LAGOS — Nigeria's President Umaru Yar'Adua, who is in poor health and has made no public appearances since November, has met with a delegation of Muslim dignitaries, one of them said Friday.

"We met him yesterday, we shook hands, we prayed for him to have a speedy recovery," said the imam of the national mosque in the Nigerian capital Abuja, Ustaz Musa Mohamed, reached by telephone.

With three other Islamic officials, the imam went to see Yar'Adua at the end of the day on Thursday for a visit that lasted about a quarter of an hour, Mohamed told AFP.

"We sat with him, we met him sitting along with his wife and his aide de camp," the imam added. "He was recovering."

"We shook hands, he extended his hand to us. He also extended his hand again to say bye bye to us."

Yar'Adua, 58, was evacuated last November to a hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, suffering from a severe heart condition. After three months in hospital he returned discreetly to Nigeria overnight on February 24.

His deputy, Goodluck Jonathan, became acting president of Africa's most populous nation on February 8, a status that was confirmed when Yar'Adua returned to his homeland.

No pictures of Yar'Adua have been shown since he left for Saudi Arabia and he has made no public comment, nor has there been a meeting with Jonathan, who has taken charge of the world's eighth oil producer.

Apart from those close to Yar'Adua, few people appear to have had access to the head of state since his return and no details have filtered out regarding his true state of health, which has led to media speculation.

Mohamed said that he and the other Muslim dignitaries had been received by Yar'Adua to judge his state for themselves.


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^^^kini big deal

We shook hands, he farted, i saw him go to d laterine wud not change anything!!!!! dat man is incapacitated; it is clear that d imam did not tell us that he had a chat too with mr.president!!! A man who has become dumb because his unfortunate ailment is still being kept as an artefact in aso rock because he is hausa-fulani

The VP has yet to see him though. Why meet with Imams? Is he no longer interested in being president? Or Is he content running it as he likes?