Three-month absence for medical treatment ends after Parliament sends deputation to Saudi Arabia
The Nigerian president yesterday flew back home after a three-month absence that left his country in political limbo.
Umaru Yar’Adua took off from Saudi Arabia, where he has been undergoing medical treatment, in one plane, while Nigerian government envoys — sent by Parliament to check on his health — travelled back in another, an official at Jeddah airport told Reuters.
The 58-year-old leader had left Nigeria in late November to receive medical treatment at a clinic in Jeddah for pericarditis, an inflammation of the membrane surrounding the heart, which can restrict normal beating. Rumours swirled about Yar’Adua’s health, and his prolonged absence led to protests about the lack of clear lines of authority in a country of 150-million people.
This month, the Parliament voted to transfer power to Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan until Yar’Adua was fit to resume his duties.
At the time, many Nigerians doubted that Yar’Adua would ever be well enough, casting a question mark over the leadership of the ruling party in the run-up to next year’s presidential election. Even though Yar’Adua is returning to Nigeria, questions about his health are bound to persist, so the political uncertainty is unlikely to lift quickly.
Nigeria’s Cabinet last week rejected a motion to declare him unfit to hold office, deciding instead to send a delegation to Saudi Arabia for an update on his health. Yar’Adua would have ceased to hold office if a two-thirds majority had declared him incapacitated and the verdict had been confirmed by a medical panel.
State in turmoil
Yar’Adua, who has also suffered kidney problems, left the country several times for what his advisers called medical checkups before he went to Saudi Arabia in November. He was admitted to a hospital the day after he arrived and remained there until last night, leaving a political vacuum.
In Yar’Adua’s absence more than 300 people have died and thousands have been displaced in religious violence between Christians and Muslims. There was a major kidnapping and an attack on a pipeline in the oil-rich Niger delta, and a young Nigerian man tried to bring down an airliner over Detroit, prompting the introduction of more stringent security regulations for people travelling from Nigeria.
Until Yar’Adua took over as president in May 2007, he was governor of his northern Katsina home state for eight years. —