It is no longer news that the man I reluctantly call the president of Nigeria has been missing in inaction for a while. Every vocal observer has complained about how little of Yar’adua Nigerians have seen since his problematic ascendance almost two years ago.

So deafening and routine has the public outcry become that Yar’adua’s handlers seem to have devised a strategy for handling it. They wait until a dangerous threshold is reached, the level at which idle gossips about immobility and near-death emergencies solidify into unchallenged truths. Then, like giddy lawyers seeking to undo some shoddy allegation with an evidentiary bombshell, they roll Yar’adua out. They guide his increasingly frail body to a few events, all the while gloating at those who whispered unspeakable possibilities about the president’s health and mental alertness.

After these triumphant cameos through a few of Abuja’s high profile political events, the president retreats into another prolonged hibernation, until there is another public outrage about his absence from the nation’s economic and political life.

The president’s men have perfected the see-no-evil-hear-no-evil art of self-deception. They reckon that as long as the president is strategically and sporadically unleashed on the nation to sow an illusion of his mental and physical capacity to lead, all will be well. And Yar’adua’s well-known infirmities will remain a private matter to be tucked away beyond the realm of public speculation.

In their attempt to fight public perception about Yar’adua’s physical fitness and cognitive grasp of the country’s challenges, his handlers have treated the presidency like a showcase in a museum, displaying the president to Nigerians as needed to remind them that their president is still around. And in charge. They have treated the president’s physical and mental whereabouts as a state secret. When questions persist, the strategy has been to neither deny nor confirm the steady trickle of speculations on the president and his troubles.

The problem is that this strategy has not worked in the past. Take the bungling of Mr. Yar’adua’s last medical trip to Saudi Arabia. In an age of dizzying information flows, it only took a few days for the lesser hajj narrative to unravel and for the president’s medical struggles in Saudi Arabia to make their way into the news cycle.

Hiding Yar’adua’s medical and political travails doesn’t fly with a discerning public, especially since the narrative of Yar’adua’s incapacity has become the staple of quotidian political gossips.

Nor is there a discernible utilitarian logic to the choreographed and heavily assisted public appearances of the president. For one thing, because they are often done in response to mounting criticisms of the long, inexplicable lulls in the president’s leadership, they actually reinforce the perception they are calculated to combat. Second, because the president’s physical comportment at these showcase events contradicts the intended message of his staged appearances, the public showings stoke instead of defuse public speculation about his lingering disabilities.

The president’s aides seem to have a superficial understanding of the public concern about the man’s absence from governance. Their superficial solution of occasionally making the president available for public viewing stems from this misperception.

Only very few critics of the president’s failures, absences, and silences, mean “absence” in the simple physical sense of the president not being in the public view or retreating out of view for long periods, although, of course, a president also has to be seen to be physically presiding over things as his office demands. But most outraged commentators are not simply preoccupied with the inanity of beholding the president in his regal and ceremonial splendor. Were that the case, public frustration with the Yar’adua administration would have receded in correspondence to the president’s occasional public appearances.

To complain about the president’s long absences and curious silences and inaction is to lament his failure to take charge of the nation’s problems as a competent administrator would. To complain that the president is reclusive is to invoke the most obvious metaphor of the man’s growing legend of incompetence and administrative timidity.

Nigerians expect Yar'adua to show up for them. Not physically but on matters of governance and policy, although they would appreciate it if the president showed up in public more to discuss and announce his vision--if any--for the country, or to tell Nigerians why he is a political hermit.

Segun Adeniyi and other members of the president’s inner circle of aides should try once in a while to properly understand Nigerians’ frustration with the administrative style or lack thereof of their principal. It will save them the perennial embarrassment of unwittingly validating the ubiquitous alternative theories of Yar’adua’s political slumber.

Robot  # 1 | 29.01.2009 19:32

It is no longer news that the man I reluctantly call the president of Nigeria has been missing in inaction for a while. Every vocal observer has complained about how little of Yar’adua Nigerians have seen since his problematic ascendance almost two years ago. So deafening and routine has the public outcry become that Yar’adua’s handlers seem to have devised a strategy for handling it. They wait until a dangerous threshold is reached, the level at which idle gossips about immobility and near-death emergencies solidify into unchallenged truths. Then, like giddy lawyers seeking to undo some shoddy allegation with an evidentiary bombshell, they roll Yar’adua out. They guide his increasingly frail body to a few events, all the while gloating at those who whispered unspeakable possibilities about the president’s health and mental alertness. After these triumphant cameos through a few of Abuja’s high profile political events,...Read the full article.

