Date Published: 12/08/09

No early return for Yar'Adua -Doctors

President Yar’Adua

Doctors at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre,  Saudi Arabia who are treating ailing President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua for “acute pericarditis,” and other related diseases have foreclosed any early return for the Nigerian President whose health condition continue to nose-dive.

A source told Pointblanknews.com that the Doctors who were put under intense pressure by the President’s family and top Nigerian politicians to ensure President Yar’Adua is certified fit to return to work have advised that any early discharge of the sickly President would be very detrimental.

The source at the Saudi Hospital who has been keeping a tap for Pointblanknews.com revealed that the President’s health condition has become a source of worry for Doctors including those who were recently flown in from Germany and the United States as they observed that improvement in President Yar’Adua’s condition has been at a very slow pace.

“Like I told you the other time, the President is not really getting better. Even though he is out of the ICU, it doesn’t seem he can make it to return to work as soon as expected at least that is the opinion of the Doctors for now, but we are still watching,” the source who is not authorized to speak said.

According to him, “even the doctors who just came in from abroad, they share the same opinion too and you know even though it is the wish that they do whatever they can to make him stronger, we just have to keep waiting.”

Pointblanknews.com also gathered that the opinion of the doctors may knock off the planned telecast of the President on Friday as it may not be guaranteed if he would be healthy enough to speak especially as anyone could barely hear him when he tries to speak.

It was learnt that the President chokes and coughs repeatedly when he tries to speak.

The Federal Executive Council, FEC which had earlier refused to invoke relevant sections of the Nigerian constitution to remove the sickly President said yesterday that only President Umaru Yar’Adua’s doctors could tell Nigerians when the President would return to work.

The Minister of Information and Communications, Prof. Dora Akunyili, made the council’s position known while briefing journalists after the meeting chaired by Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan.

Akunyili said, “I can confirm to you that Mr. President is still in the Saudi hospital. He is responding to treatment but it is only his doctors that can determine when he is coming back.”

President Yar'Adua is suffering from “acute pericarditis,” a deadly ailment that results from Churg–Strauss syndrome for which he has visited German and Saudi Arabian hospital at several occasion.

His recent medical trip to Saudi Arabia which has lasted more than two weeks now have crippled governance in Nigeria as he has refused to officially hand over to Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan as constitutionally required.