Ben Agande
28 August 2008
THE Federal Government moved, yesterday, to douse public anxiety over the state of health of President Umaru Yar'Adua following his failure to return home from Saudi Arabia where he is performing the lesser hajj, and said there was nothing unusual about the delay in his return.
While Information and Communication Minister, Mr. John Odey, described hajj as a personal religious obligation that should not be in the public domain, his Foreign Affairs counterpart, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, said the delay in the president's return had nothing to do with his health.
The two ministers spoke to State House correspondents separately at the end of yesterday's Federal Executive Council meeting.
The president who left Nigeria for Saudi Arabia on pilgrimage a week ago was scheduled to commence a three-day state visit to Brazil yesterday. The visit has, however, been cancelled. No official reason was given.
Chief Maduekwe who confirmed the "adjustment" of the Brazil trip, however, said there was nothing unusual about it. According to him, his presence at yesterday's Federal Executive Council meeting was because of state matters.
He said the "adjustment" was as a result of "development that needed our immediate attention. There is nothing unusual about it. It was deferred. Nothing unusual about it. It happens several times.
"Governance is dynamic. You cannot be a prisoner to any particular programme. Brazil is an important country to Nigeria ...Very important and we intend to keep that. Our respect for them remains very strong and our inability to come on this trip does not in any way affect our respect for them and they are looking forward to when the president will make the trip," he said.
Asked whether the cancellation had anything to do with the president's health, Chief Maduekwe emphatically said "no" and left.
On his part, the Minister of Information and Communications, Mr Odey, who addressed State House correspondents after yesterday's FEC meeting said the President was still in Saudi Arabia on the lesser hajj and would return to the country "any time from now."
"To the best of my knowledge, the president is still performing the lesser hajj," he said, stressing that the hajj was a religious obligation and personal to the person making it which should not be a subject of public discourse.
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