Senate President David Mark Tuesday slammed what he called the government’s poor handling of the health of president Umaru Yar’Adua who died last week of a protracted heart ailment.
“The nation was not adequately informed about his health status. This unfortunately provided a fertile ground for mischief makers, rumour mongers and spin-doctors of all kinds to feed the nation with fairy tales,” Mark said.
He made the remarks at a special valedictory session the Senate held in honour of the late leader who died on May 5, aged 58.
Mark said that Yar’Adua’s death has raised more questions than answers.
“Why was he taken from his hospital in Saudi Arabia to the state house when he had not fully recovered to resume duty? Who were his medical doctors and handlers? Why were we not briefed on a regular basis on the status of his health?”
Officials had maintained stoic silence on Yar’Adua’s actual state of health. The late president, flown to Saudi Arabia last November 23, spent 93 days in a Jeddah hospital and officials who claimed to have seen him there merely said that he was gradually recovering.
“Clearly the federal government owes the nation an explanation on the shortcomings surrounding the management and handling of our late president when he took ill. The federal government must provide answers to these questions to avoid a repeat in future,” Mark said.
Not even Yar’Adua’s deputy, Goodluck Jonathan, who is now Nigeria’s newly inaugurated president, saw him after he was brought back to the country in the dead of the night on February 24 until his death last Wednesday.
Despite expressing their anger on the matter, the senators rejected a motion by Senate deputy president Ike Ekweremadu to launch a probe into Yar’Adua’s death.
The chamber praised the late head of state for initiating peace efforts in the restive oil-rich Niger Delta.
“His articulation and prosecution of the amnesty programme (for insurgents) still confounds the world. This not only brought about relative peace in the Niger Delta region, it increased our oil production, increased the national revenue,” Ekweremadu said.
A motion to name a befitting public institution after Yar’Adua was adopted by the Senate while a similar session was held in the House of Representatives.