Yar’Adua Bans Close-up Pictures to Prevent Public from Observing His Physical Condition.
Due to his gaunt and emaciated appearance occasioned by sickness¸ Nigeria’s “Supreme Court President”, Umaru Yar'Adua, has taken unprecedented steps to prevent his image and likeness from appearing in the press.

First, he has banned photojournalists from taking close shots of him and publishing such in any newspaper. And the communication department at the presidency has stopped uploading photographs of Yar'Adua to the website of the State house (www.nigeriafirst.org) pending the time its principal subject would have gained enough weight to look like the doctor, not the patient.

Saharareporters has learned that a photojournalist at the New Agency of Nigeria (NAN) has been queried for "taking and circulating pictures of Mr. Yar'Adua that his office considers embarrassing."

The new policy was devised after a series of photos emerged in several newspapers following Yar'Adua’s so-called two-week vacation. When accurate but unflattering reports of Yar’Adua’s preparations for a medical leave surfaced in SaharaReporters and other media, those arrangements were cancelled at the last minute and a “vacation” announced in its place.


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But although spokesman Segun Adeniyi told the press his boss would spend the vacation at the Obudu Ranch in Cross River State, Dodan Barracks in Lagos, and Yar’Adua’s home state of Katsina, Yar’Adua was instead marooned in the Aso Rock villa residence in Abuja. Reports said he had been too weak to travel. A medical source had also told Saharareporters that given the state of Yar’Adua’s weakened lungs, his doctors would not medically permit travel to Obudu Ranch, where the high altitude heights would have made breathing a nightmare for him.

The state of Yar'Adua's health has reduced State activities to the barest minimum. One of his ministers told Saharareporters after yesterday's Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting that Yar'Adua could not stay longer than 30 minutes in what he said was the shortest FEC he had ever attended.

At that meeting, photojournalists were forbidden from taking close shots of Yar'Adua. A number of newspaper editors were warned to carry embarrassing photos of Yar'Adua at their own risk. Since Yar’Adua does not have a choice in whether or in what circumstances public pictures of him are published, it remains to be seen if editors nationwide will go along with what amounts to providing the nation with part of the truth. For today, a majority of the mainstream newspapers only settled for front-page photos of ministers as they engaged in staged-managed "photo ops" banter at the State House . It is not clear how the television stations plan to report public appearances of Yar’Adua, if any.

This man go die for office oooooo

I'm sorry but it is people like you who just ooze ignorance. Why the unhealthy obsession with the man's health? It sucks. Many leaders in history and as of now do have their health issues, I do not see how this is of any difference. Only that people like you and the immature Nigeria's press have an unhealthy interest.

So what if "e go die soon o"? Like you or the idiots who have an obsession with him will live for ever? People get a grip. This ain't no news.

ElRazur:

I'm sorry but it is people like you who just ooze ignorance. Why the unhealthy obsession with the man's health? It sucks. Many leaders in history and as of now do have their health issues, I do not see how this is of any difference. Only that people like you and the immature Nigeria's press have an unhealthy interest.

So what if "e go die soon o"? Like you or the idiots who have an obsession with him will live for ever? People get a grip. This ain't no news.

My God this one Na PRo YAR DUll.

No doubt people have health challenges but you can't compare a simple head ache to more complex liver and kidney related issues ( or whatever yar adua is suffering from).  If we refer to back to history as you mentioned we find most sensible leaders with a health issues that we all know is  causing a big hinderance to their sense of judgment would not and never be contention for a leadership post or simply resign .  That is what i call leadership. 

In Nigeria it is a different case because we are so self centered and care less about the general direction of the country we are simply stuck in that CHOP AND DIE mentality.

Please tell when yar adua is on a foregin trip is  he is going to advise the photographers not to take close up pictures?.

ElRazur:

I'm sorry but it is people like you who just ooze ignorance. Why the unhealthy obsession with the man's health? It sucks. Many leaders in history and as of now do have their health issues, I do not see how this is of any difference. Only that people like you and the immature[b] Nigeria's press have an unhealthy interest.[/b]

So what if "e go die soon o"? Like you or the idiots who have an obsession with him will live for ever? People get a grip. This ain't no news.

having an interest in your presidents health is not unhealthy
people have the right to know if their president is kolo or not
if he is physical fit to run the office and now its getting odd
he is now walking with a limp to the right

_{few years after Tony Blair got in people talked about his grey hair
the press talked about Gordon browns big jaw
the press talked about John Prescott being overweight
the press talked about Alistair Darlings colour combination}

ElRazur:

I'm sorry but it is people like you who just ooze ignorance. Why the unhealthy obsession with the man's health? It sucks. Many leaders in history and as of now do have their health issues, I do not see how this is of any difference. Only that people like you and the immature Nigeria's press have an unhealthy interest.

