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Those thinking that
the political and constitutional crisis
occasioned by the refusal of ailing
President Umaru Yar’Adua to hand over to
his deputy, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, was
over had better brace up fro fresh
challenges.
It is not yet Uhuru
as another round of crisis is looming in
the Presidency following an alleged plot
by Yar’Adua’s diehard loyalists to bring
him back to the country at all costs.
Sunday Sun learnt
authoritatively that the bemused
loyalists are still smarting over the
National Assembly resolution that
empowered the Vice President, Dr
Jonathan, to assume the position of
Acting President and are bent on
bringing the ailing President back even
if it will be for one week.
A source privy to
the plan informed Sunday Sun that the
plot is for Yar’Adua to be brought to
Nigeria in an air ambulance while an
ambulance limousine and other life
support equipment that had been imported
into the country would be on standby.
He would then be
made to write a letter to the National
Assembly asking that power be reverted
to him.
But, according to
our source, because the President is
still not medically fit to assume
office, there is every possibility that
he will break down again and the country
will begin another round of handover
crisis.
“The cabal is very
uncomfortable with Jonathan as Acting
President, so they are doing everything
possible to ensure Yar’Adua returns to
Nigeria. Their fear is that they will
lose power completely if Jonathan is
allowed to complete Yar’Adua’s tenure.
They want to bring Yar’Adua back to
Nigeria at all costs,” said the source.
Another source said
the visit of the Bauchi State Governor,
Isa Yuguda, his Benue and Katsina
counterparts, Gabriel Suswam and Ibrahim
Shema, as well as chairman of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief
Vincent Ogbulafor, to Saudi Arabia is
part of the plot to bring the ailing
President back.
Even the former
Attorney-General of the Federation,
Chief Michael Aondoakaa, who was
redeployed to the Special Duties
Ministry on Wednesday in a minor cabinet
reshuffle, is also said to be in Saudi
Arabia on his annual leave, which is
believed to be a decoy.
A source close to
the Presidency however said Aondoakaa
should not have been allowed to travel
out of the country because of the mood
of the nation and the role he played in
the handover crisis.
Sunday Sun however
learnt that Aondoakaa’s redeployment
sent jitters into members of the
Yar’Adua kitchen cabinet and they now
are afraid that Jonathan would sooner or
later move against them.
Some politicians
close to the corridors of power are also
said to be unsure if Jonathan will not
move against pro-Yar’Adua elements in
the government.
“The demotion of
Mike Aondoakaa from the exalted position
of Attorney General to Special Duties on
his first day in office without
consulting anyone, including the party
hierarchy, is a clear signal that
Jonathan wants to be his own man and
might be ready to rock the boat.
“Some are scared of
the possibility of the man going after
some ministers in Yar’Adua’s kitchen
cabinet like Sayyad Abba-Ruma and
super-aides like Mohammed Abba-Aji and
Tanimu Kurfi as well as others who
treated him with scorn while he was vice
president,” the sourced said.
Sunday Sun gathered
that the biggest fear of the Yar’Adua
loyalists is “the possibility of the man
(Jonathan) inserting certain provisions
in the 1999 Constitution that might be
against the interest of the North. What
happens if he suddenly decides to
support the call for resource control?
You know he is from there (Niger Delta)
and he will be seen to be doing his
people a favour. He can do that on the
pretence that he is trying to ensure
that the restive militants don’t disturb
again. We heard the man is also very
committed to electoral reform.”
Perhaps, the
biggest fear that prompted the plot
against the Jonathan government is that
he might contest the 2011 presidential
election.
“Yes, they were
able to extract some commitment from him
in that direction, but can you stop a
man that has all the power he has from
doing anything? After all, such
commitments are not binding on anyone.
“They feel this is
the time to quickly move in and circle
him before he grows wings. The actions
he took in the first few days in office
did not inspire a lot of confidence,”
the source said, adding that part of the
plot is to discredit the Jonathan-led
administration before Nigerians, for
instance, by pinning the tag of a stooge
on the Acting President.
“They will try to
pin the tag of a stooge of former
President Olusegun Obasanjo on him. You
know not many Nigerians love Obasanjo
because of his style. They feel the best
way they can make him lose the
acceptance of Nigerians is link him to
Obasanjo,” the source further said.
Given all these
permutations, there is already panic in
the federal capital that the Acting
President will this week appoint new
Service Chiefs and a new Chief of Staff,
who would also double as a de facto Vice
President.
Yar’Adua’s
Principal Private Secretary, Mr David
Edevbie, is also said to have briefed
Jonathan on the outcome of his visit to
Jeddah purportedly to present the 2009
Supplementary Appropriation Bill to
Yar’Adua for his signature.
Edevbie was said to
have confessed to Jonathan that he was
not allowed to meet Yar’Adua in Jeddah.
“He (Edevbie)
admitted before the Acting President
that Yar’Adua’s wife, Turai, and the ADC
did not allow him to meet President
Yar’Adua. He said he was asked to stay
in his hotel where Yar’Adua’s ADC and
CSO (Chief Security Officer) met him to
pick the budget document and later
returned it to him there.
“Edevbie has been
in a dilemma over the controversy that
his visit to Saudi Arabia sparked off
and he is desperate to clear his name.
That was why he had to tell Jonathan the
whole truth,” our source said.
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