Nothing new about Yar’Adua’s absence —Minister

The Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources, Dr. Sayyidi Abba-Ruma, has said the absence of President Umaru Yar’Adua from the country is not a new thing.
The minister, who is believed to be a strong member of the President’s inner circle, also said those playing politics with the President’s absence were doing so in order to gain advantage in the 2011 elections.
Abba-Ruma said this in an interview with journalists in Abuja on Monday.
He said there was evidence that those agitating that the President’s absence had created a vacuum were doing so for selfish political reasons.
The minister, who was Secretary to the Katsina State Government while Yar’Adua served as the governor, said that there was a time when a military ruler in Nigeria was away from the country for a long time.
According to him, the military ruler’s absence did not ground the country.
He said, “There are developments that have taken place in Nigeria that are factual, on record and are obtainable.
“The most important thing is that I will advise that we should, as much as possible, remove the whims and caprices of our emotions for public good.
“Let us not hold the Nigerian public to ransom; let us not continue to deceive them but educate and enlighten them because we have the opportunity, with information at our doorsteps today.”
Responding to a question, the minister said, “What you are asking is not really strange but it is something that has a lot of information available on ground and it has been so repeatedly made public. I cannot understand why the whims and caprices of our emotions should not be detached from the public good.
“There is no way we can advance unless our individual selfish requirements are divorced from reality.
“All issues that have been raised are not correct I am just corroborating what the Minister of Information and Communications (Prof. Dora Akunyili) has said.”
He said the Federal Executive Council had spoken publicly about the President’s health “and references have been made also to situations like this.
“A president of Nigeria was ill at one time although during the military era and had to seek medical attention for about three months. Where were you? It is not too long ago. Where were you? The information is also at your doorstep. What has happened?
“It is not also sufficiently correct to say that things are at a standstill. You cannot provide evidence to that effect.
“I think it is high time we realised that Nigerians should be fed with what should be proactive to our democracy and what will be good for the country.”
The minister dodged a question about why Yar’Adua did not hand over to Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan before travelling to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for medical attention.
According to him, “The Minister of Information and Communications is in a better position (to answer that). But as a member of the Federal Executive Council, having known that this issue has been addressed and made public, it is important to try to remove the emotion of the human mind, especially as we are getting close to 2011 and there are indices that Nigerian politics is involved.
“But we always believe that we must always try as much as possible to locate ourselves to the reality; that means looking at the nation as being more important than individual interest.”