So what if "e go die soon o"? Like you or the idiots who have an obsession with him will live for ever? People get a grip. This ain't no news.

Unbeweavable!!! Now the above is exactly why I keep saying that I fear the people of Nigeria, and not the government.

blacksta:

My God this one Na PRo YAR DUll.

No doubt people have health challenges but you can't compare a simple head ache to more complex liver and kidney related issues ( or whatever yar adua is suffering from).  If we refer to back to history as you mentioned we find most sensible leaders with a health issues that we all know is  causing a big hinderance to their sense of judgment would not and never be contention for a leadership post or simply resign .  That is what i call leadership. 

In Nigeria it is a different case because we are so self centered and care less about the general direction of the country we are simply stuck in that CHOP AND DIE mentality.

Please tell when yar adua is on a foregin trip is  he is going to advise the photographers not to take close up pictures?.

Again I am merely defending common sense here and am not in anyway Pro or Anti anything. I suggest you look up on my few posts I have made on the short time I registered here.

Please point tell me which of these leaders have made decision that blows in their face and can be directly linked to their poor health issues? Or you are going to make a baseless claims and present it as fact? Boris Yeltsin was always appearing to be drunk, but he still managed to run Russia and never did I remember him making a bad judgement as a result of his alleged alcohol problem.

Dude we have no idea what is wrong with the president [ that is if anything is wrong with him in the first place]  until them it will be simply unnecessary to make bold claim as to what he is suffering from. Now on second thought, if he is suffering from liver/kidney problem. You do realise people suffering from such condition can live a fairly normal lifestyle that over all have no hindrances on their Mental judgement whatsoever? If in doubt have a look up on dialysis machine and what it does for the patient.

Dis Guy:

having an interest in your presidents health is not unhealthy
people have the right to know if their president is kolo or not
if he is physical fit to run the office and now its getting odd
he is now walking with a limp to the right  

_{few years after Tony Blair got in people talked about his grey hair
the press talked about Gordon browns big jaw
the press talked about John Prescott being overweight
the press talked about Alistair Darlings colour combination}

Now you want go quoting people's right and what not. Yet you forget that the president have the bigger right to keep his health affairs private. Here, please scan and upload your payslip here. At least I have the right to know how much you are earning, No?

Again I am telling you what I told the Blacksta - The alleged condition do not in any way have an impact on how he runs the country. It just goes to show the back ward mentality my people have toward people they consider "disable". So what if he is limping on both legs? He do not make decisions with his legs but with his advisors and his brains for crying out loud.

Please point me to a link where the press in the UK talked about the Jaw of Gordon brown.

Stop posting inaccurate information. The pressed never talked about the weight of John Prescott. He wrote an autobiography where he addressed the issue before it was serialized in the press.

Alistair darling colour combination? What the mess is that? Please pass me a proof of this.


For your information, Gordon Brown is BLIND in one eye and yet the media do not jump on about it in here nor do they run weekly article here on the state of his eye and question if he can run the country or not. People wake up and smell the coffee.

I don't know why some people are following the President's health condition as if his ill-health is the problem of Nigeria. I believe we should concentrate upon looking for solutions to the religious crisis and corruption that is ravaging our country than attacking the president's health negatively. He is human, so his being sick is nothing extra-ordinary. If you can not wish him well, just let him be.

@jamace

This is not a matter of praying for him.If yaradua dies in office(God forbid) i do not think you know the level of crisis that will descend on nigeria bearing in mind the political set up of this country.

ElRazur:

Again I am merely defending common sense here and am not in anyway Pro or Anti anything. I suggest you look up on my few posts I have made on the short time I registered here.

