"Conscience is an open wound; only truth can heal it." This fundamental nugget of wisdom from Sheikh Uthman Dan Fodio was what came to mind when I watched the latest twist in Nigeria's politico-farcical comedy called 'Getting Rid of Yar'adua'.

The thrilling twist I am referring to is the effort last week, by Information and Communications Minister Prof. Dora Akunyili, to withdraw from being party to the overwhelming declaration of the Federal Executive Council that Yar'adua though absent and officially unheard from for over 70 days is fit to rule the country. Although her memo could not be taken according to reports, what is said to be the substance of it got into the newspapers and became public property. And what a twist! Even after suffering the set back in having the memo presented in council, Dora Akunyili publicly owned up to the matter and in bold remarks said taking the stand had lifted a heavy heart burden. Overnight, Dora Akunyili rebranded to heroine for some and villain for others. Tempers flew at FEC circles with a livid Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa resorting tell-tell tales in open intimidation of his colleague.

Even as the Senate rose yesterday with a resolution that could break the logjam, it is clear that Dora Akunyili turned on the screw on us all.

It was coming. As Information Minister, she took it upon herself to rebrand Nigeria to say that this country, with all that is bad about it, is a good country. She was going uphill and backfiring, having to justify developments she knew Nigerians did not believe, and much less, appreciate. Nigeria confronts you each passing day with shameful contradictions.

Here is a rich country whose people are deplorably poor, whose world class academia waste and only masquerade about National Matters, whose Legislature costs the treasury N1.3 trillion per annum, and for doing what, whose constitution can not be interpreted over a simple matter without the endless jawboning, a country which tells America it has no terrorists, only to charge over a hundred to an Abuja court? You can not defend such a country without lying. And I think with time, Professor Akunyili who had endeared herself to Nigerians with her diligence as head of NAFDAC became less credible as Information and communications minister and in fact, eventually represented the awkwardness of the Nigerian nation. On a few projects and policies, Dora did not tell the nation the truth as she knew it. In the Information ministry, one saw Dora battling with her conscience as the devils in the details of Government Policy she was promoting and defending stared her in the face.

But her sincerity is cast in great doubt when memories return on how she made Minister in the cabinet, allegedly genuflecting to Lamidi Adedibu, and how she went along with her colleagues on the President's fitness, only to jump ship at this crucial time.

With the latest happening, methinks Dora had found it necessary to seek healing for her mortally wounded conscience. If the President is indeed incapacitated, it is not in the national interest for a small cabal to hide the fact and run the country under Yar'adua's ghost. That would be a heinous crime. And to know so and acquiesce, makes you an accomplice. It is also most unfair to "simple man" Goodluck Jonathan, who under the circumstances has performed remarkably well so far, with glaring indifference to these trying and testing times, and without betraying any inkling as to the thoughts in his mind about so much going on around him. Or did Dora know more about the president's health than her colleagues at the Council?

Many Nigerians have been quick to salute Dora Akunyili for her seeming courage. Many of the men in the FEC, they say, think like her, but dared not act like she has done. Ask whose body language it was that Dora was depicting, they point fingers at a man in Ota. Time will reveal her coaxers, team players and of course, what she hoped to achieve by this backstabbing.

In this thrilling farce and sometimes comedy, we have seen the many different groups that gave counsel on the way forward to the National Assembly, and how each group had one of the many "best" ways this impasse could be resolved? Sad that resolving the issue around the President's absence due to illness was not as straight forward as should have been, and took all the rigmarole to finally see what the constitution provided for this eventuality.

My stand on the sickness of Yar'adua (sounds like the title of Cyprian Ekwensi novel) has been that going by our constitution, he did nothing wrong in falling sick. He also did nothing wrong in not transmitting to the National Assembly that he was going abroad for treatment. There is nothing to be gained from ceremoniously accepting that VP Jonathan was indeed Acting President. He is acting President! Even for the sake of the nation, even after considering the national interest, I felt that President Yar'adua deserved our prayers for recovery until the will of God is fulfilled that he recovers or proceeds to return to his creator. There is no giving up on the awesome power of God to heal the man one morning.

But Akunyili's volte face and her memo has opened eyes to clearly dangerous realities, and for the first time, the pro Yar'adua group find themselves openly vulnerable. It would seem all Democracy Institutions in the country, including the Governors of the 36 states have supported a Goodluck Jonathan Acting Presidency - the Governors, only after Prof. Dora Akunyili!

It is interesting that Dora harped on the absence of presidential powers as they affect Government action on many events including the ominous Jos Crisis which, for instance. required a Presidential appraisal and direction, and it is now clear that Goodluck Jonathan may have been ignored or bypassed but saw to the militarization of the crisis.

This type of situation and many others have worrisome implications and Dora Akunyili must have buckled under the pain and pressure on her conscience and the uncertainties of the future when we shall know the truth of all the events of the past 70 days and Dora sees a need to protect how she would be recorded in history's inevitable inquest. She has had to tell first herself the truth, then her colleagues in the Federal Executive Council that enough is enough. No matter how strongly you feel about it, it must hurt for Yar'adua to lie prostrate and sick listening to the debate as to whether he should be written off or not. Many in his position would as soon as possible, sign such a letter to the National Assembly, as is being demanded now and get on with life. Majority of Nigerians must have drawn conclusions by now that in deed Yar'adua is incapacitated, reasoning that he must be, to fail to even attempt to disabuse the minds of those who wish to write him off through one of many ways?

The collapse of this house should be blamed on Yar'adua's handlers and the suspicious secrecy with which they handled the nature of the President's illness. The people needed to know the nature of the ailment and its extent, and would have shown sympathy and understanding. The secrecy belittled nationalist intents if any and underlined only clandestine motives.

This week's Federal Executive Council meeting if it holds would have an interesting outcome. There are hints of the sack of Dora, but by whose signature? The body language I am reading suggests to me that the Federal Executive Council would split into two, with the South-South members rallying behind a Yar'adua "ouster", joined by the elderly Northerners on the cabinet, especially with the Governor's new stand on the impasse. The Yar'adua inner circle would be on their own and unless they manage a dramatic entry into the Executive Council Chambers by President Yar'adua, we may be witnesses to the beginning of the Jonathan Presidency.