. who his Vice-President is, if he already has not done so. That individual will clearly be a Northern Muslim male individual. He should insist on deliberate hands on the matter, not a Vice-President foisted on him through byzantine political calculations.
2. how to re-prioritize his one-, two- or seven-point agenda for the nation. He really has a six-month window for quick impact, but he will go down in history well if he can institute credible electoral reforms - despite the extreme reluctance of his political party the PDP towards those - as well as begin to make a serious dent on infrastructure (power and roads), education, corruption and the Niger-Delta.
3. whether to run for the Presidency or not in 2011. In fact, his ultimate choice of the Vice-President will tip his hand on this matter, as to whether (damning his party's North-South rotation policy) he is choosing a running mate for 2011, or else, having decided not to run, he is revealing a PDP presidential candidate anointed by the Northern establishment to succeed him in 2011, or else (having decided not to run, but not really caring who succeeds him) a no-nonsense technocrat or non-politician put in place to help him make a serious impact within the next six months. He might yet decide to run in 2011 - at the urgings of both hangers-on and others who might wish to buck the system - especially now that Yar'Adua is dead. Why he would do so, with such a thin political record, with no previous fire in the belly, with the North-South rotational notion within his party, I don't know. However, I have been asked "When did political records begin to matter in becoming president of Nigeria? Suppose he has grown to love the position? Where is rotation written in our constituion?", to which I merely shook my head, fully conscious of some of the other charlatans braying for the job, and also fully aware that rotation has never meant eight years anyway.
So the President is dead! Long live the President! Good bye and Good night, President Umaru, Welcome and Good Luck, President Jonathan!
And there you have it.
A pair of videos will make the point clearer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOaskmPtNPU&NR=1
I believe that President Yar'Adua died due to three reasons:
1. a pre-existing multi-organ-effect Chaurg-Strauss illness - with cancerous complications towards the end - that ravaged his heart, his lungs, his kidneys, his throat and his skin, even while governor of Katsina from 1999 - 2007 when, according to later revelations, he took off six months at a time;
2. the stresses and strains, even the pomp and pageantry, of the presidential position that he assumed in May 2007. The presidency of a multi-ethnic, 140-million-population nation like Nigeria with a much higher profile in Africa and the world than it really deserves from success (or lack thereof) at home is not a laughing matter.
3. his early nocturnal return on February 23, 2010 from intensive care in Saudi Arabia since November 23, 2009 simply in order to beat political machinations at home that threatened to remove him prematurely from office. His return and seriously-reduced health care turned him from a man in political hospice to one also in medical hospice.
We wish to be clear here. First, his pre-existing condition was not his fault. Secondly, there is strong possibility that since November 20019, he was not aware of his surroundings with respect to the decisions being taken around him in Saudi Arabia and in Nigeria - allegedly by his wife Turai and that proverbial "Cabal". However what Yar'Adua had firmly under his control was a decision whether or not to take on a job in 2007 for which he might not have been emotionally, mentally or physically prepared. He had a choice not to be cajoled into it by those political shysters who would sweep the rug from under his carpet when push came to shove, and who, in typical byzantine fashion, might have conveniently considered his time up for regional political calculations and done him in when he became dispensable.
It is a tragic turn of events.
Now, that the Jonathan presidency begins, Goodluck will have to decide:
1. who his Vice-President is, if he already has not done so. That individual will clearly be a Northern Muslim male individual. He should insist on deliberate hands on the matter, not a Vice-President foisted on him through byzantine political calculations.
2. how to re-prioritize his one-, two- or seven-point agenda for the nation. He really has a six-month window for quick impact, but he will go down in history well if he can institute credible electoral reforms - despite the extreme reluctance of his political party the PDP towards those - as well as begin to make a serious dent on infrastructure (power and roads), education, corruption and the Niger-Delta.
3. whether to run for the Presidency or not in 2011. In fact, his ultimate choice of the Vice-President will tip his hand on this matter, as to whether (damning his party's North-South rotation policy) he is choosing a running mate for 2011, or else, having decided not to run, he is revealing a PDP presidential candidate anointed by the Northern establishment to succeed him in 2011, or else (having decided not to run, but not really caring who succeeds him) a no-nonsense technocrat or non-politician put in place to help him make a serious impact within the next six months. He might yet decide to run in 2011 - at the urgings of both hangers-on and others who might wish to buck the system - especially now that Yar'Adua is dead. Why he would do so, with such a thin political record, with no previous fire in the belly, with the North-South rotational notion within his party, I don't know. However, I have been asked "When did political records begin to matter in becoming president of Nigeria? Suppose he has grown to love the position? Where is rotation written in our constituion?", to which I merely shook my head, fully conscious of some of the other charlatans braying for the job, and also fully aware that rotation has never meant eight years anyway.
So the President is dead! Long live the President! Good bye and Good night, President Umaru, Welcome and Good Luck, President Jonathan!
And there you have it.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });