Date Published: 01/07/10
YAR’ADUA’S ILL-HEALTH: ABOUT SIX FLAGITIOUS NIGERIANS ARE HOLDING 150 MILLION OTHERS HOSTAGE By Temple Chima Ubochi
Nothing is more disgraceful than insincerity. (Cicero)
People have become as processed as food. (Astrid Alauda)
Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today. (Mark Twain)
Place your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark. (Robert A. Heinlein)
The world is so dreadfully managed, one hardly knows to whom to complain. (Ronald Firbank)
Democracy arose from men thinking that if they are equal in any respect they are equal in all respects. (Aristotle)
How should it happen that the individual should be without rights, but the combination of individuals should possess unlimited rights? (Auberon Herbert)
Where the meaning of the Constitution is clear and unambiguous, there can be no resort to construction to attribute to the founders a purpose or intent NOT MANIFEST IN ITS LETTER. (Source: 192 A 531) (Norris v. Baltimore)
An unconstitutional act is not law; it confers no rights; it imposes no duties; affords no protection; it creates no office; it is in legal contemplation, as inoperative as though it had never been passed. (Source: 118 US 425 p.442) (Norton vs. Shelby County)
Many Nigeria's problems would be sorted out this year. Nigeria has been without a president for almost 42 days now. It’s only in Nigeria that such can happen.
Yar'Adua's problem would be solved very soon! Whether he's life or dead, Nigerians would know soon, no matter what those hideous people surrounding him are doing to deceive Nigerians. It's unfortunate that about six people are holding the other 150 million Nigerians hostage, by deceiving us as regards to the true health condition of the president. How long can they go on doing that? This six or so people are bent on denying Goodluck Jonathan the presidency, even in an acting capacity, but, they’re fighting a lost battle. If Yar'Adua was from the south of Nigeria and Jonathan from the north; treating the VP ignominiously, as Turai and her gang of six are doing, would have led to Nigeria burning by now. Prof. Tam David-West said this recently:
“From the beginning, the North did not respect Jonathan. The first evidence was when he was sworn in at the Eagle Square in Abuja. The entourage of President Yar'Adua drove away and Jonathan has to wait 20 minutes to get a car. From that minute they had shown that the North does not care for him.President Yar'Adua has gone out of the country many times without obeying Section 146 of the constitution so that Jonathan can act”. (Guardian 29.12.2009)
Turai and the kitchen cabinet members feel they’re the "owners of Nigeria" and can deceive Nigerians anyhow. It would all end in this 2010 and soon too. Nigerians will tell them that they’re wiser. It could be that Yar’Adua might not make it and Turai and the kitchen cabinet members are keeping that away from Nigerians in order to cover up their tracks and to loot as much as they want/can, before opening up to Nigerians.
This writer is glad that the VP is very conscious of his environment and has left nothing to chance. The hawks surrounding Yar'Adua are capable of doing anything. Afterall, Abiola was poisoned to death and uptill today, nobody has paid for it. If they can kill Abiola and get away with it, they can also kill Jonathan, but, let them know that then and now are not the same. They should know that "it's when a mad man is killed that his relatives would be known".
Tribune (04.01.2010) wrote: "The raging succession battle arising from the long absence of President Umaru Yar’Adua due to ill-health appears to have taken a new twist, as the Vice-President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, has refrained from taking food and drinks served in the State House, Abuja. That the nation’s number two man has only been taking food prepared by his wife, Patience, in the last three weeks."
About the serious implications for the mutual distrust now that has taken over the presidency, a source there queried the attempt to ridicule the vice-president by some hawks, who had to tell the nation that the president, who they had not seen for over 40 days, had signed the nation’s budget. Adding that it will be in the interest of the nation if the same persons can show us the specimen signature of the president and then present to him again, the National Merit and Honours List for signature too!
Turai Yar’Adua would have saved herself, her husband and Nigeria all these hassles, had she done the right thing from the beginning. When doctors in Saudi Arabia wanted her to help her husband about a year ago, she refused. Had she done as was told then, her husband would have been healthy and kicking by now. This is part of what this writer wrote in his article of Sunday, April 12, 2009 (Nigeriaworld):
“His wife Turai is calling the shot, deciding for her husband who should be appointed a minister and which ministry to assign to the person. This is a woman that refused to give one of her kidneys to her husband when a hospital in Saudi Arabia asked her to do so (fair weather wife?)