Please point tell me which of these leaders have made decision that blows in their face and can be directly linked to their poor health issues? Or you are going to make a baseless claims and present it as fact? Boris Yeltsin was always appearing to be drunk, but he still managed to run Russia and never did I remember him making a bad judgement as a result of his alleged alcohol problem.

what are u saying?

poor health is only a factor if your performance in noting to write home about, like the case of yaradua here. And u seem to be a bad student of history though, otherwise you should know that Boris Yeltsin was drunk when he declared a military invasion on Chechnya and that led to his eventual downfall.

Dude we have no idea what is wrong with the president [ that is if anything is wrong with him in the first place]  until them it will be simply unnecessary to make bold claim as to what he is suffering from. Now on second thought, if he is suffering from liver/kidney problem. You do realise people suffering from such condition can live a fairly normal lifestyle that over all have no hindrances on their Mental judgement whatsoever? If in doubt have a look up on dialysis machine and what it does for the patient.

u seem to be contradictin urself here. the question is why does yaradua have a problem with giving full disclosures of health?
he is a public officer, the chief representative of the people who in normal circumstances is accountable to the people. why dos he have to degenerate to the extent of threatening the media with publishing his pictures.

Now you want go quoting people's right and what not. Yet you forget that the president have the bigger right to keep his health affairs private. Here, please scan and upload your payslip here. At least I have the right to know how much you are earning, No?

u sound so uninformed. no public officer has such right, it is called the people,s right to know and accountability.
and you have no right to see my payslip because I am a private citizen, not a public citizen and not accountable to u.

Again I am telling you what I told the Blacksta - The alleged condition do not in any way have an impact on how he runs the country. It just goes to show the back ward mentality my people have toward people they consider "disable". So what if he is limping on both legs? He do not make decisions with his legs but with his advisors and his brains for crying out loud.

to an extent u are right. but i choose to disagree, this guy has failed in all known ramifications yet he is portrayed as an intellectual, one can only deduce from this that his inhibiting factor is his health.
if u know of a better reason y he is not performing pls share it with us.

Please point me to a link where the press in the UK talked about the Jaw of Gordon brown.

are u in the uk?
the number one object of jest in the uk media is gordon brown. . . . . . .no big deal
and he does not restrain the press from detailing everything concerning his private life because he understands and appreciate the essence of accountability.

Let them leave the sick man alone jare. He's struggling to hang on to life and you guys are here trying to send him to his early grave with your cameras. Karma is a bitch oh.

noetic:

what are u saying?

poor health is only a factor if your performance in noting to write home about, like the case of yaradua here. And u seem to be a bad student of history though, otherwise you should know that Boris Yeltsin was drunk when he declared a military invasion on Chechnya and that led to his eventual downfall.

I am saying am not in support of him or Pro Yar'dua like some seem to think.
As for Boris, it all depends on where you stand. All the cases of his alcoholism are "alleged". Also there other reports that claims he suffers from a neurological disorder that affects his sense of balance. This we cannot prove or disprove and as such, I will restrain from saying he was drunk when he declared war on chechnya [A war that lasted two years]

His performance as a president haven't stalled in my opinion. He is a leader and as such should be allowed to get on with his job.

noetic:


u seem to be contradictin urself here. the question is why does yaradua have a problem with giving full disclosures of health?
he is a public officer, the chief representative of the people who in normal circumstances is accountable to the people. why dos he have to degenerate to the extent of threatening the media with publishing his pictures

No I don't see how I am contradicting myself. You are however trying to use the justification of "service and accountability to the people" to pry into his private life. That is just wrong and amounts to voyeurism on the part of the Nigerian press and who ever see the urge to know about his private life - especially his health.

noetic:

.
u sound so uninformed. no public officer has such right, it is called the people,s right to know and accountability.
and you have no right to see my payslip because I am a private citizen, not a public citizen and not accountable to u.
to an extent u are right. but i choose to disagree, this guy has failed in all known ramifications yet he is portrayed as an intellectual, one can only deduce from this that his inhibiting factor is his health.
if u know of a better reason y he is not performing pls share it with us.
are u in the uk?
the number one object of jest in the uk media is gordon brown. . . . . . .no big deal
and he does not restrain the press from detailing everything concerning his private life because he understands and appreciate the essence of accountability.

I must say the example of using your payslip is probably a wrong example. However, let us not lose the fact that he is running the country well [by Nigeria's standard off course] and as such the disclosure of his state of health should not be up for debate. As accountability goes, his health state in my view is off limits to the Nigerian press.

