The cables claimed former Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources Sayyadi Abba Ruma donated his kidney for the transplant.
The cables suggested Nigeria’s top power brokers in the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) knew about Yar’Adua’s condition, but still propped him up to become the presidential candidate in 2007.
Aides to the president stuffed his clothes to hide his weight loss and used makeup to hide his pallor, the cables claim, but his illness ultimately led to a long absence from that fuelled public discontent.
Yar’Adua died last May, propelling Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan into the presidency. Jonathan recently became the ruling party’s presidential candidate for the coming April election.
“What is clear is that the president’s health is a matter of growing concern, particularly on the minds of the northern elite,” a diplomatic cable from February 2009 reads. “We have noted a considerable uptick in what appears to be behind-the-scenes machinations and back-room dealing.”
WikiLeaks publicly released the cables late Saturday night. A spokesman at the United States (US) Embassy in Abuja, said officials would have no comment on anything released by the website.
A diplomatic cable from June 2008 claimed Yar’Adua first began experiencing renal failure in 1999, shortly after he became governor. The cable said German company Julius Berger, one of the dominant road construction firms in Nigeria, set up a dialysis clinic in Yar’Adua’s home. The firm later flew German experts in and out of Nigeria to privately treat Yar’Adua, the cables claimed.
The discolorations long noticed on Yar’Adua’s face, fuelling rumours about his ill health, came from the steroids doctors gave him to help his body accept the transplant, according to the cables.
Ruma denied the cable claim, calling WikiLeaks a “witch-hunting device” and “a strategy for blackmail.”
“It never happened,” Ruma told The Associated Press last night. “It’s not true. It’s malicious. It’s mischievous.
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