President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to resign his Presidency
THE coalition of the nation’s political parties, the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), has urged President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to resign his Presidency on health grounds.
Otherwise, the group added, the National Assembly should immediately empanel a Medical Board that would probe the President’s capability to function in office.
Also, the Action Congress (AC) has said the health of President Yar’Adua and the debate it has generated had brought to the fore the need to urgently review the 1999 Constitution to remove alleged “in-built confusion in its current state.”
In a statement issued yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party also said it was deeply concerned by the media report that unnamed forces were putting pressure on Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to resign, so that he would not assume the Presidency as stipulated by the Constitution in case his principal is unable to complete his tenure.
And, despite refuting media reports that he was under pressure to resign, a coalition of militant groups in the Niger Delta, the Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC), yesterday warned that any attempt to force Jonathan out of office may lead to anarchy with possible secession of the region from Nigeria.
The JRC, comprising a splinter group of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the Reformed Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force and The Martyrs Brigade, issued the warning in a statement by its spokesperson, Cynthia Whyte.
National Chairman, CNPP, Balarabe Musa, who spoke on the President’s recurring health problems at the weekend, submitted that they had been a cause of concern for all Nigerians.
He said President Yar’Adua’s inability to discharge his functions due to his failing health in the past two years had affected the nation’s economy negatively.
Musa argued that in as much as Nigerians sympathised with the President on his failing health, “it is certain that he is not capable, health-wise, of being President of the country.”
He added: “This is the second time we’ll hear serious rumours about the President’s health. And as far as his health condition is concerned, everybody can see it even in his television appearances and this has consequences on democracy and the economy.
“We now have two occasions when it was even rumoured that he had died. Of course, it turned out that it was just a rumour. We cannot continue like this. We are concerned with the conduct of the nation’s affairs.
“The Constitution has specified that in the event of the President being unable to function as the President of the country because of his ill-health, there should be a medical board to examine his state of health and decide whether he is capable or not. And if the medical board decides that he is not capable, then he automatically ceases to be President.
“Those who have the constitutional responsibilities of convening the medical board should do so now.”
Musa, a former governor of old Kaduna State, argued further: “Because of the ill-health of the President, he could not present the 2010 budget to the Senate and the House of Representatives. And they claimed the budget was not presented because of a dispute between the Senate and the House of Representatives. In the end, the budget was presented to the two arms of the National Assembly separately by proxy.
“Up till now, we have not heard of either the Vice President or the Minister of Finance making statements on the budget presentation to the National Assembly and the President is not in the country. This is a problem. Nigerians home and abroad are waiting for the budget and its review to know what they would do about their businesses. Foreign businesses are also waiting to see what they can do in Nigeria based on the budget. Now, all this has to wait. We should know that the health condition of President Yar’Adua has direct effect on the economy.”
Whyte wrote: “We wish to warn the Vice President of the Nigerian State, Sir Goodluck Jonathan, against resigning from the position of Vice President in response to purported pressures being mounted on him by the northern cabals.”
The JRC said Jonathan’s resignation might lead to grave anarchy and possible secession of the Ijaw and the Niger Delta from Nigeria.
It condemned the reported attempt to pressure Jonathan into resigning as an attempt to undermine him or query his capacity to serve the nation in higher offices.
The group added: “We wish to remind all men of goodwill that our decision to increase progressive engagement with the Nigerian state is much strengthened by the sincere involvement of Vice President Goodluck Jonathan.
“For too long, dubious northern cabals have continued to exploit the ignorance of southern politics to sow divisions and create anarchy. That time is over. We will continue to watch the evolving process.”
The AC’s spokesman said that there was to more the pressure-denial problem: “Despite the rush to deny the veracity of the story by the office of the Vice President, we know there is no smoke without fire and we are concerned that some dark forces can be plotting to thwart the Constitution for whatever reasons.
“We demand to know the identity of this dark mafia. We want to know who these people are, who want to continue to run this country on the basis of a cabal. We ask the VP to show courage and tell Nigerians if indeed he is under pressure to resign, instead of rushing to deny the story.”
Mohammed said: “Apart from the Executive arm of government, the only other arms known in law are the Legislative and the Judiciary arms.” It wondered whether any one of the three arms was behind the alleged pressure on the Vice President.
The party acknowledged, however, that “the issue of succession in the Presidency is not a clear cut as it may seem, and that the provision for the Vice President to assume the office of his boss if for whatever reasons – in case the President is unable to continue in office – is not automatic.”
It explained: “This is because, according to the Constitution, the process for determining whether or not the President is capable of discharging the functions of his office can only be started by the members of the Executive Council, who are all appointees and presumed loyalists of the President.
“As things stand, does anyone really expect that members of this Council can indeed elevate national interest above their parochial views and personal interests to declare that the President is no longer able to perform his statutory functions, even if he is not?
“Even if the Council defies this characterisation and makes the declaration, does anyone honestly think the Peoples Democratic Party-controlled National Assembly will set up a medical panel that will be courageous enough to certify that the President can no longer function in his official capacity? The truth is that Chapter Six of the 1999 Constitution, which deals with this issue, is skewed against any orderly succession.
“This is why well-meaning Nigerians are calling for the review of this and other aspects of the Constitution that was loaded with booby traps by its authors, perhaps because of their personal interests at the time the Constitution was made.”
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