Barring any last-minute change of mind, President Umaru Yar’adua may have concluded plans to formally hand over to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, to act as President, next week.
President Yar’Adua has been on a sick bed in King Faisal specialist hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia since November 23 without properly handing over to the Vice President.
A reliable source told The Guardian last night that the president’s kitchen cabinet has seen the necessity of a proper handing over by next week for the Vice President to perform some official functions including the swearing in of the new Chief Justice of the Federation Justice Alloysius Katsina-Alu, who is expected to take over from Justice Idris Kutigi who will retire from the Supreme court on December 31.
The source said since it had become uncertain when the ailing president would return to the country, the vacuum his absence had created had to be filled, adding that the Yar’Adua kitchen cabinet had confidence in the ability of the Vice President Jonathan to continue with the seven point agenda of the administration.
The source said the leadership of the National Assembly had been informed and was already awaiting the letter from the president according to the Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution which says that “whenever the President transmits to President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives a written declaration 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.”
The source said among the worries of Yar’Adua’s caucus is that the president cannot give the traditional New Year message which the president delivers in the early morning of January 1 every year both on national radio and television and this, they reasoned, would send wrong signals to the Nigerians about the country’s leadership.
In fact, as at last night, some political pundits still in doubt about the ability of President Yar’adua to return to work, see the expected hand-over next week as a first stage of what should be expected by next year, the reason there is intense lobby for who becomes the Vice President.