.Lagos Pastor and leader of the pro-democracy Save Nigeria Group, Tunde Bakare, has criticised the recent visits of Muslim and Christian clerics to President Umaru Yar’Adua as “the theatre of the absurd.”
Mr. Bakare, who spoke in Lagos on Tuesday, on the heels of Monday’s visit of Christian leaders to Mr. Yar’Adua, said: “It doesn’t matter the number of clerics and ‘babalawo’ taken there. The simple truth is there is something to hide. You know those who operate in the light cannot be afraid to come out.”
He said it is not a crime to be sick, but that Nigerians deserve to know the state of health of their president.
“My good wishes and prayers to the president, if he is truly recovering,” he said. “If they are playing a dangerous political game with his health situation, then nobody should give support to the foolishness that is going on.”
Citing the example of Fidel Castrol of Cuba, the clergyman said powerful world leaders had also found themselves in such situation before, but have been open about it. He said the cohorts taking care of the president should be asked: “what is wrong with allowing the acting president to see him at the Aso Villa?
“I think you journalists should do a serious investigative journalism on this. To be honest with you, I think everything is just becoming the theatre of the absurd; that is all that I could say.”
Last Thursday, some Islamic leaders have visited the ailing president. On Monday, it was the turn of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), whose leadership claimed they sighted and prayed with Mr. Yar’Adua..
