Rumors that Umaru Yar’adua, Nigeria’s sickly “president", had died swept through Nigeria and among Nigerians abroad after a hitherto little known website, “American Chronicles,” claimed in a report that the Nigerian “leader” had passed on December 10 2009 at the King Faisal Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The report, which turned to be false, quickly spread amongst Nigerians through the Internet and phone calls. Saharareporters received numerous telephone and email inquiries as to whether we could confirm the report.
The speculation about Yar’adua’s demise came on the heels of another news report carried by Lagos-based newspaper, Next, reports from sources that told the publication that Yar’adua was “brain-dead”.
A source in government in Abuja told Saharareporters that members of Yar’adua’s cabinet could not scramble to come up with a response to the Next story yesterday because Yar’adua’s absence had paralyzed governmental operations, and many ministers had skipped out of town, some of them abroad.
Segun Adeniyi, Yar’adua’s spokesperson, had traveled to watch the African Cup of Nations in Luanda while Information Minister, Dora Akunyili, had gone to Germany “to meet with her doctors and beauticians,” according to a presidency source. Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe was away in Ghana.
Last week, Ahmed Yayale, Secretary to the Federal Government, made what a source described as a “futile trip to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to assess Yar’adua’s condition.” This source said Yayale spent five days in Jeddah, but was not allowed to see Yar’adua. Our source said that, on his return three nights ago, Yayale voiced private fears to a few confidants that he feared Yar’adua was comatose.
Yayale’s failure to see Yar’adua also further exposed the lies orchestrated by Yar’adua’s handlers that the bed-bound “president” made phone calls to numerous officials, including VP Goodluck Jonathan, House Speaker Dimeji Bankole, and Senate President David Mark. Accounts of the alleged calls were leaked to the Nigerian press by Yar’adua’s Chief Economic adviser, Tanimu Yakubu Kurfi. The hoax was part of Mr. Kurfi’s effort to convince Nigerians that “Yar’adua was now recuperating well and well on his way to work and.”
