Nigeria’s ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua, in Saudi Arabia for more than two months for treatment for an acute heart condition, will return soon, Vice President Goodluck Jonathan said Thursday.
At a ceremony to receive letters of credence from four new ambassadors, Jonathan thanked them “for their concern over the health of President Umaru Yar’Adua and assured them that the president would soon be back in the country,” his office said in a statement.
The statement, however, did not indicate when exactly Yar’Adua, who left the country on November 23, would return.
Yar’Adua’s prolonged absence has caused a “period of uncertainty” in top oil producer Nigeria, the United States and European Union said Thursday in a joint statement.
“Nigeria is going through a period of uncertainty because of the prolonged illness of President Musa Umaru Yar?Adua,” said the statement by the United States, European Union, Britain and France.
A Nigerian federal high court will on Friday rule on a suit filed by top Nigerian lawyers seeking an order for Yar’Adua to hand full powers to Jonathan until his return.