Dora Akunyili's "shock and awe" memo: Yar'Adua's kitchen cabinet faces tough week ahead

Members of Yar’Adua’s kitchen cabinet are disoriented over the shock memo presented to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) yesterday by Information Minister Dora Akunyili asking Yar’Adua to present a letter of vacation to the Senate as required by section 145 of Nigeria’s 1999 constitution. But aides and kitchen cabinet members loyal to ailing Yar’Adua are now strategizing on how to react to the memo, which we understand she will represent at the FEC's meeting next Wednesday. Already, a core member of t Yar'dua's loyalists, Nigeria's notoriously corrupt Attorney General, Michael Aondoakaa has called on Mrs. Akuyili to resign from the cabinet. Saharareporters sources say the kitchen cabinet has reactivated the option of calling in the military to take over power, in preference to handing power over to Goodluck Jonathan, Yar’Adua’s deputy. It is now known that Akunyili’s five-page memo, which she first circulated yesterday at the FEC meeting, has now been formally submitted by the minister, who is insisting that the FEC change its earlier position that Yar’Adua was fit to continue in office and therefore does not need to hand over power to his deputy. According to a minister who did not wish to be named, after Mrs. Akunyili presented her circular to the FEC yesterday, Yar’Adua's loyalists led by the Minister of Agriculture, Sayyad Abba Ruma, shouted her down, but Akunyili stood her ground and insisted that the memo be discussed. Things reportedly got out of hand as a majority of the ministers said she had not properly presented the document to the body through the office of the Secretary to the Federal Government, Ahmed Yayale. Sensing that the memo might be sabotaged, Akunyili agreed to withdraw the circular and went out of the council chamber to call on one of her aides to present it as a memo. She succeeded in submitting it to the FEC before the meeting was over. She is insisting that the memo be discussed next week and our sources confirm it is now part of the agenda for next week’s FEC meeting. Her memo specifically asked the cabinet to rescind its 3 December 2009 declaration that the President is not incapacitated.

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?

Arewa backs power transfer to Jonathan

The Arewa Consultative Forum, the foremost northern socio-political group, on Sunday accused members of the Executive Council of the Federation of lying to Nigerians when they announced last Wednesday that President Umaru Musa Yar'adua was fit to continue in office.

In a press statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Anthony N.Z. Sani, the Arewa Forum described the action of the ministers as, "a deliberate attempt to foist falsehood on the Nigerian people".

The group said the ministers' resolution, "is aimed at playing down the reality of President Yar'Adua being either on vacation or incapacitated, considering the obvious fact that the President has been away from his duty post for more than two months now.

This kind of resolution by the Council calls into question our leaders' commitment and adherence to constitutional governance, to the peaceful unity of the nation and to Nigeria's image in the comity of nations," the group said.

While it only had harsh words for the Executive Council, the group expressed support for the position of Nigeria's former leaders which canvassed that Mr. Yar'Adua should handover to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan.

"The Arewa Consultative Forum commends the Eminent Elders Group (as symbolised by former President/Heads of State and elder Statesmen) in lending its weight to the voice of those who have been saying that the National Assembly should pressure President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua to transmit a letter to its leadership to the effect that he is on vacation, or he is hospitalised, in line with Section 145 of the Constitution. This would be in the interest of constitutional democracy and in the in the interest of the nation and its economy."

FEC ruled Yar'Adua "capable of continuing his functions," says Aondoakaa

Almost a week after a Federal High Court judge directed Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council to give a concrete affirmation that Nigeria’s ailing leader, Umaru Yar’adua was capable of performing his functions as “President”, his Attorney General, Michael Aondoakaa, this afternoon organized a bizarre and combative press briefing where he claimed that the cabinet has confirmed the bedridden Yar’Adua is in no way incapacitated, and is passed “fit” to continue as president. The AGF provided no evidence to the horde of journalists who asked him questions about how he and members of the FEC arrived at the decision. Mr. Aondoakaa merely stuck to the refrain that Yar’Adua was capable of performing his functions as president. Yar’Adua was hurriedly evacuated from Nigeria on November 23, 2009, after his health failed considerably. Since his departure, no one has seen him in person except, reportedly, his wife and two close aides. Before his departure, Yar’Adua characteristically did not hand over power to his deputy, Goodluck Jonathan, as mandated by the constitution.