The story with its accompanying photographs were not only shocking but gory. It detailed how 19 passengers aboard a luxury bus from Enugu to Lagos were crushed to death on the Ijebu-Ode/Shagamu Expressway in the second week of February, 2010. Emotions were high. Nigerians condemned the incident.

Their response seem to imply that their lives and survival depended on it. But unlike what obtains presently in Nigeria, members of the Lagos State House of Assembly surprisingly demonstrated the imperative of subjecting themselves to an HIV/AIDS test instead of shying away from it as many are wont. This they did during a one-day free HIV counseling and testing services organised by the Lagos State AIDS Control Agency, LSACA which took place at the Assembly complex.

I do not envy acting President Goodluck Jonathan. The politics swirling around him at the moment is a vicious one. Nobody is willing to risk vesting him with full Executive powers. The Yar’Adua cabal (as the Information Minister called them) is keen to keep the President in the picture as both a check on the acting President and also to safeguard their own jobs and political influence. The North is keen to keep the President in the picture to prevent Goodluck from growing political ambitions for 2011 since Nigeria has not yet seen a situation where the incumbent failed to get the party ticket.

Sometime last week, someone, somewhere, decided to bring back our dear and beloved President to his fatherland in circumstances that have triggered further debate as to our ability to manage our affairs as ordered by the extant Constitution. Lest we forget, our President whose movement ordinarily, ought to be accompanied by a dignified measure of pomp and pageantry was brought through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, in the dead of night.

The personal Physician to the ailing President Umar Yar’ Adua, Dr. Saliyu Banye has been asked to immediately write and sworn to a statement on the medical records of President Umaru Yar’ Adua to allow Nigerians, especially the National Assembly to decide whether the President is capable of continuing to perform his constitutional duty.