Yar’Adua ends silence

ABUJA – Nigeria’s president made his first public comment yesterday since being hospitalised more than seven weeks ago in Saudi Arabia for a heart condition, saying he was recovering and hoped to return home soon.

Doubts over President Umaru Yar’Adua’s health and the fact he kept full powers despite his silence had brought growing unease in the country of 140 million, slowed official business and put at risk a truce in the oil-producing Niger Delta.The comments answer local media reports suggesting the president’s condition had worsened and could buy more time to end uncertainty threatening the worst political crisis since army rule ended more than a decade ago.But religious leaders and opposition politicians angry at Yar’Adua’s long absence without handing over power went ahead with a protest rally in Abuja.’At the moment I am undergoing treatment, and I’m getting better from the treatment. I hope that very soon there will be tremendous progress, which will allow me to get back home,’ he told British Broadcasting Corporation radio by phone.’I wish, at this stage, to thank all Nigerians for their prayers for my good health, and for their prayers for the nation,’ said Yar’Adua, 58, who sounded weak and gave no clear indication when he might return.Yar’Adua’s refusal to transfer powers to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan has prompted a lawsuit from the Nigerian Bar Association, which says the president is violating the constitution, and growing disquiet.RALLY DEMANDNobel literature laureate Wole Soyinka led a rally of religious leaders and opposition politicians to parliament to demand a resolution requiring a briefing on Yar’Adua’s health or sanctions for breaching the constitution.’We are told nothing has stopped, how can people tell us such a lie?’ Soyinka told hundreds of protesters with white T-shirts saying ‘Enough is enough’. ‘Electoral reform, constitutional reform has all ground to a halt.’Transferring power from Yar’Adua, a Muslim northerner, to Jonathan, from the more heavily Christian south, would be highly sensitive in a country where rival groups have maintained a careful balance since the return of civilian rule.’It is a constitutional right of the vice president to take over if the president is incapacitated,’ said Jonjon Oyeinfe, a leading activist and ex-president of the Ijaw Youth Council ethnic rights group.Yar’Adua’s spokesman said on Monday the president was ‘very much conscious’ and his health was improving.Yar’Adua’s absence threatens to derail a widely popular amnesty programme that has brought relative peace to the Niger Delta after thousands of militants surrendered their weapons for clemency, a monthly stipend, education and job opportunities.Former rebel commanders and local activists were due to decide yesterday after a three-day meeting whether to continue participating in the amnesty programme that has stalled since Yar’Adua’s departure.In the Delta yesterday gunmen kidnapped four expatriate workers near Port Harcourt. – Nampa-Reuters

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