Why Should I Care?
Ijeoma Nwogwugwu
I am not one of those who wish President Umaru Yar’Adua well. Why should I, if he and those around him don’t see the need for the president to take some time out to attend to his fragile constitution? In spite of his dire condition, he has elected to run the affairs of state by telephone. For all intents and purpose, the president is not getting the rest he needs to recuperate from his heart condition because he does not want to hand over the reins of government temporarily to his deputy. Instead, he cradles the telephone by his side attending to matters in the country by proxy.
Since his days as governor of Katsina State, the president hardly boasted a ruddy disposition. Most of us were unaware his ill-health because he governed a quiet semi-arid state, which until his emergence on the national stage, did not feature prominently on the national radar. The president would have probably carried on unnoticed and been allowed to attend to his health unimpeded, had he not chosen to accept the presidency foisted on him. Ever since, his every sneeze, cough and twitch has been micro-analysed to the minutest detail.
The paradox about this sorry state is that when the nation got to realise that the man who was contesting for the presidential election in 2007 was not 99 per cent fit to steer this ship of state, we accepted. We accepted on the grounds that whatever ailment was afflicting him could be managed and was not serious enough to incapacitate his ability to manage this complex amalgam of pseudo-nations. It was a huge leap of faith that very few countries have ever taken. It is this same leap of faith that he has refused to take repeatedly every time he has had to travel outside on official assignments and/or for personal reasons to see the coterie of physicians attending to his afflicted body.
His lack of confidence in his vice president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has never been hidden. Unlike his predecessor, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who until his public spat out with his deputy, he has hardly handed over critical assignments to his vice president. In some instances, routine matters such as presiding over meetings of the federal executive council have had to be deferred pending the return of the president. At other times, Nigeria’s representation at global events requiring the presence of world leaders had to be handed over to the foreign affairs minister, Ojo Maduekwe.
Yar’Adua’s insistence on holding on to the reins from his sick bed was made the more glaring last week when the president’s spokesman, Segun Adeniyi, called international media houses to correct the initial news reports they had sent out that the vice president was in charge. What a wholesome picture on how the largest black nation on earth is administered.
Some have often argued that Yar’Adua and Jonathan have never had a symbiotic relationship based on mutual trust and common interest. They were, the argument goes, forced into an alliance of strange bedfellows by the ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party. Personally, I find this line of reasoning flawed. Lest we forget, the president himself was not chosen by popular acclamation by his party. He was hand-picked from a subjective process that forced more popular and possibly worthier candidates who wanted to be president to step aside. Just like his forced marriage with his deputy, he was foisted on us. Had he been the popular choice of the party and assumed the presidency through a process that was not flawed, he probably won’t think twice about handing over to a deputy for short or even extended periods.
As unfortunate as it is, the president’s present ailment should not come as a surprise to anyone. Acute pericarditis is one of several complications that can arise from a failed kidney(s) – that is if we are to believe the speculations about the remote causes of his poor health. Even though the president has repeatedly refused too divulge the primary cause of his ailment, his physical deterioration since assuming the presidency has been glaring to all but the blind. The added strain of running a complex entity like Nigeria would only speed up his delicate condition.
Once the pains in the president’s chest region set in and his physician diagnosed the exact nature of his current predicament, they should have counselled him to take a break. Pericarditis is one of those conditions that do not heal quickly if the patient continues to engage in strenuous and stressful activities. Insufficient rest could even lead to a fatal heart attach. He should have hand over properly and reposed the same confidence in his deputy as the nation has in him in the last two and half years.
His insistence on running the country from his hospital bed in far away Saudi Arabia cannot help him much. Neither does it help us much. In fact, the president is not doing this country any huge favours by hugging his telephone. In his current state, any decisions he has to take from his hospital bed would probably be impaired by medication and his state of mind. In so doing, the president and his handlers treat the nation and its citizens like we are their private property. We are not.
He and his vice president were supposedly elected on the same platform to run this country for four years. Just the same, the drafters of the 1999 Constitution envisaged a situation in which the Number One citizen may not always be fully disposed to carry out his duties to the best of his abilities. It is for this reason the constitution provides for a fall back option in the person of the vice president. Jonathan, therefore, should be allowed to take over until the president makes a full recovery. In times like this, we need certainty not further uncertainty. We need clarity as to who is in charge and not whispers and further rumours over who is running the country.
Until that happens, I will not lose sleep over the president’s health. Since he is unconcerned about the nation’s well being, why should I be about his health?
November 30, 2009
Tags: health, Nigeria, Yar’Adua Posted in: Ijeoma Nwogwugwu
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