As anxiety builds up in Abuja on the uncertain status of President Umaru Yar Adua’s health, the Attorney General of the Federation, Michael Aondoakaa, has become the lightning rod in a new campaign to coral a loyal constituency around the presidency and demonise opponents.
According to Section 144 of the Nigerian Constitution, if by a resolution of two-thirds majority of all the members of the federal executive council, it is declared that the president or vice-president is incapable of discharging the functions of his office, a medical panel would be established to conduct an examination and report to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives of such infirmity of body or mind that has incapacitated him from discharging the functions of his office.
Since President Yar’Adua’s personal physician, Salihu Banye, openly declared last week that the president is suffering from “acute pericardities,” the leadership of the country’s executive and legislative arms that are supposed to determine the fate of the office have remained loudly silent on the issue.
Senior administration officials have, however, contained their anxiety and lack of direction by calling for prayers for the president’s health, but Mr. Aondoakaa, speaking to journalists recently in Makurdi, Benue State, described as immoral, calls by the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Rotimi Akeredolu, that the president submit himself for medical assessment in the interest of the country, and that if not strong enough to perform the functions of his office, he should resign.
“While other Nigerians are praying for his (Yar’Adua’s) quick recovery, the NBA President is thinking differently and that is immoral,” stated Mr. Aondoakaa, calling the NBA president’s comments “insensitive”.
“The call is in bad faith because the spokesman of Mr. President gave a graphic medical account of the President from his personal physician,” Mr. Aondoakaa added, saying, instead “the NBA president should resign first” because, as he claimed, “there is nothing in the constitution that says somebody holding public office should not fall sick.”
But Mr. Akeredolu fired back at Mr. Aondoakaa yesterday, accusing the nation’s chief law officer of wilful distortion and warning him not to “bite more than he can chew”.
Debunking the allegation
“When they asked me about the state of his health and this and that, I said I am not his doctor; I don’t know whether he is strong and I don’t want to speculate. But I said that he should submit himself for medical assessment in the interest of the country and that if by the medical assessment result, he is not strong enough to perform the function of his office, then he should resign,” Mr. Akeredolu clarified yesterday.
Disinformation campaign
Two senior administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, expressed frustration and helplessness, describing Mr. Aondoakaa’s current interventions as “no better than disinformation and propaganda to serve his own ends.”
On Wednesday last week, when rumours went wild that the president had passed on, Mr. Aondoakaa issued a statement from his office expressing “great shock and dismay the rumours making the rounds about the state of health of Mr. President”, claiming that the president had merely gone to Saudi Arabia for “routine medical check”.
Mr. Aondoakaa, who suggested that he was in constant touch with the President in Jeddah, added that “It is unfortunate that cynics always read meanings to the movement of the President, especially whenever he travels outside the country.” His statement was signed by his Special Assistant, Onov Tyuulugh.
Top government officials, however, told NEXT yesterday in Abuja that Mr. Aondoakaa was flatly peddling falsehood to the nation, and that he had not secured presidential access for a while.
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