Who has seen him?
Forty eight hours after ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua was clandestinely flown back into the country, with a section of the military laying siege to Abuja, and being kept incommunicado by his wife, Turai and her cronies, Nigerians are beginning to doubt whether he actually returned.
Bemused Nigerians and the international community have been asking: Where is Yar'Adua and is he back to the country? This is more so that the principal officers of the presidency including Acting President Goodluck Jonathan, leadership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as well as politicians and captains of commerce and industry have not seen him.
More remarkably, the Senate and the House of Representatives have said they were not aware that the sick president has returned as they await the transmission of an official letter to that effect in line with their resolution at the proclamation of Jonathan as acting president. No governor, including his sons-in-law - Isa Yuguda and Saidu Usman Daikingari of Bauchi and Kebbi states - has admitted seeing him. Similarly, no tradition ruler, including the Emir of Katsina, Yar'Adua's hometown, has seen the president.
In the oil producing Niger Delta region, where the president's 93-day absence has stalled progress in the post-amnesty implementation programme of rehabilitation and re-integration, some groups said Yar'Adua's minders are economical with the truth about the sick president's whereabouts. Tony Uranta, secretary general of the United Niger Delta Energy Development Security and Strategy (UNDESS) said, "until we see President (Umaru) Yar'Adua address the nation live (preferably as part of an official visit to the National Assembly), I and UNDESS will not believe that he has returned to Nigeria." He said even when proven that the president is back to the country, "we doubt his capacity to lead until it is empirically deducible that he has regained his mental and physical equilibrium".
Clara Chukwuma, a secondary school teacher, said keeping him away from public glare could mean two things. "The man may still be in Saudi Arabia and all they are trying to make us believe could be a decoy. The other reason is that he could have become a complete invalid and no longer conscious of life. That is why they could be keeping him away from Nigerians", she said.
Wale Abbe, executive secretary, Money Market Association of Nigeria, believed nothing has changed and nobody is sure whether he is back or not since "we can't see him and have not heard anything concrete from him except that he asked Jonathan to continue to act until he is back. Even if he is back, according to reports and still not fit, it is still the same situation, we still do not have a president as far as I am concerned. "The first thing we expected him to do on return was to make a national broadcast or even make public appearance, but he has not been able to do any of these to show that he is back and fit to run the state's affairs," Abbe said.
Yusuf Akeem, a communications consultant, described the development as a sad one "because it shows they don't value the electorate who put him at the helm of their affairs".
Helen Enejo, a civil servant, noted that Yar'Adua, his family and the cabal that executed the surreptitious return are taking the nation for a ride in a way that could snowball into a terrible crisis. "They said he has come and no one has seen him since his arrival, could that be true? I don't think he is around and recovering as they have said. He should address the nation, and not to be talking to the country through third parties. "They should stop deceiving us. We are not kids. How can you be telling more than 140 million people that the president is around and he could not be seen? Let him address us if he is around truly", Enejo said.
To Basil Enwegbara, a management consultant, "since we cannot see him, we can assume his reported return is a ruse."
Nick Idoko, a teacher of Investigative Journalsim at Pan African University, urged Nigerians not to be deceived by the claims of Yar'Adua's return, insisting that the President was still in Saudi Arabia. "For me, it (his return) is only a story. My conclusion is that he did not come back. It is more or less a photo trick going by media reports. It was just another case of the cabal putting up a grand show so that there would be uncertainty in the polity," Idoko said.
In his reaction, John Odigie Oyegun, first executive governor of Edo State, said it is unfortunate that the acting president was kept in the dark about the president's arrival. He said Nigerians do not deserve the kind of treatment they are presently receiving from their president and his minders. Oyegun who said the acting president remains the commander in chief of the Armed Forces noted that the way the president came into the country without putting Jonathan into the picture as well as the deployment of troops to Aso Rock without his knowledge was not only embarrassing but an indication that there was political undertone in his coming.
Isaiah Osifo, a former chief of staff to Oserhiemen Osunbor, also a former governor of Edo State, faulted the inability of the Acting President Jonathan, the Senate president, speaker of the House of Representatives and members of the Federal Executive Council to see the president.
Source: Yar'Adua missing in Nigeria (http://www.businessdayonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8817:yaradua-missing-in-nigeria&catid=85:national&Itemid=340)