Yar’Adua’s Men Cause Stir In Abuja •Parade Villa In Presidential Convoy

Written by Idowu Samuel , Abuja

It is now becoming clearer that family members and aides of ailing President Umaru  Yar’Adua are all out for a psychological warfare against Acting President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in order to frustrate plans by Jonathan to take further major decisions, including reconstituting the cabinet he sacked last week.

The psychological warfare being waged against Jonathan assumed a very funny dimension as they staged a make-believe parade of ailing president around the Presidential Villa on
Thursday to give an impression that Yar’Adua was truly recovering well and may return to his duty posts any moment.

The drama of Yar’Adua’s street parade started in the afternoon of the day when a convoy of cars believed to be Yar’Adua’s started filing slowly from the Presidential Villa, making rigmaroles around major roads within the villa premises in the guise that the ailing President was being driven round as part of the exercise said to have been recommended for him by his doctors.

All the while the convoy was on parade, Senators and members of the House of Representatives, who attempted to leave the National Assembly through the back exit adjacent the Presidential Villa, got the shock of their lives having been held in a thick traffic jam caused by the dummy parade of the president.

Some of the crowd who beheld the strange spectacle told Saturday Tribune that they had earlier been told that Yar’Adua was being taken round for fresh air in a motorcade around the Presidential Villa as part of scheme aimed at making him keep fit before returning to power.

No siren was blown for the convoy of cars, for anyone to believe that the President was indeed being driven round as suggested, although the cars on parade and the nature of security shown around the convoy almost gave the impression that the president could be inside.

Last Friday, speculations were rife also that Yar’Adua would make a brief appearance at the Central Mosque, Abuja, for special prayers preparatory to his returning to his duty posts, thus prompting newsmen to move cameras to the mosque for coverage, but all to no avail as the president failed to turn up as speculated.

A Northern-based newspaper had, during the week, taken the nation aback with a report that Yar’Adua had already overcome his state of health, stating that the president might appear in his office next week.
The newspaper, which quoted a family member of the President, also reported that based on his present state of health, he might not appear until next month.

The same Northern-based newspaper had three weeks earlier similarly reported that Yar’Adua had started walking about within the Presidential Villa, stressing that he had attended to some of his relations, state governors and some of the ministers sacked by the acting president.

It went as far as interviewing one of Yar’Adua’s relations, who claimed to have seen Yar’Adua physically and then engaged him in discussion, as he expressed hope that the president could possibly overcome the trauma of his health by returning to power at a time he deemed convenient.

The shock waves being created around the corridors of power with reports of plans by Yar’Adua to return, from indications, have been coinciding with the period the acting president was about taking major decisions on governmental issues, top of which is now the re-composition of the cabinet he had earlier sacked.

The same scenario had played out at the peak of the heat on Jonathan to sack the cabinet considered to have shown sufficient signs of disloyalty to his authority, as reports started filtering out that Yar’Adua had been jogging round the Presidential Villa, while other news organisations reported that he had been playing games of squash, just to keep fit for return to power.

Speaking with Saturday Tribune on speculations about possible return of Yar’Adua to power, former House of Representatives leader, Honourable Abdul Ningi, said Nigerians, who had been praying for his quick recovery, were indeed eager to have him return to power.

Ningi, however, sounded a note of caution on speculations about his planned return, saying Nigerians should rather wait for the president to really indicate that he had improved tremendously and that he was capable of ruling. Said Ningi, “It is the same government, it is the same Presidency and so if the president has fully recovered and is now willing to take back his power, he is most welcome. The truth of the matter is that we should avoid these kind of speculations while leaving every decision for the president to take, because ‘seeing is believing’”

The Deputy Minority Whip of the House, Honourable Sulaiman Kawu, echoed the same view when he said much as Yar’Adua’s return would do Nigeria good, it would be pertinent to allow him return on his volition, and not through speculations which, according to him, were needless