, And Jonathan wept at the death bed
By Yusuph Olaniyonu, 05.09.2010
As details emerged at the weekend on the last moment of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, THISDAY can confirm that he gave up the ghost at exactly 9.02pm on Wednesday, May 5, 2010 after a long battle with kidney ailment, organ failure, pericarditis and some form of cancer.

The late President, sources said, died after he had shown positive signs of recovery the previous week. THISDAY checks reveal that since Yar’Adua was stealthily brought back from Saudi Arabia on February 24, his health had not been in stable condition, a situation medical experts explained as the symptom of the diseases that afflicted him.

Sources close to the family confirmed that he was able to speak with members of his family, the weekend before he died.
Prior to his discussion with members of the family, the condition of the then President was said to have “tremendously improved only for him to suffer a relapse on Monday, May 3.”

By Tuesday, May 4, new experts were flown in to attend to him. Between that Monday and Wednesday when he finally died, he had problems with breathing on some occasions and had to be supported by machines to support his breathing and stabilise his body temperature.

On some of these difficult occasions, the doctors would pump him and he would recover only for him to suffer a relapse.
“It was a great battle by the medical team to sustain him in those last 48 hours,” a source told THISDAY.
On the Wednesday night that Yar’Adua died, at about 8.45pm, his wife, Hajia Turai was downstairs receiving visitors when the team of specialist doctors, attending to her husband sent for her and then informed her that they had lost the battle to save the life of the former president.

The team of doctors consisting of experts from Germany, United States and Saudi Arabia had been reinforced a day earlier after the president’s condition suddenly grew worse.
Yar’Adua was eventually certified dead at 9.02pm in the presence of his wife.

Immediately after the doctor had confirmed him dead, the aide-de-camp (ADC), Colonel Mustapha Onoyiveta and Chief Security Officer, Yusuf Tilde told Turai that the first person, who had to be informed of the sad development, was the then Acting President Goodluck Jonathan.

The two top security operatives then drove to the Aguda House residence of Jonathan but they stopped on the way to inform the National Security Adviser (NSA), Lt. General Aliyu Muhammad Gusau that they had an urgent news for the then acting president.
On getting to Aguda House, the then president’s CSO and ADC met the acting president receiving some visitors but they got a message across to Jonathan that they had an urgent message for him from the Presidential Villa.

Jonathan, THISDAY learnt, quickly dismissed his visitors and took Tilde and Onoyiveta into an inner sitting room where he was informed that his boss and the 13th head of the Nigerian government had died a moment earlier.

The then acting President was shocked and grieved and had to be consoled by the two security operatives who also informed him that he was free to visit the family.

Jonathan immediately called the NSA, Hon. Dimeji Bankole, speaker of the House of Representatives, Senate President David Mark, who had earlier travelled to London, and Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SSG).
Within minutes, all the top officials Jonathan called gathered at his Aguda residence and drove in convoy to the Presidential Villa, with the exception of Mark.

At the Villa, the Jonathan team met a distraught Turai downstairs. They then commiserated with her.
In between sobs, the then First Lady told the party that as Muslims, her family had accepted their fate. She  invited the then acting president to go up stairs and see the remains of his principal.
Jonathan insisted Bankole should accompany him while others remained downstairs.

When they got inside the late President’s bedroom where his body was lying on the bed, immediately Jonathan sighted the body, he broke down and tears flowed freely from his face. The then acting president had to be consoled for several minutes by Bankole and a few members of the family who were with him.

When Jonathan and Bankole joined the rest of the delegation downstairs, they spent sometime to offer prayers for the repose of the soul of the departed leader and asked for God’s protection for the family he left behind. They later drove back to Aguda House.
Soon after, Jonathan and his team arrived at the Aguda House, they went into full security meeting where many more top security and government officials joined them to plan the burial and transition arrangements.

At the security parley, it was agreed that the burial arrangements should adopt the Murtala Muhammed and Sani Abacha plans as template.

Meanwhile, immediately after the news of the death had been officially broken to the then acting president, the NSA had moved to secure the Presidential Villa, changing all security staff from the pilot gate to other posts.

The immediate transformation of the security network was so exhaustive that by Thursday morning, any visitor to the Villa who did not have the new security clearance was unable to gain access into the premises.
Coincidentally, while the security meeting at the Aguda House was in session, the Yar’Adua family was equally packing all their belongings.

By 6.am, the family members had packed every one of their personal effects from every room and compartment.
Some of the items were conveyed to Katsina  in a C-130 aircraft, while others were loaded into trucks to move by road to Katsina.
Equally, the ADC, CSO and other security operatives had packed out their belongings ready to relocate from the seat of power.

The swift relocation of the Yar’Adua family and security operatives around the late president was the symbolic indication of the end of an era and the beginning of a new administration under President Jonathan.