TWENTY- FOUR days after he was taken to Saudi Arabia for medical attention, the hide-and- seek game over the state of health of President Umaru Yar’Adua continued yesterday with top Federal Government officials preferring that Nigerians be silent over the all-important issue for which virtually no information has been released.
Very worrisome, however, is the fact that since Yar’Adua left Nigeria for Saudi Arabia, none of his cabinet members had spoken with him.
Governor Bukola Saraki of Kwara State and the President’s in-law and Governor of Bauchi State, Alhaji Isa Yuguda, who went to Saudi Arabia on behalf of the Governors’ Forum, came back without a clear picture of the situation with the nation’s number one citizen.
However, the Federal Government, yesterday, declared that God was answering the prayers of Nigerians for the quick recovery of their President, who has been receiving treatment at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; saying that “he is responding to treatment and that is true.”
FG cautions media
Fielding questions from State House Correspondents at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting, the Minister of Information and Communications, Professor Dora Akunyili, cautioned the media over their too-much emphasis on the health of the President.
The minister’s comment on the President’s state of health coincided with the Federal Government’s earlier plan to “clarify the media on the alleged pressure on Yar’Adua’s close aides to appeal to the President to address cabinet members and the nation via video conference from the Middle-East,’’ a plan that was, however, aborted without explanation.
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa, had told reporters before the meeting of his intention to clarify issues relating to the proposed video conference, as soon as the meeting ended.
But, he was nowhere to be found after the FEC meeting as he refused to show up at the briefing room during the post-FEC meeting which was attended by Akunyili, her Agriculture and Aviation counterparts, Alhaji Abba Ruma and Mr Babatunde Omotoba respectively. He was said to have told his colleagues that he was rushing to Jos, for official engagement.
FEC meeting briefing not for Yar’Adua — Akunyili
A visibly worried Akunyili disclosed that the reason behind the post-FEC briefing every week was to announce to Nigerians current efforts by the government to grow the nation’s economy through vital policies and infrastructural development and not emphasis on the President’s health.
Vanguardngr
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