State Of The Nation: Is President Yar’adua Actually Alive Afterall?

Last week, the spin doctors of President Yar’Adua made Nigerians believe that he has substantially recovered and in good and stable condition to return to the country. But this turned out to be another hoax. Rather, there are fresh speculations and another spin that he will return this week. And this again has raised the question of the actual where about and state of health of the President. If to be alive means to be living, breathing, active, lively and energetic, then it is not out of place for concerned Nigerians to ask: Is President Yar’adua actually alive?

When a highly respected national newspaper authouritatively reported that President Yar’Adua has become an invalid as a result of a catastrophic chemically-induced brain damage he suffered from treatments he received at the Saudi hospital and that he continually goes in and out of coma, the President’s handlers merely described the report as an expression of the opposition mindset.

However, the newspaper report coupled with the Abuja protest march, and the Abuja High Court 14-day ultimatum forced the President’s handlers to stage the acting of that Saudiwood “Umooru Are Dead Part II” produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

And ever since, who else, maybe apart from his wife Turai Yar’adua, has spoken to the President? Not even his deputy, Vice President Goodluck Jonathan. Is it not curious that the President has refused to talk with anybody even his close aides? How can the President’s handlers explain this awkward situation? It has been said that if the President is actually alive and still breathing, he may likely be in a state where he cannot talk, eat and interact not to talk of coming back to govern the country. And we have to believe it since there is no alternative explanation.

Let’s look at an extract of the comments on the internet by a Nigerian US-based medical expert who actually is well informed on the gravity of the President’s ailment: “Yar’adua is now probably a shadow of himself and if by a miracle, he is able to make any decision, such decision cannot be trusted because it would be from a drug induced mind as he is most likely under chemically induced coma.

“Under chemically induced coma, he is sedated. As a result, he is not capable of making any decision. With heavy sedation, he will not be alert, oriented to time, place or person. Even if the sedation is stopped, it will take sometime for him to speak. His decision should be questioned because he will be making them under the influence of mind-altering drugs.”

So it is laughable for the Eminent Elders Group, the leadership of the National Assembly, and the wide spectrum of aggrieved opposition to continue to insist that “the only way to solve the problem of the current power vacuum at the Presidency is for the President to make his vacation formal and for the National Assembly to insist that there is a penalty for refusal to submit a letter. Which President is going to make his vacation formal- Umaru Yar’adua or who?