Simon Kolawole
7 September 2008
column
Lagos — Now I don't want to add insult to injury - but I think Nigerians are becoming sick and tired of the hanky-panky surrounding the health of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua. What's this hush-hush all about? Does it diminish the status of the president to say: "Fellow Nigerians, I'm ill. I will need medical attention. I will be away for four weeks to attend to my health. Insha Allah, I will be back and better." Will such simple, straightforward approach undermine his presidency? Why must everything, even the simplest of things, be mystified by those in power in Nigeria?
To be sure, I am not one of those who want to ridicule the president because of his state of health - that would be uncharitable. We are all human and we are all at the mercy of what is beyond control. Any person born of a woman can take ill at any point in time. No human being can claim to have a formula to make a mortal immortal, so we need to get that point clear. To laugh at Yar'Adua's medical challenges or even deride him on that basis is, to my mind, inhuman. The president, as Azu Ishiekwene wrote in Punch last week, is only human after all. That he is president does not mean he has been elevated above sickness.
However, the secrecy with which Yar'Adua has been treating his illness - I'm assuming he is ill since he has refused to open up to us - has created room for the germination of all species of rumours. Some say he has kidney problems; many say it's a skin disease; others even suggest some unprintable things. The only industry that is working at full capacity in Nigeria today, in spite of our power problems, is the rumour industry. Last Sunday alone, I got over 200 calls and text messages from anxious Nigerians who wanted to confirm if the president was dead. My reply was simple: the president is a Muslim; if he dies he will be buried same day; he is not Ooni of Ife or Alaafin of Oyo on whom kingmakers will have to consult some ancestors before making an announcement.
While I fail to understand why some human beings will just sit down and assemble some fantastic rumours about the president (some even said they heard about his death on CNN, the usual suspect), I do not completely blame the rumour distributors and retailers. Since he assumed office on May 29, 2007, Yar'Adua has perfected a way of making the simplest of things look very difficult, in the process foot-dragging, dilly-dallying and flip-flopping. You can see these trademarks in almost every decision he has taken.
From the day Obasanjo handpicked him as his successor, rumours have been making the rounds about Yar'Adua. There will always be rumours, of course, but rumour management is difficult when authentic information is not even available. In the heat of the presidential campaign last year, Yar'Adua took off to Germany, obviously as a result of a health crisis. Then rumours started going round that the man was dead. Obasanjo had to call him on phone, live on NTA, asking: "Umoru (Umaru), is it true you are dead?" We were later told that the president had catarrh and went to Germany to see his doctors. Ridiculous! He travelled all the way to Germany to treat catarrh? Ridiculous!
Early this year, he travelled to Germany again, this time around to treat "an allergy". We were told he reacted to some drugs he used to treat an ailment (catarrh again?) and had to travel to Europe to get the remedy. This time around, we were told he travelled to Saudi Arabia for Umrah (lesser hajj) during which he took ill. Rumours started going round that he actually went for medical attention, that Umrah was just a decoy. He was to return after three days, but he spent well over two weeks there. His trip to Brazil was cancelled. The scheduled decoration of newly promoted service chiefs could not hold. State matters hung in the balance. Government activities were paralysed. Yet we were expected to believe that all was well! The man was only intensifying his prayers for Nigeria in the Holy Land, we were made to believe.
Obviously, even his ministers did not know what was happening. They were just talking out of necessity. Information Minister John Odey kept saying the man was "hale and hearty". The good, old Ojo Maduekwe, Foreign Affairs Minister, was at his best articulating some theories about "cancellation" and "adjustments" of state visits. You cannot beat Maduekwe in this game - although he may have finally met his match with the way the president is putting a lie to this.
We were being told regularly that the president was "hale and hearty" until the newspapers got tired and started making independent enquiries. Then as authentic rumours started gushing out, the ministers started toning down their boisterous pronouncements. Finally, Odey, while still insisting the president was "hale and hearty", concurred with the press that the president used the Umrah to do a "routine" check-up. I pity Odey - he obviously was as much in the dark as the rest of us. It is one of the elements of running a "hush-hush" presidency where only a privileged few know the whereabouts of the President who is Head of State, Head of Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
Compare and contrast with the situation of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida as military president in 1986. He openly announced that he had Radiculopathy, thereby winning public sympathy. He said he was going to France for treatment. He was away from office for four weeks. He came back in good condition. That did not diminish his status as our ruler. No matter the title we are called, we are all human. We all yawn, sleep, go to toilet and do so many other things that I cannot list here. To be ill is to be human. There is no fetish or mystery about that.
I will advise the president and his advisers that they should come clean. It is not too late. They have to realise that Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is President of the largest black nation on earth. He is president of 140 million Nigerians. He is not just husband of Turai. I don't mean any offence, but it has to be said that Yar'Adua is not Governor of Katsina State any more, neither should we think he is a council chairman. He is the President of the Giant of Africa. It is absolutely wrong for him and his advisers to ignore the anxieties and feelings of Nigerians and carry on as if we don't matter in this matter. The attitude, to me, seems to be: "My health is my personal business. The rest of you can go to hell!" This is most unfortunate.
May I add, finally, that the fact that the president has medical challenges does not mean he cannot govern Nigeria. Space will not permit me to name presidents who have done very well in spite of their infirmities. Some presidents have ruled their countries on wheelchair, some have undergone surgeries while in power, and some have had to manage diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer and such like. Even though I am not a fan or an admirer of Yar'Adua, I can only wish him well and pray for quick recovery - assuming, once again, that he is ill, since he has decided to keep sealed lips over his condition.
Weep Not for Nuhu Ribadu
Isn't it time the Nigerian public began to show us, journalists, some respect - no matter how little? It's very easy to focus on our weaknesses and declare us as no-good, but I've been feeling good of recent. For instance, most of what we wrote about the anti-corruption "policy" of this government turned out to be true. We said the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, was going to be removed through a "routine" posting to Kuru to undergo a senior officers' course. It happened. We said there was a plot to demote Ribadu from Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) as part of the revenge mission of the Very Important Politicians (VIPs). Has it happened or not?
Now, after the initial "general demotion", some of the affected officers have been quietly selected for promotion - with Ribadu carefully omitted. Any surprise in that? We can argue from now till a new millennium whether or not Ribadu deserves to be an AIG - but I'm sure that is not the real issue. Promotions, anywhere in the world, could be merit-based or routine. I don't know how many police officers in Nigeria can claim to be more qualified than Ribadu to be promoted based purely on merit, performance and service to fatherland.
Nobody should weep for Ribadu. I have said that again and again. We, ordinary Nigerians, are the real victims of this nonsense. Nigeria has, in the last one year, become a laughing stock around the world. I travel a bit and I know the questions I get asked by decision makers and opinion leaders in other countries. Everybody is laughing at us. Some of the set-backs now bedevilling our financial system are traceable to all the politicking going on in the anti-graft fight and policy reversals. Many foreign investors are either leaving Nigeria or shying away from the country - and in this age of globalisation, the impact will always be felt. Cry, my beloved country!
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