His banning of photos is within reasons. If his health are becoming a national obsession then it is understandable that he bans the media. It aint like his photos are fetching dollars or been hung in galleries. There are abundance if the Nigerian press really want one. What they are doing is to paint in in ill-health as much as possible. So he is with reasons that he bans them.

As for Gordon brown. I need you to let us compare likes for likes you see and not just take what suits us to back up our points. I need you to remember that UK is different in the sense that they have a long running culture of making Comedy satirical of those in power. However, they do not have a strange obsession with prying into the lives of those running the country, which is what we are doing in Nigeria.

Remember Jeremy Clarkson had to apologise after calling him "a one eyed idiot" the other day. It is because people here frown at such things.

St.Funmi:

Let them leave the sick man alone jare. He's struggling to hang on to life and you guys are here trying to send him to his early grave with your cameras. Karma is a bitch oh.

Why contest for a public office if you know are unhealthy. Even McCain had to prove he was physically fit during the election campaign. No one forced him to do this.

bawomolo:

Why contest for a public office if you know are unhealthy. Even McCain had to prove he was physically fit during the election campaign. No one forced him to do this.

Do you have any proof he wasn't physically fit when he contested for office? Or do you have proof that he is now unfit? Until you have read his doctor's report on his state of health I don't think you are in a position to make comments on his health. It is things like this that baffles me about us. It appear many of my people will believe anything as long as it is in the press.

ElRazur:

I must say the example of using your payslip is probably a wrong example. However, let us not lose the fact that he is running the country well [by Nigeria's standard off course] and as such the disclosure of his state of health should not be up for debate. As accountability goes, his health state in my view is off limits to the Nigerian press.

I dont believe you actually wrote this. My heart saddens for all of us. It is either you are a benefactor of yar adua or you are family. yar adua has been in government now for almost 2 years now and not an inch of the so called 7 point agenda has been achieved. The list is endless of failures. One example that comes to mind is a so called declaration of state emergency on the power sector. What happened to the so called Electoral Reforms.

Under Yar adua Nigeria has taken 1000 steps backwards.

ElRazur:


Do you have any proof he wasn't physically fit when he contested for office? Or do you have proof that he is now unfit? Until you have read his doctor's report on his state of health I don't think you are in a position to make comments on his health. It is things like this that baffles me about us. It appear many of my people will believe anything as long as it is in the press.

he was showing signs of being sick on the campaign trail and even missed some dates on his campaign. It doesn't matter whether he got sick before or after getting voted in but people have a right to inquire about the health of a public official. Dick Cheney has had heart surgeries while being VP but that didn't stop the press from following his health. Ted kennedy is another example. Why is he running from the camera.

@jamace

This is not a matter of praying for him.If yaradua dies in office(God forbid) i do not think you know the level of crisis that will descend on nigeria bearing in mind the political set up of this country.

Nothing will happen that has never happened in history. I make bold to say that nothing bad will happen. It will only lead to a change which is constitutional. Express no fear about the presidents' health. Your fear should be about our religious intolerance and corruption plague. Both are the real threat to the corperate existence of Nigeria.

blacksta:

I dont believe you actually wrote this. My heart saddens for all of us.  It is either you are a benefactor of yar adua or you are family.  yar adua has been in government now for almost 2 years now  and not an inch of the so called 7 point agenda has been achieved.  The list is endless of  failures.  One example that comes to mind is a so called declaration of state emergency on the power sector. What happened to the so called Electoral Reforms.

Under Yar adua Nigeria has taken 1000 steps backwards.

This is getting tiresome now. I do not know him and nor am I affiliated with him in anyway or form. Like I said before,  I am merely defending common sense. I suppose this is probably too much for a few folks around here to grasp.

The president is running the country as he see fits and as stipulated by the Nigerian constitution [hence why I said by Nigeria's standard] Simply because you read all the stories of him not doing well or been a "baba go slow" do not mean he is so. Don't forget that the we are quick to highlight the negatives, when we completely ignore the Positive side of his tenure so far/


1000 step backwards? Really? Please list 100 out of those one thousand

bawomolo:

he was showing signs of being sick on the campaign trail and even missed some dates on his campaign.  It doesn't matter whether he got sick before or after getting voted in but people have a right to inquire about the health of a public official.  privates Cheney has had heart surgeries while being VP but that didn't stop the press from following his health.  Ted kennedy is another example.  Why is he running from the camera.

