Lagos — By Austin Oboh, Snr Reporter, Lagos

•Jonathan •Maduekwe

It takes a little push for events in the Nigerian polity to assume a fast pace. That surely, appears the case with the issue of President Umaru Yar'Adua's current residence in the oil-rich Saudi Arabia. Since November 23 last year, the President has remained in the country due to a debilitating heart condition, described as pericarditis, a swelling in the outer covering of the heart. It was a situation for the better part of the period, virtually put the country in a quandary, because the President did not transmit a letter to the National Assembly indicating his intention to undertake the trip. This critical requirement in the Nigerian Constitution prevented his deputy, Goodluck Jonathan from taking over as Acting President.

But since the NASS passed a resolution asking Jonathan to assume power, based on an interview the President granted to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), events seem to have begun galloping at a break-neck speed, with a new turn almost daily.

The latest and perhaps the decider in the whole affair some Nigerians have described as comedy of the absurd is the trip being undertaking by the Executive Council of the Federation (EXCOF), which came from its resolution at its last meeting, Wednesday, last week. The body now made up of Jonathan as the head, ministers and other key government officials mandated a six-man team to take the trip to ascertain the true health condition of the President.

Outside that of the Forum of Governors, made up of the 36 governors in the country and those of other innocuous bodies, it would be the third official delegation after the House of Representatives and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the same purpose. They succeeded in doing none and returned home without a meaningful story. This is why some Nigerians have dismissed the latest decision of the federal cabinet as a money and time-wasting adventure.

Nonetheless, other Nigerians have expressed the view that despite the previous failures, this exercise would not fail because nobody had the right to prevent it from accomplishing the mission as doing so would definitely have grave implication, as it could be have extreme interpretations.

It would be wrong, they argued, to treat his case with levity. Now this: there has arisen another strong angle in the controversy: some eminent statesmen have given their backing to the proposed trip by the EXCOF with the caveat that it should necessarily be the last of such trips. If the present delegation fails to see the President, they said, the country would have no reason any more to keep the Presidency for him.

Trip Before The End

The EXCOF team is to consider Yar'Adua's medical condition and report back to the Council. Members of the team included Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Ahmed Yayale; Health Minister, Babatunde Oshotimehin; Agriculture and Water Resources Minister, Abba Ruma; Petroleum Resources Minister, Rilwanu Lukman; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ojo Maduekwe, and Attorney General of the Federation, Adetokunbo Kayode.

The decision of the Council to send the fact-finding mission came in response to the suggestion of Foreign Affairs Minister, Ojo Maduekwe, that the council should heed the popular call to declare Ya'Adua incapacitated. The council was torn, it was gathered, between waiting for the President's return while working under the Acting Presidency of Goodluck Jonathan or accepting Maduekwe's recommendation. The middle way position was to accept the latter after the council had ascertained that the President was truly incapacitated.

The team was to have taken off on Sunday and return on Tuesday so that it could make its findings known to the council at the next meeting slated for Wednesday (today), but by Monday it was not yet certain whether the delegation had gone. There were reports that Saudi authorities had denied landing permit to the Presidential Jet used by the team even though by Friday last week all members of the team had gotten their visas.

Speculations were rife that first lady, Turai Yar'Adua, had instructed medical doctors at the hospital where her husband is receiving treatment not to allow the council members to see him. According to general belief, if the council members are able to see the President in his current state, which is widely believed to be critical, the delegation may be forced to declare him incapacitated. Sources have claimed that this is the precise situation Turai is trying to avoid.

It has been revealed that Yar'Adua is at the moment in a military facility where he is heavily guarded. Reports claim that only three people have been able to see him: Turai, the President's ADC and Chief Security Officer.

Briefing reporters shortly after the EXCOF meeting presided over by Jonathan, Minister of Information and Communications Professor Dora Akunyili said the constitution of the committee was the "unanimous decision of the council."

She said: "Council constituted a six-man team to go to Saudi Arabia to visit Mr. President and his family. The team will also convey a formal appreciation of the country to the King of Saudi Arabia."

It was the first time that the FEC, made up exclusively of Yar'Adua-appointed ministers and advisers, agreed to take any concrete step to ascertain the ailing ruler's health status, nearly three months since he left the country to seek medical attention in Jeddah. On three previous occasions, the council merely declared that the President's absence from the country did not amount to incapacitation.

Dangerous Signals

It was reported that while members of the team were set for take-off at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, last Sunday, information came in that the Saudi Arabian aviation authorities had denied the presidential jet, which was to convey the visiting team, landing access at the Jeddah airport.

In response to the initial difficulty, some Nigerians claimed that the refusal to grant landing right may have arisen as a result of strained relationship between the two countries since Yar'Adua took up temporary stay there.

The FEC team finally left on Monday evening, but some Nigerians are predicting that the initial difficulties are signs of failure to come.

