INTRIGUES and subterfuge over the state of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s health continued yesterday as the nation was enveloped by stories that he reportedly met with some Christian leaders at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday evening.
Reports had it that a Catholic Archbishop led the group of clerics that saw the ailing President.
However, a senior pastor at the Living Faith Church Worldwide, who craved anonymity, said Bishop David Oyedepo of the Living Faith Church who was rumoured to be on the entourage actually spent the day ministering at his church’s Easter Youth Camp programme at Canaanland, Ota, Ogun State and therefore could not have been in Abuja.
A source told The Guardian last night: “Yes, some Christian leaders met with the President this evening. But that is all I can tell you about this. The only thing I can add is that throughout the duration of the visit, President Yar’Adua never uttered a word. He never said a simple word.”
Not a few people however said that yesterday’s report was in keeping with the recent consistent attempt by some people to give impression that Yar’Adua was on his way back and thereby derail the Goodluck Jonathan acting presidency.
According to a report by the Associated Press (AP), Pastor Emmanuel Kure of the Throngroom Trust Ministry in Kafanchan, Kaduna State, said he and three other Christian leaders met for “about five to 10 minutes” with President Yar’Adua at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Kure said the President was physically weak but “able to grunt out an amen.”
He said he and the other leaders received separate request to attend the meeting on behalf of the Presidency.
The Guardian could not speak to Kure last night even though he was confirmed to be in Kafanchan where he heads his church.
The leaders reportedly led a prayer to God on the behalf of President Yar’Adua.
Some Muslim leaders had last Friday met with the President in a publicised forum announced to Muslim faithful at the National Mosque Abuja.
President Yar’Adua has not been seen publicly since late November when he left Nigeria for treatment in a Saudi Arabian hospital.
The President’s chief physician said Yar’Adua suffered from acute pericarditis, an inflammation of the sac surrounding the heart. But kidney problems and ill health long have plagued President Yar’Adua, who even left the country during his 2007 electoral campaign to seek medical treatments in Germany.
“I am told that it is a great improvement from his previous state,” Kure said.
Kure declined to offer further details about President Yar’Adua’s condition, saying: “We should not overheat the polity.”
However, the visit comes after many criticised President Yar’Adua for meeting privately with Islamic leaders last week without addressing the nation. During that visit, the imam of the National Mosque, said that President Yar’Adua could raise his hands in prayer though he never stood up.
The visit by Christian leaders also may be an attempt by President Yar’Adua’s closest allies to quiet criticisms over the religious nature of the last visit as well.
Yar’Adua left the country without formally placing Vice President Goodluck Jonathan in charge, sparking a constitutional crisis.
The National Assembly empowered Jonathan to become acting president on February 9. A military convoy and an ambulance reportedly swept President Yar’Adua back into the presidential palace on February 24, but he is yet to be seen in public, even by the Acting President.