8 September 2008
editorial
President Umaru Yar'adua returned to the country Saturday night from a trip to Saudi Arabia, ostensibly to perform the lesser Hajj but, indeed has more to do with seeking medical treatment.
For some three weeks, speculation was rife not only about the where about of the president but also his state of health and for some inexplicable reasons the government preferred to keep Nigerians uninformed about it all. This in our view is a disservice to the Nigerian people whom this government has pledged to serve.
Certainly, we empathise with the president in his health predicament, as human beings we can do no less because we are all susceptible to sickness and frailties. It becomes much more poignant where a powerful and highly placed person is involved as in this case:- underscoring the fact that whether high or low we are all vulnerable to the human condition. President Yar'adua himself made this point succinctly in an interview on May29 at the anniversary of his presidency. It was the nearest he came to telling the nation that he is a stricken man, a sick president. Every sick person routinely consults with his health care provider in order to maintain his health, which was what took the president to Saudi Arabia. A fact, which unfortunately was kept from the Nigerian public thereby making his absence to seem as if the man has gone on, as they say in military parlance absence without official leave, AWOL.
The conspiracy of silence that pervaded the atmosphere while the president was away was a slap on the face of our nascent democracy as we know it, and an insult on the intelligence of the people. First, the nation was told he was in Saudi Arabia for the lesser Hajj, but as the days went by and the president did not return to attend to state duties government became mum, volunteering not a word, not even why he was not in Brazil as scheduled. Whatever snippet of information got, came from relatives of the president, who themselves as far as we can see, knew nothing. Surely, a more forthright and truthful approach whereby the reason why the president travelled out was given would have been more beneficial for everyone. As noted, since the president's disposition as a sick person has already been put out in the public domain, everyone would therefore know he travelled out on account of it. It would have saved us all the insinuations and the downright shame of a nation whose leader was nowhere to be found.
It is time government held certain commonplace democratic practices sacrosanct, including openness and total disclosures of its dealings. The people must know and have the right to know what the government is doing or not doing. And in the matter of the where about of their leader, it is of utmost necessity that they know. Keeping them in the dark, as it were, is a throwback to the period when the military held sway and impunity reigned. Even at that time, an incumbent, Ibrahim Babangida who needed medical treatment abroad, disclosed why he needed to travel. He was a powerful ruler who perhaps could go wherever he pleased without telling anyone, but even he knew, to do so would mean totally discountenancing the people over whom he was ruling. This precisely is why it is despicable for it to be happening at such a time when democracy is supposed to be in place.
Of course, the secrecy and sealed lips may have been due to concerns about the stability of the polity. But we hasten to state that the state is more imperiled with its leader away without telling the people. It has got to the point for Nigerians to demand that President Umar Yar'adua should make his medical history known, including how regularly he would need to travel abroad for treatment. Doing this would help to douse the speculations and the insinuations that attend his periodic overseas journeys. At all times, it is of utmost importance that the nation and its people are not be taken for granted.
Lastly, urgent measures should be taken to upgrade health institutions, particularly tertiary ones to make them capable of handling delicate health situations, such as as the one afflicting the president.
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