| A Nation On Tenterhooks |
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| Written by Sonala Olumhense | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sunday, 31 August 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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A Nation On Tenterhooks By Sonala Olumhense Last week, I expressed my concern about President Umaru Yar'Adua's style, and its impact on his substance. Given the passage of President Levy Mwanawasa of Zambia, I felt he should be concerned about his legacy. At the time, my focus was the death of Mr. Mwanawasa, and its lessons for my own country. I was unaware that even as I wrote, President Yar'Adua was in poor health. On Wednesday, 20 August, he left for Saudi Arabia to perform the umrah, the lesser hajj. He was expected back in Nigeria three days later to prepare for an official visit to Brazil which was to start on 26 August. On that day, the President did not return. By Tuesday, when he was supposed to have been leaving Abuja for Brazil, he was still not back in Nigeria. Neither was he flying to Brazil from wherever he was. On Wednesday, August 27, the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting was held in Abuja under the chairmanship of the Vice-President, Goodluck Jonathan. It was a big meeting, for three reasons. First, Mr. Jonathan, like other members of the government, did not know where his principal was, or his exact condition. Second, Mr. Jonathan had not been sworn in as Acting President, although he could, and apparently conducted the meeting in his capacity as Vice-President. The third reason the FEC meeting of last Wednesday was so important is that it emerged with humongous federal contracts. One of them, for the expansion of Phases I and II of the Escravos-Lagos pipeline, was for N73 billion. That is not the kind of sum a head of government opts to sign by proxy. Still, the falcon did not know where the falconer was. Naturally, the tension that was gripping the country was waiting outside the Council chambers that day in the form of journalists. Council members put up a brave face. Foreign Minister Madueke and his college in the Ministry of Information and Communications, Mr. John Odey, insisted that the president was undertaking the lesser hajj, and would "return anytime from now." So, what was Madueke doing in Abuja instead of being busy in Brazil in connection with the presidential state visit? He was asked. I could imagine the man shifting from one foot to the other: "I am here now on state matters," he said, adding, "State matters mean that things are adjusted and readjusted." Although he and his colleague insisted they had spoken with the President on the phone, it was clear they were acting, without the benefit of a Nollywood licence. In other words, they either did not know what they were talking about, or were lying. SaharaReporters had reported that, contrary to the official reason given for the president's trip to Saudi Arabia, he had actually left for medical care. It would later report that the president was seriously sick, and that the planned official trip to Brazil had been cancelled. Late last week, government officials continued to deny everything. They denied the president's ill-health. They denied the visit to Saudi Arabia had anything to do with his poor health. They denied the visit to Brazil had been cancelled, allowing only that it had been postponed. Still, nothing was being heard from the president. The louder questions were coming from the eloquent silence of the Vice-President, who had clearly delegated the waffling and lying service to lower officials. Twice, the scheduled decoration ceremonies of the new service chiefs had to be postponed. As I was concluding this article on Saturday morning, The Punch was reporting that President Yar'Adua had had surgery in Saudi Arabia, following the failure of drugs to improve his condition. This would further confirm the original SaharaReporters story. It would also confirm that Ministers Maduekwe and Odey had lied on Wednesday when they insisted the President was performing a religious obligation and would return to Nigeria shortly. That, however, is not even a problem. And we do have a problem: a convoluted crisis of leadership. For over one year, under Yar'Adua, Nigeria has lacked the energy and initiative to move forward. Federal government officials have attributed this malaise to his desire to ensure that things were done properly. There have also been arguments that his rigged party nomination by his predecessor, and the rigged election that brought him to office were holding him back. But now we find that the most formidable opponent may be the simplest one of all: the President's health. It was a problem during the electoral campaigns, and despite routine denials, has remained so in his first 15 months. The death of Zambia's Mwanawasa less than two weeks ago only reminds Nigerians about just how real losing a national leader can be, and is responsible for the current tension about Yar'Adua's situation. As a people, Nigerians must get behind President Yar'Adua with their prayers and good wishes. I hope he recovers quickly, and returns to work. Whenever he does, I hope he remembers that many a Nigerian leader, caught in a hail of coup d'etat bullets, never had his nine lives. Whatever they had achieved by the time the shooting started was usually the final chapter of their story. Despite the flawed elections that propelled him to office, or perhaps because of them, Yar'Adua has been blessed to call himself leader of Nigeria. He didn't earn that title. If this spell of poor health is his final bow, he will become the laughing stock of this era. That, unfortunately, would be the legacy he has earned. It is true he has only ruled for one year. But exactly how many days are required to drive a stake into the ground and say, "No more!" I do not know. All I know is that no leader that wants to make a change waits until the manual is written, typed and bound. He does not wait until that manual is edited and proof-read and printed in colour. John F. Kennedy said it well: "A man does what he must, in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures, and that is the basis of all human morality." I hope Yar'Adua lives a longer, healthier life. If it does not, it would be sadder still to reflect on the filthy men and women and institutions and graveyards and garbage heaps he could have cleaned up in one year. It would be tragic to think about the mess he became a part of when he had the rare opportunity to rise above it and prove, in one year, that there is so much gold in our land. It would be tragic to think about all the men and women of merit and intelligence and skill and patriotism that we never got to learn about because, during his presidency, the limelight continued to shine for the indolent and the corrupt and the ruthless. He can start to change all that right away, beginning by being honest with his country about his health.
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Posted by Robot| 31.08.2008 08:34