THE call by former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, on President Umaru Yar'Adua to resign as president if his health is failing him has widened the gap between the president and his predecessor, even as it has deepened the suspicion of Yar'Adua's loyalists and a section of the North about a Jonathan presidency.
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Impeccable sources told the Nigerian Tribune that many northern leaders who were clamouring for the handover of power to Vice-President Jonathan, owing to President Yar'Adua's continued stay outside the country on health grounds, had also changed their commitment to such a move.
Sources close to President Yar'Adua said he was moved to tears when he was told of President Obasanjo's pronouncement. "The president was very bothered because former President Obasanjo was one of the few Nigerians who had been given the privilege of having access to the president on his sick bed," a source close to the president said.
The Yar'Adua Chief Obasanjo saw on the sick bed, it was learnt, hardly recognised his predecessor and that the two could not engage in any meaningful discussion because of the state of Yar'Adua's health.
The president's men were said to have opened up to President Obasanjo on his health challenges and why the doctors said he needed more time in Jeddah to recuperate before he returns to Nigeria. Sources said the access given to President Obasanjo had now proved counterproductive because the former president had used the information given to him against President Yar'Adua. "Why must he do this? Is it because of the urge for power always?," a source close to President Yar'Adua asked.
The sources also claimed that the account of Yar'Adua's health status in the build-up to the 2007 elections as reported by Obasanjo is "grossly inaccurate" and "self-serving." A source who has always been close to President Yar'Adua before he became governor of Katsina State in 1999 said Obasanjo was only playing to the gallery on the issue. "Is he saying that as president and commander-in-chief of Nigeria, he relied entirely on what Mallam (Yar'Adua) told him? The truth is that in Mallam (Yar'Adua), Allah has shown that He is greater than any person and that those who think they can play God forget their limitations as human beings," the source said.
Many sources in the presidency said Obasanjo's public advice to Yar'Adua to quit was seen as his unrelenting commitment to see Vice-President Jonathan sworn in as president, which the Yar'Adua men would not allow to happen.
Those who opposed the idea of Dr Jonathan acting as president said they were afraid of what Obasanjo could do. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said: "We all know that Obasanjo is Jonathan's godfather. He made him the governor and the vice-president. If Jonathan gets to power, it is Obasanjo who is back in power and he will come back with his legendary spirit of unforgiveness. Many of us feel this country should go back to a government that will unite rather than divide the country. Obasanjo will divide PDP and the country."
But, source said the concern within Yar'Adua's group about Jonathan's return goes beyond the altruism of averting a return to Obasanjo's brand of politics. They said the people close to Yar'Adua were afraid that a Jonathan presidency would expose them to public scrutiny. Almost all the people reputed to be close to President Yar'Adua have been in one financial controversy or another. It is widely believed that they are still in government because they hold the lever of government and that the emergence of another power group will put them on trial.
"It is the proverbial musical chairs. Yesterday, it was el-Rufai, Ribadu and Fani-Kayode. Today, it is Yar'Adua's boys. Under Jonathan, it is believed, Yar'Adua's boys will experience what Ribadu, el-Rufai and Fani-Kayode are experiencing today," said an insider in the politics unfolding in Abuja.
Meanwhile, the First Lady, Hajia Turai Yar'Adua, is currently making last minute spirited efforts aimed at bringing President Yar'Adua to his feet, following reports that she had been in touch with established spiritualists in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
Her efforts in this regard, were, it was said, being complemented by marabouts in Nigeria said to have been contracted by top loyalists of the president in the Presidential Villa.
A leading member of pro-Yar'Adua group who spoke with the First Lady told the Nigerian Tribune that she was in Mecca during the last week to offer special prayers with spiritualists in the holy land for the quick recovery of the ailing president.
Turai, he said, was very hopeful that Yar'Adua would be fit to return to office within the next couple of days, disclosing that the First Lady had communicated same message to top members of the Yar'Adua cabinet and some state governors with whom she has been in touch, according to him.
There have been speculations that President Yar'Adua was fast recuperating and may return to Nigeria any moment, although there has not been any visible sign to that effect.
In anticipation of his return to Nigeria, pro-Yar'Adua groups have continued to mushroom in Abuja and are planning to hold a rally in his support
Many of the pro-Yar'Adua groups had addressed the media last week, stating their preparedness to hold a prayer procession for the president at the Eagle Square, Abuja, after which they said members would march to the National Assembly to state their position on the president to members.
Another pro-Yar'Adua group, which goes by the name Future Nigerian Leaders Group, led by Emeka Okoroji, addressed the media on Sunday and asked Vice-President Jonathan to speak up on his position on the clamour for transfer of power to him.
Okoroji said the vice-president could help in defusing tension in Nigeria amid agitations for him to take over power from President Yar'Adua in acting capacity, and in line with the dictates of section 145 of the 1999 Constitution.
The pro-Yar'Adua youth leader said members of his group were in support of the position of the court on the unfolding political scenarios in Nigeria, most especially their conclusions that there was no vacuum in governance, and that the transfer of power to the vice-president was needless for now.
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