Toe Part Of Honour, OBJ Tells Yar’Adua President Out Of Hospital – PDP

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has urged ailing President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to toe the line of honour following his protracted illness and absence in the country.

The former president who barred his mind at the annual Trust Dialogue organised by the  editor of the Daily Trust remarked that since he can no longer deliver quality leadership to the people then there is a path of honour based on moral principles.

Chief Obasanjo, who absolved himself from the choice of President Yar’Adua to succeed him said at the time of the campaign and elections, Yar’Adua health had shown serious improvement and stability.

He admitted that he was aware that the president had an ailment but said medical report presented to him indicated that he had successful kidney transplant.

He said: I was aware that he had a kidney transplant. In short when he was governor he was away for about six months”.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says President Umaru Yar’Adua has been discharged from a Saudi hospital, though it did not say when he will return to Nigeria.

Reports earlier this month said President Yar’Adua had left the King Faisal Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and was staying in VIP quarters attached to the facility.

In a statement, Tuesday the PDP confirmed the president has been discharged from the hospital and said he expressed hope of returning home as soon as possible.

Yar’Adua has made no appearances and has given only one brief radio interview since being flown to Saudi Arabia, November 23, 2009.

Vice President Goodluck Jonathan has assumed effective control of the government in his absence.

Officials have said Yar’Adua is suffering from a heart condition, acute peridcarditis. The president is also known to have a chronic kidney ailment and has travelled abroad several times in the past for medical treatment.

A federal court ruled last week that Jonathan can carry out presidential duties while Yar’Adua is away without a formal transfer of power.

However, federal judges are still considering three lawsuits seeking to have Jonathan sworn in as acting president.

Opposition groups have expressed fears of a power vacuum in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and a major oil producer.

Officials have said repeatedly that the president is improving and talking to aides on the phone.

 Also based on the awareness of the growing discontent within the polity, Senators who spoke on the issue on the condition of anonymity, noted that it was the legislature that was on trial.

One of them said, “There is nothing personal about this. We all wish the President well but we have a country to build. And we can no longer watch our country go down the hill.

The senators are seeking to be allowed to openly deliberate on the provisions of Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution.

Section 145 reads: “Whenever the President transmits to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives a written declaration that he is proceeding on vacation or that he is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office, until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary such functions shall be discharged by the Vice-President as Acting President.”

However, the three senators from Katsina State namely Ibrahim Ida, Mahmoud Kanti-Bello and Garba Lado were said to be organising a counter-force. None of them was reachable on the telephone as at the time of filing this report.

The three legislators had tried unsuccessfully to dissuade their colleagues from debating the issue when it came up last Tuesday. They, however, succeeded in “watering down the outcome.”

Mark had, as reported in the media on Monday, declared that President Yar’Adua was yet to breach any provision of the constitution even when civil society groups insisted that section 145 of the constitution was not complied with.

He was quoted as telling reporters in Lagos on Monday that “there is none (constitutional crisis) yet on his absence from office.

“The civil service rules are quite different from the constitution and so far, the President has not breached any constitution with his absence.”

Meanwhile, former Head of State, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida has congratulated the Senate for the matured manner in which it was handling the matters of state.

He said this when the Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba led Senate delegation to paid a condolence visit to him over the death of his wife Mariam, in Minna, Niger State.