Date Published: 12/24/09

How Aondoakaa’s plot to install Goodluck ‘Acting’ President flopped

…As Security beefed up over possible military coup

Mike Aondoakaa

Apparently bowing to mounting public outcry over the over one month AWOL (Absence Without Leave) of ailing President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation Michael  Aondoakaa, Wednesday made an unsuccessful attempt to install Vice President Goodluck Jonathan “acting President” in utter contempt of the National Assembly.

Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution states that: “Whenever the President transmits to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives a written declaration that he is proceeding on vacation or that he is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office, until he transmits a written declaration to the contrary such functions shall be discharged by the vice-president as Acting President.”

Pointblanknews.com, however, gathered that Aondoakaa, a lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), spent the better part of Wednesday trying to “convince” Goodluck to agree to become “Acting President” pending Yar’Adua’s discharge from the King Faisil Specialist Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The ailing President has been holed up incommunicado in the hospital since November 23, 2009.

Aondoakaa has swiftly issued a statement, denying ever writing to Saudi Arabia or asking Goodluck to become Acting President. The AG claimed he lacked the powers to do so, with sources close to his office describing the denial as merely ‘face saving.’

Goodluck Jonathan

But sources close to the office of the Attorney-General, confirmed that Aondoakaa’s botched meeting with the Vice President was primed by a letter the former faxed to Mrs. Turai Yar’Adua, who is one of the very few Nigerians with access to her husband in the Holy Land. Aondoakaa, it was gathered, in the memo, sought the approval of “His Excellency” (Yar’Adua) to allow Vice President Goodluck Jonathan “assume duties as Acting President and Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

These sources confirmed to Pointblanknews.com that a minute was scribbled on Aondoakaa’s memo and the faxed back to him from Saudi Arabia. The sources could however not confirm if the handwriting was Yar’Adua’s or his wife’s. “It was after oga (Aondoakaa) got this approval in the form of the memo on Tuesday that he decided to discuss the matter with Veepee,” one of his aides volunteered.

The aide suggested that Aondoakaa’s countenance after the Wednesday meeting with Vice President Jonathan suggested that all did not go as planned. “He (Aondoakaa) was so furious after the meeting. He kept yelling at anybody who as much as came his way. We later heard that the VP (Goodluck) rejected the proposal, insisting that, as a lawyer, Aondoakaa should have known that any correspondence on the subject matter should be between Mr. President and the leadership of the National Assembly and not him as Vice President,” he offered.

Another presidential aide in the know of the “deal” told Pointblanknews.com that the decision on the now botched “Plan B” was arrived at after THISDAY newspaper blew the lid on how the Presidency’s liaison officer to the National Assembly, Senator Abba Aji scuttled a letter which Yar’Adua was believed to have wanted to dispatch to the leadership of the National Assembly, intimating them of his planned medical leave.

Said the aide: “I heard the Veepee rejected the proposal. But who wouldn’t reject such balderdash, anyway? The Constitution is very explicit on how the Veepee may become acting President. Even in the very unlikely event that Mr. Veepee agreed, it would have meant that the Attorney-General appointed the President and not the other way round. That, of course, would have been disastrous.”

Pointblanknews.com gathered that some unguarded statements in the wake of the Yar’Adua’s latest admission in hospital may have driven a wedge between Abba Aji and whatever is left of the Yar’Adua Presidency.

Apart from reportedly unilaterally scuttling the letter written by the ailing President before he was stretchered out to Saudi Arabia, Abba Aji had strung taut nerves by disclosing that, as governor of Katsina state, Yar’Adua was at some point hospitalized for six months.

“What most people don’t know is that Yar’Adua will come back. When he was governor (in Katsina State) he was away for six months…and he did not only return to continue as governor, he went on to have a second term…and to contest the presidency of this country and win. He will definitely return. He will come back a very healthy person and he will carry on with his work, complete his tenure and he will contest for a second term…He will come back in full force. He will bounce back,” Abba Aji was quoted as boasting.

Meanwhile, intelligence agents have been put on red alert to nip in the bud what some fear may be the likelihood of a military take-over of government. The Shehu Shagari-led Second Republic was sacked by the military on December 31, 1983.

Ironically, Aondoakaa had recently drawn a parallel between his boss’ administration and the Ibrahim Babangida-led military junta, saying it was hypocritical to call for Yar’Adua’s resignation when the same call was not made when Babangida spent over two months attending to a surgery.

Apart from the recent quizzing the campaign director of the Buhari Organization, Alhaji Buba Galadima for urging Nigerians to revolt en-mass, the recent alarm raised by the President of the Nigeria Bar Association, Rotimi Akeredolu on the state of the nation, is said to have raised the concern levels of the security agencies.

Warned Akeredolu: “We note that the country is less secure than before. We equally affirm that we are nearer a situation of total collapse of all vital infrastructures than most of us can imagine. Corruption continues to thrive in the land. It is against this backdrop that we view the current issue of the state of health of the President and the perfunctory attempt to downplay the seriousness of the challenges posed by this fact as unpatriotic.”

Security sources hinted that that there was mounting anxiety that Yar’Adua’s continued absence, and the vacuum which would be created when the Chief Justice of Nigeria Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi reitires on 31 st December, 2009, could provide the tinder for some adventurous military officers. They are also unsettled by the realization that the newly appointed CJN as well as his colleague in the Court of Appeal cannot begin to function unless sworn in by the President.