No Problem With Saudi

The members of the House of Representatives were on February 9 on a goodwill visit to ailing President Yar'Adua but returned without seeing him. According to reports, the lawmakers were denied access to the President even though it was a resolution of the House to send a five-member delegation to Saudi Arabia to carry a goodwill message to him.

The Group, which was drawn to represent the geo-political zones in the country included Babashehu Agaie, the Deputy Leader of the House; Mohammed Ali Ndume the Minority Leader; Moruf Akinderu-Fatai, Jubril Adamu, Patrick Ikheriale and Nnnena Elendu-Ukeje who was eventually dropped from the trip.

The lawmakers had hoped they would be able to see for themselves the state of health of the President and report to the House so it could determine if he was capable of carrying on with the burden of governing the nation or not.

The members of the delegation from the House of Representatives were, however, able to see Turai. A newspaper quoted a member as saying: "We saw Turai, we saw the Ambassador of Nigeria to Saudi but we were not allowed to see the President. There were so many attempts to see him but we were turned down. We were not allowed to see him. All efforts to see him proved abortive. According to them, it was not that they were trying to block us, what they were telling us was that the Saudi Government is taking care of him and that they were trying to protect him from infections.

"We were told that they were trying to get clearance for us from the Saudi authorities but it never materialised till we left for Nigeria."

Last week members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), led by Vincent Ogbulafor, were in Saudi Arabia but could not see Yar'Adua.

The man who is now being described as off-shore President is being shielded from his countrymen, in the view of commentators because he is not exposable. Some Nigerians have even said they would only believe that he is alive when they finally see him.

There are speculations that the difficulties being encountered by Nigerian delegations to Saudi resulted from instructions from Turai to the effect that they should be barred from entry into the place where her husband is kept incommunicado.

Some observers have expressed disappointment with the Saudi Government for creating difficulties for the EXCOF members despite a letter bearing a special message and sent to the Saudi King Abdulah Bin Abdulaziz ahead of the delegation. The letter was from Jonathan. The strategy was to explore the diplomatic angle to forestall a repetition of the previous experiences.

Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Muhammed Abba-Aji, had, two weeks ago, claimed that Nigerian government officials and others interested in visiting Yar'Adua in Saudi Arabia could not do so because the Saudi Arabian royal family was in charge of his protocol and security arrangement.

He had stated that the Saudi royal family's handling of the President's protocol and security arrangement was because of the fact that the section of King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Jeddah, where Yar'Adua is on admission, is the same reserved section where the King stays whenever he is receiving medical attention.

Consequently, Abba-Aji said any information from the President was passed through Yar'Adua's Chief Security Officer, Mr. Yusuf Tilde, and his Aide- de- Camp, Col. Mustapha Onoyiveta.

Abba-Aji said: "So, the security and protocol arrangements are controlled from the King's Palace in Riyadh; so it is not like a general hospital that you can walk in or walk out of. Because of this, we are communicating regularly through the ADC and the CSO and he is aware of everything that is happening in the National Assembly."

The Controversy

The trip, which critics believed was devised as an escape route to avoid setting up a medical board to investigate the President's health, had caused sharp division among members of the ESCOF. While some members believed the visit could reveal the true situation of the President's health and consequently culminate in the invocation of Section 144 of the 1999 Constitution, others were of the view that the body could declare Yar'Adua incapacitated, without going through the trouble.

The resolution to send the present team to Saudi Arabia after the failure of others generated so much heat with more people opposing the decision, and claiming the trip was a waste of tax payers' money.

The Saudi Arabian ambassador to Nigeria, Khalid Umar Abdrabuh said his country had no hand in the failure of Nigerian delegates to meet with President Umaru Yar'adua, who has been receiving treatment in Saudi Arabia since November last year. He said the Saudi authorities do not in any way interfere with who should see the President or who should not be allowed to see him. He said, "The authority to identify the visitor that could be allowed to see Yar'adua is vested with the doctors and family members attending to the President and not the Saudi Arabian authority."

National Chairman of Citizens Popular Party (CPP), Maxi Okwu, has decried the trip, saying it was a waste of time and resources. He also claimed that the trip was a strategy thought by the pro-Yar'Adua caucus in the council to buy time. He proposed instead the setting up of a five-man medical panel to go to Saudi Arabia on behalf of the Federal Government.

Hear him: "I am opposed to the trip because, because, like the previous trips, it cannot find anything. It is just a strategy by the Pro-Yar'Adua caucus to buy time. At best it's another jamboree. I consider it another jamboree by the Federal Government. It was possibly proposed in order to fulfill all righteousness. I subscribe to the suggestion made by Festus Keyamo that the Senate should have gone ahead, after the action it earlier took, to constitute a five-man medical panel, including the President's personal physician, to go to Saudi Arabia, meet the president, ascertain his health condition and report back to the Senate."

Nonetheless, National Chairman of Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), Balarabe Musa, lauded the setting up of the committee to visit Yar'Adua. He said the attempt to probe Yar'Adua's health condition was important and decisive, predicting that the delegation would expose his true health situation.