The Punch Newspapers of Wednesday, September 3, 2008 wrote that the refusal of the First Lady, Hajiya Turai Yar'Adua, to allow a Saudi Arabian hospital make use of her kidney may have been responsible for the delay in the return of ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua (when he went there for medical treatment under the guise of performing lesser Hajj in 2008). The Paper wrote that rather than the first lady subjecting herself to the use of her kidney in a crucial transplant to save her husband, she demanded that she and Yar'Adua be flown to Germany where her husband had hitherto received medical attention. The Paper wrote further that "After running a battery of tests, the team of doctors concluded that the kidney meant for the replacement was likely to suffer tissue rejection from him (YarÁdua). They advised that tests be conducted on his close relatives to find alternative donors. His wife and daughter were tested, and his wife proved compatible. She (his wife) was, however, unwilling to donate an organ in Saudi Arabia."
For those who do not know about this. Imagine that Jonathan, the VP, would be waiting to see the president, when Yar’Adua was still around in Aso Rock, while any of the ministers of northern extraction would stroll past him to see the president without even knocking on the door. Turai and the members of the kitchen cabinet have diminished the office of the VP and reduced it to almost that of an adviser. That’s why they are afraid to let Jonathan take over even on an acting basis, because, they know that he (Jonathan) would pay them back by dealing mercilessly with all of them. But, there’s nothing they can do about it; if it would happen that Jonathan will be president, nobody can stop it now. This writer wonders how far they could go in this deceit. This writer wonders the kind of rage going on inside Jonathan right now, because of the ignominious way they have been treating him and how he would love to exert himself/power, if he gets the chance. This criminal gang is using the ill-health of President Umaru Yar’Adua as a cover to govern Nigeria illegally in spite of clear constitutional provisions which ought to have been employed in the circumstance, if to borrow the words from National Democratic Movement.
How can this gang explain to us the report that “President Yar’Adua is not and was never admitted to King Faisal Hospital and Research Centre in Jeddah and the shocking and mind boggling story that President Yar’Adua never actually signed the 2009 Supplementary Appropriation Bill. They should explain to us where, when and how the President purportedly signed the Supplementary Appropriation Bill with incontrovertible supporting evidence. The criminal act of usurping powers of the President to sign the supplementary Appropriation Bill into law amounts to the most brazen confrontation with the Nigerian Constitution and somebody must pay for this.
We learnt that the budget signing hoax and the idea of the outgoing Chief Justice of Nigeria swearing in the incoming one, was part of the grand plot by the hawks (kitchen cabinet members) in connivance with Turai Yar’Adua to stop Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan from becoming acting President. We also learnt that the idea of the outgoing Chief Justice of Nigeria swearing in the incoming one was suggested by a lady who then forwarded it (the idea) through e-mail to Aondoakaa and some other lawyers. Then, Aondakaa, who calls himself the chief law officer, swallowed the idea hook, line and sinker. The implication of the whole thing was that within 24 hours, Nigeria had two chief justices at the Supreme Court and it was the first time in 51 years for such aberration to happen (shattering the 51-year-old practice). The illegality of the whole thing kept eight justices of the Supreme Court away from the swearing-in.
We just learnt more how the budget was signed or the president’s signature forged. The Tribune (05.01.2010) told us that the team of Nigerian officials, who took the copy of the budget to Saudi Arabia, did not see the president, that the ADC to the president surfaced from nowhere and collected the budget from them, but, were told to stay at the lobby of King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Jeddah, and await further instructions. This has prompted fears that there might have been a decoy or a decision to secretly treat the president’s illness. We learnt that the team of officials only waited for over two hours to receive the 'signed' copy of the budget from the ADC. The failure of the officials to set eyes on the ailing president is confirming our fears that Yar'Adua's situation might not be improving, if he’s still alive.
This writer calls on the national assembly to investigate the authenticity of the signature on the supplementary budget and if found to be forged, those who hatched and carried out the forgery should be made to cool off in jail. We cannot allow those who perpetrated such a criminal act to go scout free. This writer is elated that some legal practitioners in Nigeria are poised not to let a crime of such magnitude go unpunished. Lawyers have warned that stiff penalty, including a life jail term, awaits any public official found to have forged the signature of the ailing president. This writer wonders why they had to forge the signature on the 2009 supplementary budget just to prevent Goodluck Jonathan from assuming the position of acting President in the absence of Yar’Adua. They even went a step further in their deceit, when they said that the Principal Private Secretary to the President, David Edevbie, who went to Saudi Arabia with the budget, stayed with the president for 90 minutes, during which, the President purportedly signed the budget.
A sitting judge has warned that the offence, if proven, could earn offenders a life jail term with no option of fine. He pointed at section 467, sub-section (1) of the Criminal Code to buttress his position.
