Tension began to build in the Senate yesterday ahead of today’s proposed motion on the health of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, which may lead to the setting up of a team to pay a verification visit to the President.
Yar’Adua has been receiving treatment since November 23, 2009, at the King Faisal Specialist and Research Centre, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for pericarditis – acute inflammation of the membrane around the heart.
Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu had announced on Sunday in Minna, Niger State, that the Senate would rise to the occasion, asking Nigerians “to watch out to what will happen on Tuesday (today).”
THISDAY gathered last night that a motion would be tabled before the Upper House this morning when it resumes in plenary from its Christmas break.
The motion, as learnt, has three prayers, one of which was said to be contentious.
A source close to the meeting of Body of Principal Officers told THISDAY yesterday night that it was agreed that a team of senators should be dispatched to Saudi Arabia to verify the state of Yar’Adua’s health at the King Faisal Specialist and Research Centre in Jeddah.
It was also agreed that the Personal Physician to the President, Dr. Salisu Baiye, should be summoned to appear before the Senate Committee on Health to brief it on Yar’Adua’s health condition.
While the principal officers, according to the source, agreed unanimously to these two prayers, they disagreed on the prayer to invoke Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution to enable Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan to assume the position of Acting President.
The Section reads: “Whenever the President transmits to the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives a written declaration that he is proceeding on vacation or that he is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office, until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary such functions shall be discharged by the Vice-President as Acting President.”
It was learnt that the principal officers agreed that since Yar’Adua has not transmitted such letter to the Senate President, the Vice-President cannot step in as Acting President.
Some officers were said to have suggested the invocation of Section 144 of the 1999 Constitution on permanent incapacity of President or Vice-President.
But the suggestion, which was the subject of heated argument, was said to have been put on hold until the first two prayers had been exhaustively carried out: visit to the Saudi Arabia hospital and the appearance of Yar’Adua’s personal doctor before the Committee on Health.
The source who spoke with THISDAY explained that the invocation of Section 144 is dependent on the Federal Executive Council (FEC), pointing out that “FEC should be the one to comply with the provisions of the Section and then send a report to the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.”
Section 144 (1) reads: “The President or Vice-President shall cease to hold office, if (a) by a resolution passed by two-thirds majority of all the members of the Executive Council of the Federation it is declared that the President or Vice-President is incapable of discharging the functions of his office; and, (b) the declaration is verified, after such medical examination as may be necessary, by a medical panel established under subsection (4) of this section in its report to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.”
Subsection (2) reads: “Where the medical panel certifies in the report that in its opinion the President or Vice President is suffering from such infirmity of body or mind as renders him permanently incapable of discharging the functions of his office, a notice thereof signed by the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall be published in the Official Gazette of the Government of the Federation.
“(3) The President or Vice President shall cease to hold office as from the date of publication of the notice of the medical report pursuant to subsection (2) of this section.
“(4) The medical panel to which this section relates shall be appointed by the President of the Senate, and shall comprise five medical practitioners in Nigeria (a) one of whom shall be the personal physician of the holder of the office concerned; and, (b) four other medical practitioners who have, in the opinion of the President of the Senate, attained a high degree of eminence in the field of medicine relative to the nature of the examination to be conducted in accordance with the foregoing provisions.”
There have been anxieties in different quarters occasioned by unconfirmed reports of the president’s incapacitation as a result of his health challenges that have kept him away from his duty post for well over 40 days.
Senate’s consideration of the motion on his health condition, which is coming on a day some Nigerians have planned to march to the National Assembly against Yar’Adua, is expected to assist the polity in dousing tension and to renew confidence in the public that it (Senate) is very concerned too.
Meanwhile, the 57-member Northern Senators’ Forum (NSF) yesterday launched into a closed-door meeting to articulate and agree on a position ahead of today’s planned motion on Yar’Adua.
But a member of the Forum said that at the end of the three-hour meeting, “no collective decision or individual decision was reached.”
The member said: “Everybody at the meeting was not happy at the development in the Presidency where members of the same party find it difficult to hand over to each other.”
He said that the position of the Senate on the matter would suffice, stressing that the planned motion would define the direction the entire House would go.
The NSF meeting, which held in Senate Committee Room 313, was presided over by the Chair of the Forum, Senator Umaru Dahiru (from Sokoto State).
Seventeen members of the Forum belong to opposition All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and Action Congress (AC), while the remaining 40 belong to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).