Nigeria: As Yar'Adua speaks to BBC (editorial)

January 16th, 2010

 

 

Lagos (Nigeria) - Nigerians woke up on Tuesday morning to the news of President Umaru Yar'Adua speaking to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Hausa Service. The President said he was responding to treatment and would return to the country 'as soon my doctors discharge me to resume my duties'.

 He thanked Nigerians for their support and urged the Super Eagles to do the nation proud in the on-going Nations Cup in Angola. On governance, he said he was in constant touch with the Vice President and the affairs of state were on course.

This 'breaking news' came a day after the Nigerian atmosphere was saturated with the rumour of the demise of the President and a few hours before the Senate was scheduled to debate his health condition and long absence from the country. Pro-democracy activists had also scheduled a rally for Tuesday in Abuja with a view to calling for the adherence to constitutional provisions by the President, and urging the National Assembly to act in that regard. Regrettably, however, a segment of the Nigerian populace has expressed doubt about the authenticity of the BBC report and called on President Yar'Adua to address the nation through a national television station.

It will be recalled that President Yar'Adua, who left the shores of Nigeria on health grounds to Saudi Arabia since November 23, 2008, did not deem it necessary to hand over to the Vice President or address the nation from his sick bed. This had led to widespread insinuations and rumours that the President was actually incapacitated and that his refusal to hand over to his deputy was in furtherance of a sectional agenda. Some Nigerians, apparently frustrated by the seeming vacuum in the Presidency and the incoherent information on the state of health of the President by government officials, had even called for a throw back to the military days, while several others, including the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), had gone to court in order to force the President to hand over to his deputy.

Section145 of the 1999 Constitution states, "Whenever the President transmits to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives a written declaration that he is proceeding on vacation or that he is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office, until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary such functions shall be discharged by the Vice-President as Acting President."

Illness, admittedly, is a human phenomenon. The 1999 Constitution had foreseen a situation where a Head of State, for varied reasons, may proceed on vacation. It is our considered view that President Yar'Adua should have availed himself of this provision while he attends to his health challenge. This would, in our view, have given fillip to the nation's nascent democracy and helped to entrench due process, the rule of law and constitutionalism. In contrast, the present situation has led many Nigerians to wonder, and rightly so, why it should be difficult for a President that reportedly signed the 2009 Supplementary Budget into law from his sick bed in Saudi Arabia, to balk at the idea of transmitting a letter to the National Assembly so that the Vice President can be sworn in as Acting President while he recuperates. Regrettably, the psychological turmoil in the country, occasioned by the indefinite absence of the President, detracts much from a government that prides itself on commitment to the rule of law. It also derogates from the patriotism of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.

Besides, we deplore the choice of the medium through which the President spoke publicly for the first time in 50 days. At a time of the Re-branding Nigeria project, when the Yar'Adua government is propagating 'Buy Made-in-Nigeria', the decision to speak to Nigerians through a foreign medium surely amounts to a deficit to this administration.

 

source.Daily Independent (Nigeria) - January 14, 2010.