Reports — There was anxiety yesterday over the state of health of President Umaru Yar'Adua who is currently undergoing medical treatment in Saudi Arabia.

There were reports yesterday that the President's health may have deteriorated, prompting many Nigerians to besiege Aso Villa.

Daily Champion gathered that the internet was also abuzz with the reports. Though there was no official reaction to this, a reliable source however said the President was hale and hearty and was undergoing the normal medical check up which Nigerians were informed about earlier.

"There is no need for this anxiety, because the President is okay. He consulted his doctors on Tuesday and it is his normal medical routine. There is definitely no basis for this hysteria each time the President travels abroad," our source said.

This is coming on the heels of the insistence last Tuesday by the Senate there was nothing yet in the health of President Yar'Adua that suggests that he has become incapacitated to perform his official functions?

The Upper House also dismissed insinuations that its latest face-off with the House of Representatives over venue for the presentation of the 2010 budget was stage managed to save the President the trouble of standing for too long to perform the constitutional ceremony last Thursday.

Chairman of the Senate committee on information and media, Senator Ayogu Eze had stated that there was nothing strange with the President going abroad for medical check.

The Senate said the President like any other Nigerian can take ill any time and may decide to go abroad for treatment. Eze said there was no evidence that Yar'Adua can no longer perform his constitutional responsibilities on account of ill health. He said the Senate as an institution was not in any position to determine the health of the President or any other person.

He said: "The constitution does not empower the Senate to estimate the health of any body, because only a recognised health body can determine the state of any body's health. "There is no evidence or indication that the President is not able to perform his function on account of ill health."

The latest trip by the President would be the second time in about two months and differed from the last medical trip in August, when the State House announced several days in advance that he was going for a medical check up in Saudi Arabia and would also seize the opportunity to perform the lesser hajj, or umrah.

While last August's trip had a time frame of one week, the announcement on Monday of the President's departure did not say how many days he will spend in the Saudi kingdom. This trip is the fifth foreign medical trip since early 2007, when he was the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate. In the midst of that year's campaign, he was rushed to Germany for medical attention after he developed health problems.

He was to return to hospital in about six months and also seized the opportunity of attending the G-8 Summit in Germany to again undergo medical attention.

His third foreign medical since 2007 occurred last year, when he aborted a planned trip to Brazil and went to Saudi Arabia, supposedly to perform the umrah. He was away for two weeks and the government fell into some confusion in explaining his whereabouts, as there were no pictures of him performing the umrah.

His fourth trip, again to Saudi Arabia, was last August. It was announced in advance that he would attend the commissioning of a new university in Saudi Arabia, and the president was away for a week.