He told Daily Independent that it was a realistic way of knowing the true health position of the President as the EXCOF six-man delegation represents both the government as well as Yar'Adua's interest.

"The action of setting up this six-man member is capable of solving the impasse. In the first place he cannot deny them access as they represent both his interest and that of the government. If they cannot see him that means he is either not alive, or he is in coma, or he is incapable of comprehending anything, or he is grossly indifferent to the progress of the country."

Balarabe said that one of the ways of settling the political problem created by the absence of Yar'Adua was to ascertain the real position of his health condition as the present members have done, adding that "they will act according to the report of what they will see."

He said that the report of the team would resolve the medical solution of the President' health challenge. "There are four important ways of tackling this issue. The President should assign responsibility to the Vice President, but we have passed that stage. He could also resign, or, the third option which is the EXCOF taking this action to obtain medical report. But the fourth option is for the National Assembly to impeach him."

Musa's position was echoed by National Chairman of Progressive Action Congress (PAC), Damian Nwodo, who told Daily Independent that it was necessary for the EXCOF to visit Saudi Arabia to fulfil all righteousness. He noted that the gesture would mean that the rule of law had been followed to its logical end, but that if the council took any action without seeing the president or trying to do so, the action may suffer from allegations of impropriety or illegality.

Nwodo said: "I am of the view that there is need for the visit in order to fulfil all righteousness. It is also a means to take the rule of law to its logical end and reconcile with those who have been obstinate so that when they final are faced with full proof of the reality they can give their support to Jonathan. We know the financial implication, but what has to be done in respect of state matters have to be done, and once the right path has been taken all actions taken become acceptable. The trip by the EXCOF will enable the legitimate process of transforming Jonathan to a substantive President if it becomes necessary."

Suspicion Persists Against Jonathan

But chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party in Kaduna State and former Coordinator of the Obasanjo Campaign Organisation, Umar Gana, on Sunday accused Jonathan and some members of the EXCOF of plotting the removal of ailing President Umar Yar'Adua from office.

Gana alleged at a news conference in Kaduna that Jonathan was the arrowhead of the plot to unconstitutionally oust Yar'Adua despite the fact that he (Acting President) had since been exercising the full powers of the President.

He claimed that the composition of the six-man team was part of the grand design to forcefully unseat the President and stressed that the alleged surreptitious moves by those who wanted Yar'Adua out of office were capable of affecting the chances of the PDP in the 2011 elections.

Said he: "Why do they want to remove Yar'Adua at all cost? Why don't they allow the man to go on medical vacation? Let him handle his illness the best way he knows how. I think it will not yield any dividend if you keep on prodding the issue of Yar'Adua's sickness. Our President has been held down by illness. You are also aware of the aftermath of his illness that has culminated in a political logjam. Sending people to Saudi Arabia to visit the President is totally unnecessary. If they say they are going to greet his family and extend the warm greetings of the Nigerian people, that will be okay. But what do you want again?"

Spectre Of Impeachment

Members of the National Interest Group (NIG) in the Senate led by Senator Bala Mohammed, have however, resolved to give the EXCOF not more than two weeks within which it should declare the President unfit and to have Jonathan as the substantive president.

The group, which reportedly met at Bolingo Hotel Abuja last Friday, noted that it was not in the interest of unity and stability to have an Acting President without a vice President considering the sensitive nature of the country and the need to have geographical balancing.

It was disclosed that the NIG Senators came to the conclusion that the only thing that could bring about the needed stability was having a substantive President with a Vice President coming from another region as had been the practice since the nation's independence.

A member of the NIG group pointed out that the senators also resolved that since the EXCOF took the initiative to send a team to Saudi Arabia to find out the true state of health of the ailing President, it would be proper to give it two weeks from the date of the decision.

The senator added that the NIG members resolved that it would not just be proper for the members of the EXCOF that were nominated to visit the President in Saudi Arabia to merely submit a report without a film clip of their visit or at least a television interview with the President to convince Nigerians on the true state of his health.

"We don't expect even a local government chairman to go outside the shores of this country without having a video recording of what they went to do, not to talk of a more sensitive issue that almost turned the country upside down in the last three months," the source stated.

It was further gathered that the NIG Senators may move for Yar'Adua's impeachment at the end of two-week deadline if members of the EXCOF failed to either travel or submit a report declaring the president incapacitated.

"The president's absence for these numbers of days that are far in excess of his annual leave without permission from the National Assembly amounts to gross misconduct. Lest we forget, it's the National Assembly that would determine what amounts to gross misconduct and not members of EXCOF," A senator that attended the Friday meeting at Bolingo Hotel, Abuja said.

By the time the FEC team returns, the machinery for the impeachment of Yar'Adua may have been oiled, in preparation of Jonathan's final apotheosis. The only thing that can end this possibility, according to commentators, is a clean bill of health from the FEC team, something many Nigerians believe unlikely to come.