Lagos — Dora Akunyili was almost passing for a strong pro-establishment personality with her rebranding message until last week when she surprised her fellow members of the Federal Cabinet, and the entire nation. It was reported that she passed a memo round FEC members asking them to discuss Yar'Adua's prolonged absence and seek the possibility of allowing Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan step in.

"Yar'Adua loyalists shouted her down and told her the memo should have been circulated before the meeting if she wanted it discussed," a source said, and added that "some ministers, who could not speak openly murmured that the Farouk AbdulMutallab memo was discussed and acted upon the same day it was presented to council, so why should Yar'Adua's case be different?"

Akunyili's memo was allegedly withdrawn from members of the cabinet after the meeting. Regardless, the memo, according to political commentators, effectively ends what was a united front of the Presidency against public storm, and it represents the beginning of the government defiance of the masses' position on Yar'Adua's long absence.

This became more evident with the patience demonstrated by the Senate who insisted on its demand for vacation letter from the President and moreso the action of the House of Representatives who have commenced reading of amendments to the troublesome Section 145 of the Constitution. In the whirl of heady activities last week, the President's Assistant on NASS matters, described the SGF with uncomplimentary adjectives. These, some Nigerians said, were signs that the Pro-Yar'Adua group would not hold out much longer.

It was rumoured that the reaction of the Pro-Yar'Adua ministers to Akunyili's memo created division in the cabinet which more than two weeks ago got so much flak from critics for declaring that President Umaru Yar'Adua was still fit to rule.

Urgent meetings were being held in Abuja last week by different caucuses of Federal ministers in preparation for this week's meeting of the Federal Executive Council when Akunyili's controversial memo comes up again for discussion.

The memo, which she introduced at the closing stages of last Wednesday's FEC meeting, urged her colleagues to revisit their earlier stance and urge the ailing President Umaru Yar'adua to transmit a medical vacation letter to the National Assembly so that Vice President Goodluck Jonathan can become the acting President.

It was gathered that a meeting was held soon after by Education Minister, Sam Egwu, Federal Capital Territory Minister, Muhamed Adamu Aliero, Interior Minister, Shettima Mustapha, Special Duties Minister Senator Ibrahim Kazaure and Information Minister of State, Ikra Aliyu Bilbis, among others, to plan a reaction to Akunyili's memo when it is re-presented this week.

The Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) commended her for her display of courage.

CNPP said: "We welcome the message of hope from Professor Dora Akunyili; in a sordid scenario where our judiciary has been hopelessly compromised and our National Assembly turned into a trade centre."

The opposition political parties also condemned any plot to sideline her as a member of the EXCOF, as she had not committed any crime by her action.

In a statement signed by its spokesman, Osita Okechukwu, the group said:

"The truth of the matter is that no amount of orchestra of deception or Kangaroo court judgments can cover the truism that there is no Commander-in-Chief; it is clear at the Federal Executive Council meeting that the seat of the president is conspicuously vacant and the vice-president cannot truly act without swearing-in protocol.

"The Federal Executive Council giving their mandate as enshrined in Section 144 of the Constitution has enormous influence to persuade the president to avail himself of Section 145, failing which they can invoke Section 144. Professor Akunyili to the best of our knowledge did not call for outright resignation of Mr President; but like most patriots is still on the common ground and safety net, which Section 145 represents.

"We cannot locate her crime for humbly requesting her colleagues in FEC to act now in the best interest of the president and the nation; pointing out that their tepid position of abandoning their constitutional mandate, clearly stipulated in the 1999 Constitution is not only dishonourable but embarrassing."

President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's Special Adviser on National Assembly Matters, Mohammed Abba-Aji, assured lawmakers last week that the President would respect the Senate's resolution urging him to send a letter asking for a medical vacation. Surprisingly, Abba-Aji also told journalists at the National Assembly that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Yayale Ahmed, was "confused" and "mixing up his facts."

Yayale had told the Senate in a closed session last month that the President actually sent a letter to the National Assembly regarding that vacation.

Speaking to media correspondents after meeting with the Senators, Abba-Aji said:

"We just have a very fruitful chat with the distinguished senators in a closed session, we discussed the issue of the letter which has generated a lot of controversies as you all know and you know that many people thought that the president gave a letter when he was leaving the country for Saudi Arabia and that I am still sitting on the letter. That was not true. There was nothing like that. There has never been a time when the President was leaving the country and he transmitted a letter but there was effort to transmit a letter and that was in January of 2009 if you remember the president went on leave. And there was a letter that the president was in the process of transmitting when Senator Mamman Ali, the then governor of Yobe State died, just a day if you remember, following the commencement of the leave. The President started his leave on the 26 and the following day Senator Mamman Ali the governor of Yobe State died."

"So because of the death, the president shelved his holiday travel plans. So now that he has shelved his travel plans if you remember and aside from the fact that he attended Senator Mamman Ali's funeral in Yobe which was a day's trip, he did not leave Abuja even for one minute. So because of that the letter was withdrawn. Yes indeed the letter that was drafted and written at that time had only to do with the vacation of 2009 and the death of Senator Mamman Ali changed the travel arrangements of Mr. President. The letter was withdrawn before it could get to the Legislature. But it is not true that during the time the President has travelled to Saudi Arabia there was any letter transmitted. It is not true."

"The SGF got his date wrong and the purposes of the letter wrong. The letter which remains the only one since Yar'Adua became president was that of January 2009 and if you remember the SGF was saying that the President transmitted a letter when he was going to Saudi Arabia. He did not. Whether the SGF is capable of getting his date mixed up he can confirm that himself. When he checks his copies of that letter it will still read January 2009 and when he does that he will be sure that he has confused his date."

In the bill which passed second reading on the floor of the House last week, the lower chamber of NASS sought far reaching amendments in the language and meaning of Section 145.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Working Committee (NWC) has failed to make the members in the upper legislative chamber soft pedal on their insistence, and it would seem there is nothing to expect but a storm if the senates' ultimatum ends without a letter from the ailing President. And if the letter comes, then Jonathan steps in