Kaduna — President Umaru Yar'Adua yesterday broke his silence, 50 days after he left Nigeria to Saudi Arabia where he has been undergoing medical treatment, saying he was alive, but does not know when he will return.

In an interview with the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on Monday, Yar'Adua said his condition was improving, but that his coming home will depend on his doctors.

However, Prof. Wole Soyinka, leading other human rights activists and civil society groups in a protest march to the National Assembly yesterday, said the voice in the BBC interview was not Yar'Adua's voice, but a computerized voice.

In the phone interview with BBC, Yar'Adua said: "My brothers in Nigeria, I want to inform you that I am getting better insha-Allahu. By the grace of God, any time my doctors discharge me, I will come back home to Nigeria to continue my work. I want to also thank all Nigerians for their prayers for me and for the nation

"I want to wish our team, the Super Eagles victory in the African Cup of Nation that is going on in Angola. Thank you".

In the interview which lasted for 86 seconds, Yar'Adua who spoke with great efforts and pain expressed satisfaction with the way Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan has been performing his constitutional duties.

In a separate interview earlier, Nigeria's Ambassador in Saudi Arabia, Alhaji Abdullahi Aminchi, had also told the BBC that Yar'Adua was getting "much better" and had been moved out of intensive care unit of the Jidda hospital, where he had been on admission.

He said Yar'Adua was recuperating in a section of the hospital that was usually reserved for Saudi Princes.

In their reaction, Soyinka, Femi Falana and others faulted the voice in the interview saying it was not the President's voice.

In their protest, they asked the ailing president to immediately transmit his sick leave a letter to the National Assembly to enable the latter confirm the Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan as Acting President

But a pro-Yar'Adua group, National Alliance of Democracy Defenders in a counter protest to the National Assembly yesterday warned Soyinka and others not to politicise the health of Yar'Adua.

The group alleged to have the backing of the Special Adviser to the president on National Assembly matters, Senator Mohammed Aba-Aji in a letter it delivered to the acting clerk of the National Assembly, Yomi Ogunyomi, insisted that Soyinka and his followers should rather pray for the speedy recovery of the president.

The letter signed by the national coordinator of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) youths, Ikenga Ugo Imo Chinyere however expressed happiness that the president had spoken on BBC.

But Soyinka in the historical rally said the President's continued absence from the country was beginning to take its toll on the fortunes of the country.

He said the rally was more than Yar'Adua's absence, but to protest over constitutional breaches and the perpetuation of corruption in the country.

He said it was not enough for Yar'Adua to recover because "if he miraculously recovers from his illness and returns to the country, he would still be confronted with the issues being raised by Nigerians.

"I was informed that President Yar'Adua had spoken to the BBC, but my response was this, that the issues are not simply about Yar'Adua's absence from the country. The issues are numerous to state here.

He said the issues bordered on the forging of the President's signature appended on a bill, the ongoing pilfering of billions of naira and the reinstatement of Zachari Biu, the torture lord and the lackadaisical attitude of the Vice President, who had failed to discharge even the minimal responsibility of the Presidency.

He said: "The nation has been taken to ransom; the nation has been despised and treated with contempt. We've been treated as colonials, colonised all over, this time, by what we call internal colonialism.

"We are all dignified beings who deserve to know the truth at all times about our method of governance. We are also qualified to say ... when we believe that those who are "elected leaders" of this nation, when we feel that they are dragging their feet deliberately over critically issues that concern us, then of course the people will stop and take to the streets. This is normal in any democracy.

"And if by miracle, and believe me, I do really wish this might happen, if by miracle the missing President will appear among us, hale and hearty, he will be confronted by the same charges that we are levelling against the government today.

"And he will be told to use the miraculous recovery and his new found energy to turn this nation around for the remainder of his tenure. There is so much misleading, there is so much mis-governance, we find double, triple, quadruple and multiple standards in relation to those who supposed to be citizens of this country. We are sick and tired of extra-judicial killings, these things are too numerous to state here. This is just the first in a series of demonstrations," he added.

He warned that the rallies would continue in other cities of the country to sensitise Nigerians to resist the conspiracy going on within the Presidency.

President of the West African Bar Association, Femi Falana, while addressing the rally, said the President's speech on the BBC was a hoax.

He said the voice was a computerised and synchronised voice of the President and was far from the voice he was familiar with.

