STATEMENT BY NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT (NDM) ON THE STATUS OF PRESIDENT ÝAR’DUA’S MEDICAL CONDITION

STATEMENT BY NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT (NDM) ON THE STATUS OF PRESIDENT ÝAR’DUA’S MEDICAL CONDITION

Nigerians woke up on the morning of December 30, 2009 to the shocking story carried by Nigerian Tribune that President Umaru Musa ‘Yar’adua is not and was never admitted to King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where Presidency officials, cabinet ministers and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation have consistently claimed he has been placed on admission and was receiving treatment. Then, as if that was not shocking enough, the same newspaper carried, on December 31 st, the mindboggling story that President Ýarádua never actually signed the 2009 Supplementary Appropriation Bill into law as claimed by Federal Government officials and the top leadership of the National Assembly.

Nigerian Tribune , the newspaper which broke these stories, has established a reputation for credible reporting. If these two stories turn out to be true, a whole new dimension has been added to the conspiracy which appears to surround the whole matter of President Ýar’dua’s health and which continues to characterize the way and manner the leadership crisis currently unfolding in the country is being managed by an official cabal. This would not only make Nigeria the only nation in modern times to be governed by a leader whose medical condition has become a state secret and whose whereabouts appear to be unknown, but it would also conclusively prove that the nation has been hijacked by a criminal gang who are using the President’s medical condition as a cover to govern the country illegally. This may explain why the Attorney-General of the Federation, in concern with the leadership of the PDP, is leading the charge to stop Vice President Jonathan Goodluck from exercising the powers of Acting President even though the 1999 Constitution has provided for it and even though no one knows when the President will be fit enough to function effectively as President.

We, at the National Democratic Movement, consider this development a very dangerous one, which threatens the security and stability of Nigeria as a nation. A situation in which the whereabouts of the president of a nation of 150 million people is unknown and in which a small band of unauthorized people completely unknown to law hijack his powers to run the country illegally amounts to a coup détat. This is considered a treasonable act even in medieval times and perpetrators of this act must be brought to book as criminal felons without further delay. We should, as Nigerians, be ashamed that we are sitting around watching a gang of self-serving political office holders and their collaborators in the corridors of power undermine the supreme law of the land with impunity treating our nation like a small banana republic. We should be ashamed that in the small nation of Guinea, now under military regime, the military high command there had the decency and the good sense to appoint someone to act in the absence of that country’s military leader who, like President Ýarádua, is outside his country receiving medical attention. As we issue this statement, the acting Guinean leader is in Morocco to receive a briefing from doctors on the current status of Captain Camara’s medical condition.

The unfortunate pattern of secrecy surrounding, first, the nature of the President’s illness and, now, his whereabouts unnecessarily belittles the nation and its citizens and it is unacceptable in a modern state, under a democratic dispensation. More significantly, the criminal act of usurping the powers of the President to sign the Supplementary Appropriation Bill into law amounts to the most brazen confrontation with the Nigerian constitution and must be considered for what it is. President Umaru Musa ‘Yar’adua is not the private property of members of his family or of his ministers and party officials. He is the president of Nigeria and no other person, no matter how close to the President or how highly placed has the right to use his presidential powers to administer this country.

In this regard, we call on the Vice President, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Members of the Federal Executive Council to come clean with Nigerians and clear the mystery surrounding the nature of the President’s medical condition and his whereabouts. We also call on them to rise above partisan and parochial considerations and seriously consider the implication of their collective inaction for the security and stability of the nation and to explain to the nation where, when and how the President purportedly signed the Supplementary Appropriation Bill with incontrovertible supporting evidence. We specifically urge them to urgently take all necessary steps to put a stop to unnecessary speculation on this matter and save the nation from further embarrassment and possible political conflagration by doing the following:

Constituting a team of 15 credible persons, comprising of the following, to visit with President ‘Yar’adua, verify his whereabouts and obtain a Medical Report from his doctors:

A retired Justice of the Supreme Court as Team Leader
Two Members of Federal Executive Council
The President’s Personal Physician and two other highly respected and independent medical practitioners
The Majority and Minority Leaders of both chambers of NASS
One representative each from the NBA, NMA, NLC, NUJ and NCWS

At the end of its visit, the team should submit a report, including recommendation(s) on the implications of the President’s condition for the administration and political stability of the nation to the Vice President, who should table same as a Memorandum for consideration at the meeting of the Federal Executive Council immediately following the submission of the Report. The decision of the FEC on the Report should be made public within 24 hours

Pending the decision of FEC on the Report, no decision or approval should be ascribed to the President

It is our view that these measures will go a long way to reassure the nation and its citizens that the President’s ill-health is not being used as a cover by selfish officials to run the Federal Government illegally. It is said that sunshine is the best disinfectant. A situation whereby the nation is kept in the dark on the condition of its number one citizen is clearly untenable.