FOR the umpteenth
time,
was last week gripped with the confusing puzzle over the state of health of
President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua. The palpable confusion over the Mr. President’s
health was widely reported by the media, especially the national newspaper on
Tuesday, April
15, a story which overshadowed, in significance, the 2008 Appropriation Bill that
was finally signed into law, after many months of roforofo fight between the
National Assembly and the Executive.
The most disturbing of the stories was that of The Punch with an alarming
banner headline: “Yar’Adua
ill, flown abroad”! The Guardian, on the other hand, was a bit mild, and
deliberately downplayed it, seemingly, with just a rider: ‘President off to
“medical review”.
According to the latter’s version, on its front page, however,
“immediately after he signed the document, the President left for
a date with his personal physician”, for what Presidential Spokesperson,
Segun Adeniyi called, a “medical review”.
In the words of Adeniyi, the president’s sickness is due to “an
allergic reaction”. Whatever intention The Guardian had in making it look
as though the impromptu departure of Mr. President was prearranged was negated
when it went ahead to report on the same front page that “Yar’Adua,
who was earlier billed to travel to Dakar, Senegal for the New Partnership for
African Development (NEPAD) heads of state meeting yesterday afternoon had to
travel to Germany for health reasons.” Meaning, the President had to
cancel a state function to attend to a health emergency overseas.
The pervading confusion was exacerbated further by the President’s
spokesperson, who with a straight face, informed the nation, while addressing
journalists after the budget signing ceremony, that “meanwhile, the
President will leave for Wiesbaden, Germany… to see his personal physicians
for a medical review of an indisposition believed to be due to an allergic
reaction”. Pray, what is “medical review” of an
“indisposition”? A case of deliberate misinformation, you will say,
because if we comprehend the word “meanwhile” as used in that context
very well, it is taken that the President’s health state, which we understood
nothing about from Segun Adeniyi’s linguistic jingoism, is just an aside. A
“meanwhile” thing, if you ask me.
As if he read the mood of the nation correctly thereafter, a nation left
both apprehensive and confused over their president’s health, the selfsame
President’s spokesperson was reported the very next day by the media as
clarifying that “Yar’ Adua is okay” (see ThisDay, April 16).
Quoting the News Agency of Nigeria,
papers widely reported Adeniyi affirming that the President is okay and will be
keeping his appointment at the hospital this afternoon having arrived here last
night”. This leaves one, unfortunately, with a thousand and one questions
begging for answers.
One, what is not okay with the President’s health which the nation he leads
does still not know, but really deserves to, which took him, and takes, him to
Germany, “to be keeping his appointment at the hospital? Two, if the
President “will be keeping his appointment”, as declared by Adeniyi,
who then certified him “okay”? And, okay on what? Three, what is this
“indisposition” and “allergic reaction” of Mr. President
that cannot be treated in all the specialist and teaching hospitals in the
country he happily presides over, except in Germany? Four, does the nation
deserve to know the mental, emotional, psychic and physical state of health of
its leaders? One often wonders why.
If Yar’Adua
blazed the trail to declare his physical assets not long after his assumption
of office, to the acclamation of all and sundry, is it not expected that his
“health wealth”, a different kind of asset, should be declared to the
nation so we can take note of it also, and act accordingly? Or, what is wrong
in knowing that Mr. President is suffering from headache, for instance, so as
to pray for his recovery? Or better still, is it treasonable, if you remember,
to know the state of health of a leader in a democracy
instead of the subsisting confusion and speculation? It is a sad commentary
that the state of health of Mr. President has been left to fester, like an
irritating sore for so long.
You may recall that his health condition came to the public domain in March
2007 during the run-in to the last presidential elections
in the country (In fact, it became a campaign issue of sorts). Yar’Adua,
who then was the governor of Katsina State and presidential candidate of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) was
reportedly rushed to Germany at the heat of the campaigns when he was expected
at a Presidential Campaign rally of the PDP at the MKO
Abiola Stadium, Abeokuta in Ogun State with the former President Olusegun
Obasanjo treating the nation then with his now famous “Umoru, are you
dead?” live telephone conversation via a loud speaker at the stadium with
then PDP
candidate, who was rumoured dead. But while reacting then to speculations about
his health, Yar’Adua
famously replied: “For those who want me dead, I have disappointed them. I
am alive, strong and unstoppable”.
On his sudden dash to
then, he further explained thus: “After visiting my doctor in
of
decided to come to
to have my long overdue medical attention. I have just had a session with the
doctor who has declared me fit for the challenges ahead… (see ThisDay, March
8 2007). To most Nigerians, Mr. President might be “alive” but his
regular visit to
for a “medical review” is an unwanted distraction that can
“stop” whatever good intentions he has for the nation. Also, whether
the recent event has proved his “fitness” is a matter of conjecture.
Much as no one can be permitted to assume that Mr. President is a celestial
being that cannot be sick, it does not speak well for the President’s men to
deceive the nation that all is okay with his health when events regularly point
to the contrary.
Why serve the nation with tissues of equivocation and ambiguities about such
an important matter? It sure beggars belief that those who profess certain
virtues do not embody and personify such. This administration has consistently
made a meat of being transparent, but what is, if one may ask, is so
transparent about a state of affairs where the state of health of a President
is smoldered in half truths? One question we all must ask the president’s
spokesperson is: Just how okay is your boss for the challenges of running a
complex, complicated and malgoverned nation like ours? And, what is riskier
than having someone with an uncertain health state run the show?
———-
This article was first
published in The Guardian newspaper, Monday April 21, 2008. It is reproduced
here, after a little editing, because of the pertinent issues it addressed
which essentially are still relevant against the backdrop of current related
developments in the Nigerian polity
