Yar’Adua’s family divided over resignation bid
Yar’Adua’s family divided over resignation bid - He must resign - Mum - No, he’s fit to continue - Turai - Resign now, el-Rufai, Nnamani, Masari, Falae, 50 others tell Yar’Adua - Security tightened at Aso Rock - Ogbulafor meets Jonathan - Senate rejects motion on president’s health - VP summons Bayelsa gov, deputy
SHOULD YAR'ADUA LISTEN TO HIS MOTHER OR TO HIS WIFE
THE family of President Umaru Yar’Adua is said to be divided over the bid by some forces to have the President resign his position on the basis of his ill health.
Sources on Tuesday said there was a sharp division between the president’s wife, Hajia Turai and his mother, Hajia Dada Habib, over the next step to take by the president.
While the mother was said to be advocating that the president should resign so that he could take care of his health, Hajia Turai was said to be insisting that he would soon get over his health challenges.
A source said the matriarch of the Yar’Adua family was insisting that her son should be brought back to the country alive, while he should resign from the office to face his health situation.
It was gathered that the matriarch also insisted in her calls to Hajia Turai that she did not want to lose Umaru like she lost his elder brother, General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua.
It was gathered that Turai had to attend this year’s hajj and she was sighted at Mina, Saudi Arabia. This, a source said, she had to do, though it was not originally on the travel agenda.
It was gathered that the first lady had insisted that her prayers and those of millions of Nigerians would surely work and her husband would soon recover.
Calls for the president to resign had started gaining grounds on Tuesday, following indications that his condition relapsed at the weekend.
Though there were plans to receive the president early this week, this did not materialise, as his condition was said to have relapsed late on Saturday.
Reports from the governors and other government functionaries who visited Saudi Arabia also indicated that none of them was able to see the president as he had been kept in intensive care from Sunday.
It was gathered that the presidency had beefed up security at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, while the Vice-President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, was said to have cancelled all late night appointments.
Sources said the vice-president had taken the precaution since Thursday, so as not to give the wrong impression that he was holding nocturnal meetings.
A source said most of those who had late night appointments on Friday were reached to either come earlier in the day, or reschedule such appointments for another day.
Also in Abuja, on last Tuesday, sources informed that some Northern political power brokers had started thinking of options left in the wake of the president’s ailing health.
It was gathered that some groups were already thinking of supporting the bid to ask the president to resign from office so as to pave the way for a strong personality to emerge as vice-president to Jonathan.
It was, however, gathered that underneath such plans was the plot that would ensure that the vice presidential candidate would engineer the removal of Jonathan through impeachment after a short stay in office, such that power could effectively return to the North.
More on Nigerian Tribune of 2 dec 2009.
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