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Babatunde Adenodi
Pharmacist
East Orange,
New Jersey
 USA

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The next victims are the other two women in Yar’Adua’s life: the mother and the other wife of the president. Turai did not allow them to see the ailing president. The mother sought for the help of the former President Obasanjo to no avail. She did not see her son until her death.

 

Turai’s Victims
 by Tunde Adenodi.

 

 

It is customary to be charitable to the sick and even the deceased, any sick or deceased, let alone the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. And Yar’Adua will not be an exception. His death is a loss to Nigeria and all Nigerians. It is not a loss to his wife alone, nor his family alone. We are all mourners of his death. And since he was the number one citizen of Nigeria, his successor, Goodluck Jonathan, is the official chief mourner of his death.

Isn’t it ironic that Yar’Adua was situated only few bedrooms away from Acting President Jonathan’s office in Aso Rock since February but was not allowed to see the ailing president by his wife? Yes! Turai did not even allow Yar’Adua’s mother to see her own son since November 2009. She did not allow Yar’Adua’s second wife to see her husband either. But she now allows all to see him in his death!

It is clear that Turai had been given a less than hopeful prognosis of Yar’Adua’s situation in Saudi Arabia. There is no way the doctors would discharge him if they knew there was any hope of his survival. If there was any chance, they would have referred him to another hospital in Europe or America not to Aso Rock clinic! Then, his manner of return to Nigeria in February! No one was allowed to see him when he purportedly returned! And allowing some Christian and Muslim clerics to see him was a political gimmick designed to further add to the myth. If there was ever any day that Yar’Adua was fit enough to be seen by the VP or other government officials, Turai would not have allowed such opportunity to pass by. Our president was on his way out. Turai knew this just as his bootlickers knew it. They decided to play wicked game with the president’s health. Until the day before his death, they were still negotiating with Jonathan on how to get the maximum benefit from Yar’Adua’s illness! They were negotiating a way to ease out the president from office. The venue in Aso Rock where they were holed up for three months was not a hospital. It had been turned into a hospice for the dying president. Yes! Turai and her team had turned the State House, Abuja into a hospice!

Turai, paradoxically, led the team of those vicious hangers-on whose only interest in Yar’Adua was the power he had which they were about to lose. Was that the only interest Mrs. Turai Yar’Adua had for her husband? Is it not the normal thing for a wife, a good wife, to worry more about her husband’s health than what power he has?

The victims of Turai’s maneuvers are numerous. Chief among them was the President. He was not carried into the plane on his way to Saudi. So he was conscious at that time. He had been that sick before. So he knew, or was in a position to know that he might be going away for an extended period of time; away from his post as president. He had gone like that before when he was governor of Katsina State. But Nigeria is not Katsina! He did not tell his deputy, nor the senate president, nor the speaker of the house nor any government personnel that mattered. The President of Nigeria, a country of 150 million people left office to travel out of the country for five months without telling anyone just like that! And some of his ministers said it was not abnormal to do so! All the while, Turai was in control. Without her approval, no one was allowed to see the president. Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, was effectively imprisoned in a place in Saudi Arabia. And the Chief Warder was his wife!

The consequence of this action is that the president, by default, has treated Nigeria and Nigerians with total contempt. If he had survived the ailment, he would have had to explain to the country why he thought he deserved to be allowed back in power before Nigerians would consider if he could. And Nigerians have reacted by becoming less empathetic to Yar’Adua’s plight and he has lost the goodwill of a number of Nigerians. He had put the nation in so much suspense that he had whittled down his favorability to the point that his death becomes a source of relief and the end of the political uncertainty that pervaded the air for about six months. Let us put it this way: Nigerians are not unhappy that he died. His death has solved the problem of the power vacuum his action had created. And Nigeria is better for it! Is this the legacy Yar’Adua would have wished for?

The second most affected victim is Vice President Goodluck Jonathan. The president treated him with contempt by his action. He was the Acting President who had to sleep with one eye open all the time. All his actions in office must be tentative. He did not know if the president would be back today, next day or the next and reverse all his decisions. He was not unmindful of the Kingibe treatment! He was reminded every minute of the day of the transient nature of his office by the hovering presence of the president. False medical bulletins of the president’s health were released to favored tabloids. And consequently, Nigeria became the third victim of Turai’s.

In other societies, the ill health of the nation’s president can send the stock market spiraling down. The tension in the air was palpable. The executive branch of government was divided into factions. The Attorney General was on one side, while the Minister of Information was on another. And the Acting President was on one side while the Senate and House were on yet on another. The business of government ground to a halt! Pronouncements made by ministers who were acting on their own whims and caprices were taken as policy directives. The civil society became confused. There was total chaos! Nigeria was ridiculed by the world. Leaderless and rudderless! Should this have been Yar’Adua’s legacy?

The third arm of government, the Supreme Court was not spared the agony. The Army became torn between loyalty to the Commander in Chief and loyalty to the state. They chose the latter and undermined the authority of the fledgling government of Acting President Jonathan.

The next victims are the other two women in Yar’Adua’s life: the mother and the other wife of the president. Turai did not allow them to see the ailing president. The mother sought for the help of the former President Obasanjo to no avail. She did not see her son until her death.

What Turai and her handlers forgot to reckon with is the extra-ordinary luck the heavens had bestowed on Goodluck Jonathan and indeed the nation. Most nations cannot handle half of the self-inflicted tragedies without going under. Jonathan and the nation come out on top always, regardless of the circumstance. Yar’Adua’s devotees cannot do anything to stop the momentum of Jonathan. The temporal nature of power makes it essential to remember that it belongs ultimately to whoever it is designed for. And if God would make him king, God would crown him king without his efforts! Turai has succeeded in making her husband’s death look like that of General Sani Abacha: It is sad that we lost him, but it would have been sadder, were he still to be alive!

May his soul rest in peace.


 

 

 

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