Yar'Adua may return next week

Court orders probe of President's Health

, Declares FEC Unconstitutional

Nigeria drifting towards failed State, says Akinjide

By Muyiwa Adeyemi, Abiodun Fanoro, Lagos and Lemmy Ugbagbe, Abuja
BARRING any last minute change of plan, the ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua will arrive the country next week, even as the move is said to be against the advice of his doctors.

A competent source revealed last night that some members of his kitchen cabinet referred to as "hardliners" have concluded plans to bring him back to the country to defuse tension.

President Yar'Adua had in the last 61 days been receiving treatment in a Saudi Hospital, though there were unconfirmed reports that he might have left the King Fasaid Specialist Hospital in Jeddah.

The source also revealed that to convince his doctors that he would continue his medication in Nigeria, a giant construction company (name withheld) has been hired to build an Intensive Care Unit with life support machine in Aso Rock, Abuja.

It was gathered that the plan of this 'hardliners' is being coordinated by the President's wife Turai, who the source said "comes to Nigeria every other week to see to the lobbying of the members of the National Assembly not to allow debate that can make them pass any resolution that will mandate Yar'Adua to transmit any letter making Vice President Goodluck Jonathan as Acting President or call for his impeachment.

The source revealed that about N28 billion might have been spent in the last 60 days to maintain the status quo.

An inside source also disclosed that Economic Commission for West African State (ECOWAS) would, in the upper week meet in Abuja without Yar'Adua as its current chairman. "ECOWAS and African Union (AU) heads of state are said to be uncomfortable anytime Yar'Adua attends their meetings because of fear that he could collapse as a result of his frail look," the source said.

Meanwhile, fresh controversy has been thrown up in the legal circles as the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Daniel Abutu yesterday declared as unconstitutional the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and its purported resolution in favour of Yar'Adua's ability to continue in office.

The Chief Judge held that the FEC was unknown to the country's 1999 Constitution and as such lacked the competence to reach a resolution on the vexed issue of the 'absentee' President's ability to perform his presidential duties.

Delivering his judgement in the suit instituted by former Minority leader in the House of Representatives, Farouk Adamu Aliyu and Sani Hussaini Garun Gabbas, challenging Yar'Adua's absence without handing over to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, Abutu said under the provision of Section 144 of the Constitution, the only body that can competently decide on the capacity or otherwise of the President to perform his function is the Executive Council of the Federation.

He also held that the court could take over the exclusive duty of the Executive Council of the Federation as spelt out by Section 144 of the 1999 constitution and therefore declined the Plaintiffs' prayer to that effect.

Abutu held that the excerpt of the resolution of the Federal Executive Council meeting annexed to an affidavit by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Michael Aondoakaa (SAN) did not help his case because "the Federal Executive Council is not known to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria."

The defendants had "annexed to the counter affidavit excerpt of Wednesday December 9, 2009, text of the resolution of their 46 meetings,"(where it) "took notice of the call of the people for President Yar'Adua to resign council having viewed all the facts on then resolved unanimously that there was no basis for the call and that President Yar'Adua was fit."

Consequently, Abutu ordered the Executive Council of the Federation to within 14 days pass a resolution on whether or not, having regards to President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's absence since November 23, last year, he is capable of discharging his executive functions.

He also held: "I can not give an order directing the Vice President to begin to perform the functions of office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, since he has been performing such functions".

Reacting to the verdict, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa (SAN) said he would study it even as he pledged that he would comply with it.

Plaintiffs' counsel, Bamidele Aturu expressed happiness at the outcome of the case, saying it was victory for democracy.

Specifically, the plaintiffs through their counsel Bamidale Aturu, went to Court seeking the following declarations among others:


A declaration that the absence of the President from the country and from his statutory duties and functions for medical treatment since the 23rd day of November, 2009 in a Saudi Arabia hospital outside the purview of section 145 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 constitutes permanent incapacity within the meaning and intendment of section 146 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.

A declaration that it is unlawful and unconstitutional for the President indefinitely to exercise or purport to exercise the powers of the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from a hospital outside the territory of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

A declaration that the indefinite absence of the President from Nigeria since 23 November 2009 without notifying the National Assembly or authorizing the transfer of the exercise of the powers of the office of the President to the Vice-President is compatible with the oath of allegiance and oath for the due execution of the duties of his office prescribed in the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution by virtue of Section 149 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.

A declaration that the non-consideration by the Executive Council of the Federation for the purpose of passing or rejecting as resolution proposal as to whether or not the President suffers permanent incapacity as a result of his absence from his statutory duties and functions since the 23rd of November, 2009 for medical treatment is a flagrant violation of the spirit and letters of section 144 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and an indefensible breach of their oath of allegiance and oath for the due execution of the duties of his office prescribed in the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution by virtue of section 149 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999", among others.
Elder statesman and former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation Chief Richard Akinjide (SAN) has expressed fear that Nigeria is progressively moving towards becoming a failed state.

Akinjide is of the view that the present constitutional crisis precipitated by the continued absence of president Yar'Adua and his refusal to hand over power to his vice, among others, are problems pushing the country to the precipice.

The elder statesman however lauded former President Olusegun Obasanjo's un-equivocal advice to President Yar'Adua to resign if he knew his health could not enable him to perform functions of his office.

His words: "I read in the print media, the view expressed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, telling President Yar'Adua point blank to resign if his health could no longer cope with the demands of his office. I believe Obasanjo has said it all. I want to say categorically that Obasanjo's view reflects and represents the view of the over-whelming majority of rational, patriotic and objective Nigerians"

The former minister, however, absolved Obasanjo of any blame in the emergence of Yar'Adua as president.

According to him, Obasanjo must have sought and relied on expert advice before throwing up Yar'Adua for the presidency.

The blame, according to him, should go to whoever gave the medical advice that Yar'Adua was fit to rule: "I think something was wrong with the medical advice Obasanjo was given. (Though) I am not competent to comment on that because I was not an insider, but whosoever gave the medical advice saying that Yar'Adua was fit to perform the functions of his office, has contributed immensely to the present crisis. During the campaign (in 2007), it was an open secret that when Yar'Adua was campaigning in Ado-Ekiti, he collapsed, which shows clearly he could not cope with the stress of his office," Akinjide said, arguing that Nigerians have the right to know the medical record of the president and the true state of his present health.

"We now have a nation without a leader; we now have a boat without a captain, we now have an army without a general. I will not say that is a failed state, but we are steadily moving towards that."

The legal luminary identified bad leadership, corruption and absence of an efficient constitution as some other problems impeding good governance and also causing it to drift towards a failed state status.

While casting aspersion on the zoning formula in the emergence of the country's president, the former minister declared that what the country needed was a committed and patriotic leader irrespective of where he or she hailed from who would fix the country.

He noted that the time had come for the emergence of such a patriotic and selfless leader who would help restore the dignity of the country, restore its values and the image which had been badly battered.