YAR’ADUA’S HEALTH: WHAT IF THE PRESIDENT DIES

Since the days of Umooru are you dead, it has been one story or the other concerning the health of President Umaru Yar’Adua. There is nothing out of place for the president, who is a human being, to be ill or sick. But the concern is that each time the president falls sick, the controversies such occasions generate cause more confusion and worries than the actual state of health of the nation’s number one citizen. First, few days from receiving the ticket to run as the presidential flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the April 2007 election, whether real or imaginary, the president collapsed and was flown abroad for emergency treatment. Concerning what actually happened and the actual state of health of the presidential candidate at the time, former president Obasanjo said a different thing.

PDP had a different account and the Yar’Adua’s family (the wife) had a completely different account. The confusion was so much that in his characteristic way of trivializing very serious matters, Obasanjo opted to make a phone call to the him in the land of the dead (jokingly). “Umooru Umooru! Are you dead? They say you have died and I want you to speak to Nigerians on this campaign rally.” That particular telephone call made Yar’Adua the first person to talk directly on telephone to the living from the land of the dead.

The President’s latest health challenge which necessitated his being rushed to a German hospital has also generated serious controversy and raised issues which may be real or imaginary. Already, two divergent lines of thinking are being contemplated and each has the full capacity to cause serious crisis in the polity and the unity of the nation.

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First it is being speculated that if the inevitable happens, vice president Jonathan maybe expected to resign as the nation’s number two citizen or he may be forced to do so. Reasons adduced by this school of thought may sound reasonable dependable on who is doing the analysis. If Jonathan takes over as president, it means power has returned to the south because he will be expected to run out the tenure and maybe seek re-election for a second term. In that case, the entire power rotation equation between the north and the south would have been rubbished as the south will rule for the next eight or seven years giving the section fifteen years on a continuous stretch of rulership under democratic dispensation.

Top PDP kingpins from the north are skimming to ensure the north runs out its eight year tenure before contemplating on the next round of power shift to the south. This sounds justifiable in the spirit of equity and fair play. However, the above scenario would represent an outright disregard for the constitutional provision on the issue of succession between the President and his vice should anything happen to the number one citizen. And the south especially the south-south may not be ready to trade their first ever opportunity (by chance) of occupying the premier political position of the country and may want to pursue a do or die case for full implementation of the constitutional stipulation on such matter.

Whatever the case may be, for now, all Nigerians should pray to God to keep Yar’Adua as he has automatically become the only elixir to solve this impending political implosion. O’ Lord please heal our president, if for nothing, but for the peace and political stability of this nation, Amen.

 

By: IFEANYI IZEZE

IFEANYI IZEZE IS AN ABUJA-BASED CONSULTANT (iizeze@yahoo.com)