More Extracts From OBJs New Book- On YarAduas Illness & Death Before he went to Germany, after being rushed to the National Hospital in Abuja, he phoned to tell me that he was going out of the country for medical reasons. What he did not reveal was the nature of his illness. I, however, became somewhat apprehensive when I learned that he was placed on dialysis that night. The persistence of the illness, and the cover up, caused me more apprehension especially when he abandoned Germany for Saudi Arabia. I never heard anything from him after that. The story I heard about his visit to Saudi Arabia was awkward. He did not inform his deputy as to how to manage things in his absence. “On arrival in Saudi Arabia he was wheeled into the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), and for at least forty-eight hours nobody was in communication with him as far as the governance of Nigeria was concerned. What it meant was that for that period of time, Nigeria had no government. What a great pity! I wanted to know more about the exact medical condition of Yar’Adua, the president of Nigeria. “I realised that a number of countries would know for sure; among them would be Germany, the US, Saudi Arabia, the UK, France, Israel and maybe Russia. I decided to indirectly check with the ambassadors of these countries. What I heard did not allay my fears. One said, ‘Your President is surely not too well’. Another said, ‘We believe he would be able to cope.’ Both were diplomatic answers, but one was more so than the other. “At that point, I was left in no doubt that the arrangement made was shoddy, tardy, unpatriotic, selfish, and reckless. No nation should be left hanging in such a manner. I subtly campaigned for the emergence of Jonathan as acting president to take the country out of tenterhooks.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 12:07:15 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015