Following Wednes-days Federal High Court judgment that Vice President Goodluck Jonathan can perform the functions of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, as a result of his prolonged absence due to sickness, the Vice President was yesterday at the 2010 Armed Forces Remembrance Day Celebration, accorded full presidential protocols as he was not only escorted to the tomb of the unknown soldier by mounted troops, but reviewed the military parade.

The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Section 144-145 empowers the Federal Executive Council, FEC, under the leadership of the Vice President to write a letter which would be sent to the national assembly to make a resolution as to whether the VP should exercise acting powers of the president. It’s better to be law-abiding than playing politics about this.

For a credible 2011 election, Edo State governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has suggested a walk across the country to sensitize Nigerians on the importance of resolving the political logjam once and for all.

He said there was no way the sick President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua would remain offshore to direct the affairs of the over 150 million Nigerians on his sick bed in Saudi Arabia when the constitution specifically stated what to be done when a sitting president is unable to perform the functions of his office.

I was relieved (laughter). Not in a bad way but I mean, it’s not easy being queen- ‘uneasy lies the head that wears the crown’. You are exposed to a lot of things. ‘People like you; people hate you; people talk about you…. You don’t have your life to yourself anymore.

It is just like yesterday. But it was twenty seven years ago that Gen. Muhammadu Buhari as head of the then ruling military junta proclaimed democracy unrealistic in the immediate future in Nigeria.

Certainly these are the not the best of times for Nigeria’s loyal incumbent Vice President, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, as he is said to be receiving an overdose of what he did not bargain for while seeking the exalted number two citizen’s office.

Since late Monday morning this week, opposing forces in the Nigeria constitutional crisis began to move decisively. Our president in absentia spoke for the first time, and within 10 hours of his speech, the opposition to his constitutional violations was up in arms in their thousands virtually rejecting Mr. President’s excuse for his disregard of the law of the land.

We cannot do anything about his ill-health. Nigerians should go and read the 1999 constitution, section 144-145.
The President is recovering and will soon be back. Though he is the president, he can fall sick and he can die. So, Yar’Adua remains the president.

The controversy is unnecessary. All these agitations to empower the VP as Acting President is just a diversionary tension to heat up the polity. They want to create a problem between the president and the VP or to create ill-feelings between them in their display of ignorance of the constitution.