"He was showing signs of being sick" Can I ask you what you do for a living and if you are in anyway qualified to give assessment on his state of health.
You guys keep missing the point. You do not have the right to know his health whether he is serving the public or not. He's got the right to privacy which people like you and the media are not allowing him. How hard is that to understand?

Here let me give you another example to highlight this for you. Two people in a room. One smokes and the other do not. If the smoker decides to smoke, and the other persons object to it. Who do you think have more right? The smoker who have the right to smokes what he wants and the non smoker who have the right to breathe clean and unpolluted air? Deal with that and you may see why you and those nosing around have no right to his health affairs or record.

He is running away from the camera so to speak, as individual like you have turned it into an obsession. For how long is the discussion for his health going on for in the Nigerian press now? Too long if you ask me.

Please stop comparing Apples and Oranges. Dick cheney never had the American press reporting day in dat out, or on a weekly basis on his health. It wasn't an obsession like we have here. That is the point you guys are missing.

Yar’Adua Bans Close-up Pictures to Prevent Public from Observing His Physical Condition.
Due to his gaunt and emaciated appearance occasioned by sickness¸ Nigeria’s “Supreme Court President”, Umaru Yar'Adua, has taken unprecedented steps to prevent his image and likeness from appearing in the press.

Didn’t they realize that the minute he ran for office, he lost the right to privacy when it comes to his WELL BEING and any factors that may affect his performance in office??

First, he has banned photojournalists from taking close shots of him and publishing such in any newspaper. And the communication department at the presidency has stopped uploading photographs of Yar'Adua to the website of the State house (www.nigeriafirst.org) pending the time its principal subject would have gained enough weight to look like the doctor, not the patient.

He went as far as to actually BAN photos of himself being published?

Saharareporters has learned that a photojournalist at the New Agency of Nigeria (NAN) has been queried for "taking and circulating pictures of Mr. Yar'Adua that his office considers embarrassing."

So, the right of the people to know of his state of health should be IGNORED because he cannot handle seeing his own image? Interesting!!

The new policy was devised after a series of photos emerged in several newspapers following Yar'Adua’s so-called two-week vacation. When accurate but unflattering reports of Yar’Adua’s preparations for a medical leave surfaced in SaharaReporters and other media, those arrangements were cancelled at the last minute and a “vacation” announced in its place.

So the essence is not to post ACCURATE information for the people to see?

But although spokesman Segun Adeniyi told the press his boss would spend the vacation at the Obudu Ranch in Cross River State, Dodan Barracks in Lagos, and Yar’Adua’s home state of Katsina, Yar’Adua was instead marooned in the Aso Rock villa residence in Abuja. Reports said he had been too weak to travel. A medical source had also told Saharareporters that given the state of Yar’Adua’s weakened lungs, his doctors would not medically permit travel to Obudu Ranch, where the high altitude heights would have made breathing a nightmare for him.

The man is ill and the public should be kept in the dark about it all? Interesting!!

The state of Yar'Adua's health has reduced State activities to the barest minimum. One of his ministers told Saharareporters after yesterday's Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting that Yar'Adua could not stay longer than 30 minutes in what he said was the shortest FEC he had ever attended.

I wonder how they were able to measure State activity. I mean it is not like much has been done since he took office, so how did they get to tie the publishing of his images now?

At that meeting, photojournalists were forbidden from taking close shots of Yar'Adua. A number of newspaper editors were warned to carry embarrassing photos of Yar'Adua at their own risk. Since Yar’Adua does not have a choice in whether or in what circumstances public pictures of him are published, it remains to be seen if editors nationwide will go along with what amounts to providing the nation with part of the truth. For today, a majority of the mainstream newspapers only settled for front-page photos of ministers as they engaged in staged-managed "photo ops" banter at the State House . It is not clear how the television stations plan to report public appearances of Yar’Adua, if any.

Wow!!! And we claim to have a democracy??

Wow!!! And we claim to have a democracy??

we actually do have democracy, but we simply just chose to work with the CRACY more.

Yar Adua doesn't know what the hell is going on.

He is lost. He just wants to die a peaceful death curled up in some corner in some mansion somewhere away from the limelight.

Pity he owes too many godfathers too many debts to afford the luxury of a peaceful death.

Yar'Adua 2011,