Those who forged the signature are now looking for ways to wriggle out of the cul-de-sac they pushed themselves into. The implications of their action have dawned on them. They're trying to cover their ass in order not to rot in jail. Now they’re telling us that the National Assembly has discovered that the 2009 supplementary budget sent to the presidency in December 2009 was transmitted in error, because, it (the National Assembly) had no substantive or acting clerk at the time the budget was transmitted. Suddenly, they found out that the Deputy Clerk to the National Assembly, Mr. Yemi Ogunyomi, who transmitted the bill to the president, did so without an instrument confirming him as either the substantive CNA or the acting clerk. Now the National Assembly officials, in trying to help the forgers, is mulling over the withdrawal of the already troubled budget from the presidency. This writer wants to tell them that forgery is forgery, so the “error in transmission” should not exonerate the people who connived to forge the president's signature.
A group of eminent Nigerians, the G-53, wants to send delegates to Saudi Arabia to ascertain the president’s real health condition, but, this writer thinks that the hawks shrouding everything about the president’s health in deceit and mystery would prevail on the Saudi authorities not to grant the delegation entry visas or allow them into Saudi Arabia. They’re capable of doing everything.
On the other hand, one hundred legal practitioners under the auspices of Lawyers of Consciences have given President Umaru Yar’Adua till January 31, 2010 to resign or be removed by the National Assembly, failing which the group said, they will be left with no alternative than to mobilize their learned colleagues and the Nigerian electorate to “take their destiny into their hands by any legitimate means possible.”
Arising from its Annual General Meeting held on December 30, 2009, the organisation in a communiqué stated that it had arrived at the decision after undertaking “a surgical appraisal of the comatose state of the nation and the abysmal performance of the present government in Nigeria in 2009, due to the ill health and the resultant incapacity of the president.”
The group stated that if by the expiration of its ultimatum of January 31, President Yar’Adua has not come back to actively assume and perform his functions as the president, and he neither resigns nor is removed by the National Assembly in the application of sections 144 and 146 of the 1999 Constitution to enable the vice president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan be sworn-in, it should not be held responsible for whatever may result from such legitimate action(s).
The hawks continued their deception two weeks ago by telling us that they would prepare and take a letter, for the national assembly, to Yar’Adua in Saudi Arabia to sign, which would have cleared the way for Jonathan to take over. The Tribune (25.12.2009) wrote that “Jonathan may take over next week - Yar’Adua to write N/Assembly”. When this writer read this then, he told somebody that these people are at it again, that they wanted to buy time in order to plot their next move and it turned out that way. Then, next thing they did was to tell us that they took the supplementary budget to the president on his sickbed to sign, while in actual fact, we are learning that the president’s signature might have been forged.
In 2010; they are at it again, they want to buy more time before perfecting their next evil plans. Now they’re telling us that Yar’Adua may return this week in order to calm agitated and aggrieved Nigerians and to temporarily mellow the anxiety the whole Yar'Adua's health episode has caused. Turai and members of the kitchen cabinet have been taking Nigerians for fools and they think they can tell us anything when and how they like and that we would buy it hook, line and sinker. The Daily Trust (01.01.2010) wrote that “Yar’Adua may return to Nigeria next week, say sources close to the Nigerian Embassy in Saudi Arabia. Yar’Adua is the first president in the nation’s history that has not been able to address the nation directly on New Year’s Day on account of indisposition”.
Whether Yar’Adua returns or Jonathan takes over, even on an acting capacity, this writer wants whose ever is there, to fire Aondakaa. Because, he can’t be the chief law breaker and remains Nigeria’s chief law officer; he can’t be misinterpreting our laws and still be the AGF; he can’t be used by those who want Jonathan’s “head on a platter” to rope him (Jonathan) in, by writing to the VP asking him to start acting as the president and to sign the supplementary budget when there was no letter (to that effect) from Yar’Adua addressed to the national assembly. Aondakaa and his follow thieves calling themselves ministers wanted Jonathan to sign the supplementary budget before Christmas so as to share the money (in the budget) amongst themselves before dispersing for the Christmas and New Year celebrations. When Jonathan refused to fall into their trap, Aondakaa recanted and claimed not to have written any letter to that effect to the VP. Aondakaa and those who want a reason to impeach Jonathan, thought he would have signed the supplementary budget, so that they would have seen the reason to impeach him, since their plan to force him to resign failed. So Aondakaa can’t be a party to all these and still remains as the minister of justice, because, he has brought partiality in the discharge of his duty to the fore.
