One of the positive outcomes of the Umaru Yar’Adua saga has been the sudden drive to amend relevant sections of the constitution to avoid a repeat of the situation where Nigeria has to be leaderless either due to mischief on the part of an incumbent President or genuine incapacitation.

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

In the wee hours of November 23, 2009, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was hurriedly flown out of Aso Rock to Saudi Arabia for urgent medical attention. The urgency of the evacuation, Nigerians were made to understand, neither allowed the President to inform his Deputy, Dr Jonathan Goodluck, that he was proceeding on medical vacation nor permitted him to cede powers to him in accordance with the provision of section 145 of the 1999 constitution.

A civil rights organisation, Partnership for Justice, PJ, has raised concern over the blocking of the reading of a human rights report on arrest and secret detentions around the world at the 13th session of United Nations Human Rights Council scheduled to hold from March 1- 30, 2010 in Geneva, Switzerland.

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.