As confusion reigned in some quarters yesterday over a report on an American website purporting that President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua had died, the Presidency moved swiftly last night to clear the air on the matter.
Presidential Spokesman Olusegun Adeniyi described it as a rumour, saying the President was not only alive “but very much conscious and getting better”.
Also, Yar’Adua’s Chief Economic Adviser, Tanimu Yakubu, believed to be part of the President’s kitchen cabinet, said reports that the president is brain dead are false.

He said the President would speak to journalists from his sick bed in Saudi Arabia "very soon".
At the Presidential Villa yesterday, there was no indication that anything was amiss as workers went about their normal duties without hindrance.
Even Vice-President Good-luck Jonathan was in his office throughout the day, where he received a number of visitors.
Some of those who visited him were Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, Petroleum Resources Minister Rilwanu Lukman, his Finance counterpart, Dr. Muhtar Mansur, Director-General of the State Security Service (SSS) Afakriya Gazama and former Works Minister Tony Anenih.

The President was admitted at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia since November 23, 2009 for acute pericarditis (an inflammatory condition of the covering of the heart).
He left the country without transmitting a letter to the National Assembly to empower Vice-President Jonathan to act as president, a development that has drawn the ire of critics and opposition elements.
But a new twist was added to the issue when two days ago, a national newspaper reported that the President was brain-damaged.
The report was also the nucleus of a story in London Telegraph yesterday which suggested that President Yar’Adua might have been clinically dead.

American Chronicle also added its own to the issue when it reported that the President had been dead since last December 10.
Adeniyi, who spoke to State House Correspondents in Abuja from Angola where he went to witness the opening ceremonies of the ongoing African Cup of Nations urged Nigerians to discountenance the story as not only false, but also a figment of the writers’ imagination.
He said: “The speculations are false. The President is alive and actually getting better. He is very much conscious, can talk and has been talking, including making phone calls to some people back home.”
Adeniyi who said he travelled to Angola with the President’s permission as a member of the Presidential Task Force on Super Eagles further stated that, “So, I am here officially but I am coming back home hopefully tomorrow because he has so directed.”
Yakubu said he attempted to speak to Yar'Adua on phone yesterday morning but the President was sound asleep, which made him (Yakubu) unable to talk to him.

Speaking in an interview with the BBC Hausa Service monitored in Kaduna, the chief economic adviser said the health condition of the President had improved dramatically.
“He (Yar’Adua) chats, reads and makes phone calls,” he said.
According to him, lots of negative remarks have been made on the President’s health, saying many of such statements are nothing but propaganda.
He said: “The negative statements are made by people who don’t like the President and who don’t mean well for this country. They said all government activities have come to a standstill due to the President’s ill-health, which is not true.

“You know as I know that the Vice-President has been steering the affairs of the country effectively. But those who don't like the President will not admit that. The railway contract was given in the President’s absence. Also, the textile revival fund was made available while the President was away. How can they now tell me that government work has been crippled?
“Everything about this government is moving normal. We should not create problem where there is none.

“Nigerians do not need to worry. Mr. President will speak to you (journalists) on phone very soon and you will help to broadcast what he said to the world. People are only making issue out of this situation while in fact this is not the first time such thing is happening in Nigeria. (General Ibrahim) Babangida (former Military President) spent more than two months out of the country when he was in power to attend to his health. Why are we making so much noise now?
“It is human for someone to be sick, and only God decides who lives or dies.”

SOURCE THISDAY

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