He said: "Enough of poverty in the midst of plenty, enough of poverty, enough of the tag of terrorism; enough of absentee Presidency, enough of election malpractice, enough of the collapse of infrastructure.

"Today we are sounding a wakeup call to our people. We want to show them that we have not been conquered. We are a free people, we fought for the rickety democracy in town and we are prepared to ensure that anti-democratic forces in the Presidency, in the National Assembly and the PDP do not derail the democratic process.

"Those who say that Yar'Adua can govern from anywhere are talking rubbish. When Governor Ladoja was impeached by the Lamidi Adedibu gang of thugs, in a hotel in Ibadan , the Supreme Court of Nigeria held that it was illegal to convene and hold the sitting of a House of Assembly in any other place other than the House of Assembly.

"Therefore, to purport or claim that the President of Nigeria signed a law in an unknown hospital is illegal under our law.

"This morning they claimed that the President spoke on the BBC in a very wobbling voice, but I am saying here that the voice of the President I am very familiar with is not the voice on the BBC. What happened this morning was a charade, computerised voice of our President. We are therefore challenging him and his spin doctors to address us on the television. We want a live telecast.

"We pray that he does not die, but we are saying that he has become incapacitated to govern Nigeria. The Constitution does not provide for a President ruling us from a sick bed, in an undisclosed hospital; please enough of the insult."

Also addressing the rally, Dr. Tunde Bakare of the Latter Rain Assembly, called on Yar'Adua to quit.

Bakare said: "All Nigerians must rise up to drive sense into the senseless cabal and their human agents holding Nigeria to ransom. Some days ago, Jonathan said nobody was in charge of Nigeria; he said God is in charge of Nigeria; But God does not sponsor a flop. He said so that we will not have anyone to hold accountable. That is the mess we are in.

"We are marching to that institution that is supposed to make good laws for the governance of our nation and we are going with one voice from the east, west, north and south of our nation that enough is enough. Even if this institution does not function, let us respect the constitution and let us have an acting president until Umaru is declared dead or otherwise. We don't know his state right now, whether he is alive or dead."

Bakare said the Presidency was not a birthright of Yar'Adua nor a hereditary title, but a constitutional institution.

He said the rally was not for Jonathan, but for the good governance of Nigeria, adding that the demand was for Section 145 of the Constitution to be obeyed.

Former Minority Leader at the House of Representatives, Hon. Farouk Adamu Aliyu, at the rally called on Nigerians to reject the conspiracy of a few privileged people around the corridors of power.

He said the rally was not connected to any religious, political or tribal sentiments, but committed to the prosperity of Nigeria.

He accused the National Assembly of the conspiracy of silence, adding that its members were only comfortable with their penchant for making easy money.

Other speakers, such as Mrs. Ayo Obe, Hajia Najatu Mohammed, Mrs. Oke Odumakin, Obafrmi Ojudu, Osita Okechukwu and Pastor Sara Omakwu, called on the National Assembly and the Federal Executive Council to respect Section 145 of the Constitution.

Meanwhile, the Action Congress (AC) has described President Yar'Adua's interview with the BBC, as the latest example of the contempt which Nigerians leaders have for their people.

In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party wondered why President Yar'Adua, who has been away for 50 days, will choose to address his compatriots through a foreign medium.

AC recalled urging the President to speak to Nigerians through the NTA or Radio Nigeria, if he does not want to do so via a dated video format.

"It is unconscionable and an indication of total disregards for Nigerians the fact that their President chose a foreign medium to address them at such a critical time like this. Will the British Prime Minister address his people through Radio Nigeria or NTA?

"This vestige of colonial mentality - a streak that is common with African leaders - must stop forthwith. It belittles our people and sells us cheaply," the party said, recalling that the President also chose a foreign newspaper - Financial Times - to break his silence on his state of health shortly after assuming office.

AC slammed the President's information managers for allowing such a misstep by the leader of Africa's most populous and highly influential nation, and renewed its call on President Yar'Adua to address Nigerians on his state of health.

"Apparently, the BBC interview was intended by President Yar'Adua to address foreigners. Now, the President must speak to his own people, Nigerians, through any of the national broadcast stations, the News Agency of Nigeria or local newspapers. Anything short of that is totally unacceptable," the party said.