Why Aondakaa should go would fill a volume. Just take a look at this: "Attorney General goofs in court By Emmanuel Ogala (posted by Yinka Odumakin): Shortly after the Federal High Court finished the first mention of a suit brought against the federal executive by Femi Falana, a Lagos lawyer; the court went into another session on a similar case. This time it was Bamidele Aturu, another Lagos lawyer, asking the court to compel the vice president, Goodluck Jonathan, to act in the absence of President Umaru Yar'Adua because the continued absence of Mr Yar'Adua is beginning to affect him too.
The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Michael Aondoakaa was the defendant in both cases. But just before he introduced the state counsel that entered appearance with him for Mr. Aturu's suit, Mr. Aondoakaa told the judge that he had noticed an error in the submission of Mr. Aturu and as such could not continue his defence. The justice minister told the judge that instead of referring to the Federal Executive Council (popularly called FEC) in his suit, Mr. Aturu made reference to the Executive Council of the Federation which, he claimed, did not exist. He demanded that Mr. Aturu use FEC in his submission unless "he would be referring to someone else." Thereafter, he went ahead to introduce his team.
When it was Mr. Aturu's turn to introduce his team, he set off to address what he termed the minister's “ignorance of the constitution”. "My Lord, I must thank the Attorney General for insisting that the right must be done; but, unfortunately, this time around, I am not going to agree with him," he said. "The name is Executive Council of the Federation, by virtue of Section 144 of the constitution of Nigeria." Ignorant minister immediately he mentioned this, the Attorney General and his team frantically pulled out their copies of the 1999 Constitution and hastily flipped through its pages, in search of the section Mr. Aturu mentioned. At this point, members of the audience were struggling to muffle their laughter to evade the contempt of the court. Mr. Aturu argued that he had studied the 1999 constitution and there is no place where the law made reference to an entity like Federal Executive Council.
The judge accepted Mr. Aturu's arguments and the hearing continued. But outside the court room, observers who witnessed the short drama were already in clusters asking themselves: "Did the minister just goof? Didn't he know all the while that FEC is an unconstitutional coinage?" Some argued that the minister is perhaps too busy with politics that he has little time to study the little details in the constitution. But others argued that as a Justice Minister, he should sleep and wake on the constitution". Hmmmmmmmh, what a buffoon answering AGF?
A little on Goodluck Jonathan: For this writer, he’s loyal to a fault, and that might be the reason why they’re treating him so shabbily (like a house boy). All he can tell Nigerians on the New Year’s Eve was that the President Yar’Adua was still in control of Nigeria’s affairs from his hospital bed in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He added that Yar’Adua might soon return to the country to continue his good works with renewed vigour and vitality. He also apologised for government’s failure to deliver on its 6000MW promise. That was not what a man with “scrotum” should have said. He should have been diplomatic as well as exertive in his utterances, because he might soon be the president of this great country and we hope when that happens, he would jettison his dull tendencies.
This writer wonders why the VP or his media aides couldn't even confirm whether Lukman sought and received his permission before travelling to Austria for the Christmas. (ThisDay29.12.2009) wrote that Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr Rilwanu Lukman, has stated that contrary to widespread media reports that he defied the Vice President’s order that he should not travel, that he actually secured the permission of Vice President Goodluck Jonathan before travelling to Vienna, Austria. In the words of his Release: “At the end of the last Federal Executive Council meeting in which the Vice President gave the instruction that we should not travel, I intimated him of the urgent need for me to travel to attend to certain pressing official as well as family matters and he gave me approval to travel. I couldn’t have travelled without the express permission of the Vice President. I have no reason whatsoever to defy the office of the Vice President as is widely reported.” This writer sees no more sense in castigating Alhaji Lukman, it might be that he travelled with permission.
Jonathan might be as incompetent as his boss, but, he’s still the vice president and should act in his boss’s absence. This writer hopes he knows where to start from, if, the baton is passed to him. Nigerians are tired of apologies for failures. Nigerians need light and how they (in government) go about achieving that in 2010, nobody wants to know. All we are saying “give us constant light” and there MUST be light. Jonathan, in his New Year message, also promised that there would be a greater demand for accountability, transparency and performance from public officials in the New Year. This writer wants to tell the vice president that we would all remember and hold him accountable on that, if and when he takes over, even on an acting capacity.
This writer prays that Nigerians will soon find the strength and courage in this 2010 and beyond, to say "no, not any more", to the deceit, lies, hypocrisy and selfishness of the corrupt ruling class. The presidency is nobody’s birth right. He, who’s not fit, let another take his place. The lives of many Nigerians are also on the line here; we need a president who would be on his seat attending to Nigeria’s numerous problems, whoever that is, Yar’Adua or Jonathan, is of little interest to Nigerians at this point in time.
THE THANXS IS ALL YOURS!!!
Temple Chima Ubochi writes from Bonn, Germany through ubochit@yahoo.com
|