Pius72  # 2 | 29.01.2009 20:36

Moses: Thanks, as usual, for an engaging piece. Forget Yar'Adua. Forget Segun Adeniyi. The question now is: what kind of praxes can members of Nigeria's community of conscience - I prefer that expression to the activist left - evolve to prevent the sort of embarrassing imposition that produced Mr Yar'Adua in 2011? How did an individual impose his will of 139 million people? What does this successful imposition say about the Nigerian people? The man responsible for this tragedy is now repositioning the former subordinate he demonized for 2011 and, in the process, feels sufficiently enamoured to describe himself as a "stakeholder"! How do 130 million people allow this to happen? Sometimes I think Kunle Ajibade got the title of his last book wrong. He shouldn't have used What a Country! What a People is nearer the mark. Pius Adesanmi

changenigeriamovement  # 3 | 29.01.2009 20:59

Nigerians have been crying for decades now but no one seem to be listening to them. I am not suprised because there is a Nigerian proverb that when the gods want to kill a man, they first of all make him deaf. You figure out the rest.

Gongo-aso  # 4 | 30.01.2009 00:14

Political arrangements in Nigeria is a Tragic occurence. The earlier the whole system is dismantled, the better for our collective health and interests. Just look at the characteristics of the people we have allowed to take control of our lives and see the enormity of the burden we have imposed on ourselves. Atiku, Babangida, Obasanjo, Yar Adua, etc. They are Crooks, liars, thieves, robbers, ex-convict and much more in evil attributes. A serious problem needs a drastic solution...if not now, then when? Dude, in real terms, you have no president! What you have is a "matter"-a space occupier!

Kenn  # 5 | 30.01.2009 00:38

Okay guys, let's play a game. Let's go comic before we go gaga! Let's choose alternative titles for Ebe's piece!:D I start: The President’s Men Manning the President Manned President Appears and Disappears Now, which of the above do you think qualifies as the best title for our new play in this theatre of the absurd? Please, Ladies and Gentlemen, have a go at titles – it’s all we can do not to burst out in tears!:lol:

Iyke  # 6 | 30.01.2009 02:31

i prefer "Break and Quench" president. you know what i mean. have you ever driven or taken a ride on those bolekajas patroling the nigerian roads. if you have then you understand what i mean.

Kenn  # 7 | 30.01.2009 02:37

Push and Start President. :D

DoubleWahala  # 8 | 30.01.2009 03:20

'Mess and Smell' President. :) 'Wealth is Health' President (the trappings of power come before his health) 'I-am-greater-than-the-country' Presido.

iamgod  # 9 | 30.01.2009 03:29

Its not that the presidents handler's (yep sounds like a puppy on a leash); are unaware of Nigerian's scepticsm/ unbelief over their defense of UMYA's health and sound mind. They only deliberately choose to see their own limited and closeted point of view and damn everyone else. Like the proverbial ostrich with his head buried in sand. We all know the man is sick and dying and is not in charge of anything. If UMYA could look the way he does despite the enormous resources and influence available to him as president, then he is truly half gone. Only problem is he wishes to expire in Aso rock. A more pertinent question was asked earlier in this thread; "how do we prevent such a tragedy from recurring"? This should be the main focus of all discussions and articles on NVS. The need to ensure our collective future is not again manipulated and auctioned by an evil few is paramount.

denker  # 10 | 30.01.2009 06:02

=Gongo-aso;319542>Political arrangements in Nigeria is a Tragic occurence. The earlier the whole system is dismantled, the better for our collective health and interests. Just look at the characteristics of the people we have allowed to take control of our lives and see the enormity of the burden we have imposed on ourselves. Atiku, Babangida, Obasanjo, Yar Adua, etc. They are Crooks, liars, thieves, robbers, ex-convict and much more in evil attributes. A serious problem needs a drastic solution...if not now, then when? Dude, in real terms, you have no president! What you have is a "matter"-a space occupier! ...well said congo-shiner, precisely my feelings...:p:D:rose:

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