AC demands evidence of Yar’Adua’s health condition

The Action Congress, AC, has demanded a concrete evidence to show that the health condition of President Umaru Yar’Adua is indeed improving as being claimed by some of his aides, saying the current state of suspended animation on the issue is detrimental to national well-being.

In a statement issued in Lagos, Monday, by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said such evidence could be in form of a dated video recording of the President, sitting or standing, in his hospital room in Saudi Arabia.

It said the President, the father of the nation, could also use the opportunity to assure Nigerians that he is indeed recovering from his illness, and that he was actually capable of signing the 2009 Supplementary Budget that he was said to have signed last week.

On the potency of such a video evidence, the party recalled that when former Cuban President Fidel Castro was recovering from the illness that eventually ended his long presidency, he appeared in a video recording to show he was still alive, contrary to rumours making the rounds at the time. That video appearance ended the rumours for good, it noted.

“It is necessary for President Yar’Adua, if indeed he is recovering as Nigerians have been praying he does, to move fast to reassure his compatriots that the rumours surrounding his ill health are unfounded. Daily, we are bombarded with scary rumours of the President’s health continuing to deteriorate in Saudi Arabia, even as his aides assure us that he is indeed recovering.

“Since the President left these shores over 40 days ago, we do not know who has really seen him or who has not. Information on the state of health of the President should not be left in the hands of unscrupulous spin doctors, the Aondoakaas and the PDPs of this world, who have been muddling the waters just to serve their own selfish purposes,” AC said.

The party said while the President is recuperating – if indeed he is and there is evidence to show that – he should immediately act to show that his administration’s rule of law mantra is not a fluke by legally transferring power to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan – in line with Constitutional stipulation.