Yar’Adua’s worse condition stalls Turai’s return - More family members relocate to Saudi Arabia - Northern traditional rulers, politicians set up committee on president’s health - May extract commitment from Jonathan

IRST Lady, Hajia Turai Yar’Adua, had to change her plan to travel home from Saudi Arabia at the weekend, when the state of her husband’s health took a turn for the worse.

Turai, who had engineered the return of many of the close aides of the president, who initially accompanied them on the Saudi trip, was billed to return to Nigeria last Saturday.

Sources indicated that when the health of her husband, President Umaru Yar’Adua, improved earlier last week, the decision was taken for her to embark on the trip to Nigeria to fine-tune the wedding plans of her daughter, Aisha, to the wealthy Sokoto businessman, Alhaji Tukur Abubakar (Rahamanniya).

But things changed by midweek, when the president’s condition relapsed and by Thursday, it could not be categorically said that the first lady would embark on the trip.

Sources said that the uncertainty made the Presidency to place its officials on 24-hour alert up till Saturday morning but that the health situation could not really guarantee the trip home.

Sources had said that the president’s family was planning to go ahead with the wedding plans, in spite of the health condition of Yar’Adua. The plan, according to sources, is to ensure the wedding plans are not stalled because of the president’s state of health.

But the wedding originally fixed for late January may have to be shifted, following the relocation of most members of the president’s immediate family to Saudi Arabia at the weekend.

Also on Sunday, the president of the Senate, Mr. David Mark, renewed his call on Nigerians to pray for the health of the president. Mark, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Paul Mumeh, said that in spite of the anxious moments in the country, Nigerians should stay steadfast and pray for their leader.

The statement quoted Mark as speaking at this year’s thanksgiving service of the St. Mulumba’s Chaplaincy, Apo Legislative Quarters in Abuja. He said: “We are in difficult times in the life and history of our country. We should all continue to pray for the quick recovery of the president for him to return and continue the governance of our nation.

“Tongues are wagging, comments from both sides and across the divide. But whichever position one holds, we must remember that we are all created by God and none of us can claim to have the power to make or unmake another.

“Times like this call for sober reflection; we must pause and ponder on the positive way forward. Above all, we should be rational in our behaviour and utterances; we must remain our brother’s keeper.”

He also stated that inspite of the challenges, Nigerians had every reason to thank God and renew faith in the Almighty. The statement also quoted Reverend Father Paul Zion as saying in a homily that Nigerians must put hope in God.

The clergyman was quoted as saying: “Thanksgiving is the only time when we pay back what God has done or given to us all through the year.

Meanwhile, top traditional rulers and politicians from the North met in Abuja, last week, to discuss the state of health of President Yar'Adua. The well-attended meeting, it was learnt, raised a contact committee that will find out the exact state of health of the president so as to determine the next step to be taken by the region.

The meeting, it was learnt, resolved that the committee should find out if President Yar'Adua could continue till 2011 and if he could, would be backed by the region to do so.

The North, it was however learnt from deliberations at the meeting, would not back him for another term of four years. The rulers and elders, it was gathered, noted that if the contact committee's report said the president's state of health could not carry him till 2011, the meeting would prevail on him to resign and hand over to Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan to complete his term.

They are, however, poised to extract a commitment from the vice-president that he would only complete Yar'Adua's tenure and not become a candidate in 2011. The meeting, it was reliably gathered, said it would not accept any candidate presented by the former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, for the 2011 presidential election.

They are of the belief that it was the former president that brought the North to this sorry pass. Meanwhile, it was learnt that they decided that they would shop for their 2011 presidential candidate themselves and Chief Obasanjo would not be allowed to have any imput because he already caused the problem they are facing at the moment.