President Yar'Adua

By Daniel Idonor
ABUJA—AFTER many weeks of keeping Nigerians in a graveyard silence, the Presidency apparently reacting to another round of widespread speculations of the death of the ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua, yesterday, urged Nigerians to discountenance the story which it described as not only false, but also a figment of the writers’ imagination.

According to Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, Presidential spokesman, who spoke from Angola, where he is participating in the ongoing CAF Nations Cup, said the public should discountenance the story, insisting that the president was not only alive, but very much conscious and getting better.

He told the State House correspondents from Angola where he had gone for the opening ceremonies of the African Cup of Nations: “The speculations are false.

The president is alive and actually getting better. He is very much conscious, can talk and has been talking, including making phone calls to some people back home.”

Adeniyi said he travelled to Angola with President Yar’Adua’s permission as a member of the Presidential Committee, adding, “so, I am here officially but I am coming back home hopefully tomorrow because he has so directed.”

The country was, yesterday, again for the second time in about 50 days, awakened by the news of the president’s death following a report to that effect published on the online edition of one American Chronicle, with concerned Nigerians making enquiries as to its veracity.

A local newspaper had last Sunday reported that the president who left the country on November 23 to seek treatment in Saudi Arabia for an ailment medically called acute pericarditis was brain-damaged and could not recognize anyone, including his wife, Turai.

Unsubstantiated report

The seat of power and presidential Villa was yesterday, however, calm even as the news about the President Yar’Adua’s death was all over the country, as no one, including the Vice President who received many visitors, his key aides as well as some ministers who called on him betrayed  any form of anxiety.

Meantime, the Chief Economic Adviser to President Umaru Yar‘Adua, Tanimu Yakubu ,was yesterday quoted by an online news agency, huhuonline.com, as saying emphatically that his principal, is not only alive but will resume work soon.

The agency said the presidential aide gave the assurance while reacting to an unsubstantiated report by another unverified source –the American Chronicle.

According to the agency, Yakubu  said: “You are making me to break my silence on not responding again to recurring death wishes for President Umar Yar’Adua.

I confirm that the story in the hyper link you referred me to is yet another death wish for President Umar Yar’Adua. President Yar’Adua is alive. Watch out for a proof shortly. Once again, I confirm that President Umar Yar’Adua is alive, feeling much better, mentally alert and home bound very soon by the grace of the Almighty God”.

According to the unconfirmed American Chronicle source, “the Nigerian President, His Excellency Umaru Yar`Adua is dead, according to authoritative sources at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre. He died on December 10, at 3.30 p.m at an Intensive Care Unit at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Sources at the Hospital say that the First Lady wants to keep the news secret for the next few days for personal reasons. At the time of his death he was surrounded by his wife, Turai, and a childhood friend, Nigerian member of Parliament.”

About those said to have been with the President when he breathed his last, Tanimu was quoted to have said; “Mr. President’s friend in the National Assembly is Hon. Member of the House of Representatives, Mallam Shehu Inuwa Imam representing Faskari Federal Constituency in Katsina State.

This gentleman was in Nigeria on the day he was wished to have witnessed the President’s death! Once again, I confirm that President Umar Yar’Adua is alive, feeling much better, mentally alert and home bound very soon by the grace of the Almighty God”.