PR Blunder Boomerangs in Yar'Adua's Health Saga - 2008-09-15

It was only to be expected that somebody or some people would have to pay for the blunder but few people expected it to come so soon. Ailing President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua struck on the very first day he reappeared in public, following a two-week absence that fuelled fears about the state of his health.

For Alhaji Babagana Kingibe, the influential Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), it was bye-bye to the plum office when he was suddenly sacked by Yar'Adua last week. His dismissal has been linked to the mismanagement of information regarding Yar'Adua's health condition.

The President had traveled to Saudi Arabia ostensibly for lesser hajj, only for news to filter into town that he actually went for treatment. By penultimate Sunday, rumour mongers had gone to town with the fake story of the President's purported death, thus hanging the nation on a cloud of uncertainty.

Yar'Adua, however, returned under the cover of darkness the following Saturday and shoved aside Kingibe, minutes after snubbing him at the decoration ceremony of the new service chiefs. Although the Presidency has maintained sealed lips on the reason behind the sack of the Borno State-born politician, sources said it may not be unconnected with his alleged involvement in the mismanagement of information on Yar'Adua's health as part of a presumed surreptitious plot to upstage Vice President Jonathan Goodluck in the event of the death or resignation of Yar'Adua.

Close watchers of Aso Rock, the Nigerian seat of power, however predict that more heads are sure to roll as a fallout of the PR blunder which has exposed the Nigerian people and government, especially Yar'Adua himself, to monumental ridicule in the international community.

Information Minister, John Odey and his Foreign Affairs counterpart, Ojo Maduekwe, both of whom compounded issues by vehemently passing a clean bill of health on Yar'Adua while he languished on his sick bed in Saudi Arabia, have been named among the likely casualties.

Meanwhile, many Nigerians are still eager to hear from the President on the true state of his health, as he has continued to maintain a studied silence on the issue since his return to the country around 3 a.m. on September 6.

Mr. Kingsley Omose, a Lagos-based legal practitioner who spoke with M2, expressed deep concern over the circumstances surrounding Mr. President's return.

“I am intrigued that his flight arrived Abuja in the wee hours of the morning without the usual welcome reserved for a President,” Omose said. “Recall that his departure from Abuja was also in the dead of the night and also shrouded in secrecy. When the President of the most populous black nation on earth begins to exit and enter his own country under in a stealthy manner, then all is not well. When the government he heads is unable to issue an appropriate statement to explain the whereabouts of Mr. Yar'Adua, then all is not well,” Omose added.