SPECIAL Adviser on National Assembly Matters to President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Mohammed Abba-Aji, will appear before the Senate today over the letter allegedly transmitted through him to the National Assembly before the President embarked on his medical trip to Saudi Arabia.

Yar’Adua jetted to Saudi Arabia on November 23, last year, to receive treatment for acute pericarditis. 
His alleged refusal to write the National Assembly in conformity with Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution, before embarking on the trip, has since caused a widespread furore.

But Senate President David Mark announced yesterday that Abba-Aji would appear before the lawmakers at plenary today by noon.
Although he was not specific on the purpose of the invitation, sources, however, said that it is not unconnected with the letter, which was said to be “missing” in transit.

Yar’Adua had left the country on
A national newspaper (not the Nigerian Compass) had reported in December, last year that the President actually wrote the letter and transmitted it through Abba-Aji, who promptly denied knowledge of such correspondence.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Caucus in the upper chamber was billed to meet yesterday evening with the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party at the Senate President’s Apo Mansion.
Although details of the meeting’s agenda were not disclosed by Mark yesterday, it might not be unconnected with the ongoing consultations on how to find a solution to the lingering impasse generated by Yar’Adua’s absence.

Sources in the Senate, however, told the Nigerian Compass yesterday that when the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, appeared before the senators behind closed-door penultimate week, he, indeed, told them that there was a letter from Yar’Adua to the National Assembly before he left the country for Saudi Arabia.
The Senate had summoned the SGF to come before it and declare the true state of health of the President.

The move to summon Yayale followed the rejection of a motion seeking the resolution of the upper chamber to visit the ailing Yar’Adua in Saudi Arabia.
According to the source, Yayale urged the lawmakers to find out from Abba-Aji what happened to the letter.

The source explained further that the SGF stunned the senators when he told them that he actually drafted the letter, which he forwarded to the Minister of Justice, Michael Aondoakaa (SAN), for legal input after which he took the letter to the President who actually signed it.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s role in the making of the Umaru Yar’Adua presidency is well known. Acting President Goodluck Jonathan could not have been vice president without this role. When Obasanjo drafted him to be running mate to Yar’Adua, Jonathan had just won the governorship ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bayelsa State. His first shot as governor was not by election. He had been catapulted to the office after his boss, Diprieye Alamieyeseigha was impeached. Alamieyeseigha’s removal was not without Obasanjo’s blessing. So, Jonathan was warming up for his baptism of fire with the electorate. But this was not to be as Obasanjo decreed him to become Yar’Adua’s running mate. Jonathan, observers said last night, is bound to feel some sense of loyalty to Obasanjo, the man who, on two occasions, had played pivotal role in catapulting him to offices he perhaps never dreamt of. Aside his becoming deputy governor, which he was convinced to be by the late Melford Okilo, every other office Jonathan has occupied was directly or indirectly influenced by Obasanjo. In less than two years, he rose from deputy governor to vice president.

Now, he is Acting President. But there are fears that he will be doing Obasanjo’s bidding? This issue came up when the need to empower Jonathan to act as president began. Then it became strident when Obasanjo asked Yar’Adua to hand over to Jonathan.

Perhaps this fear is also founded on the fact that Obasanjo and Yar’Adua had ‘secretly’ fallen out. Yar’Adua, not long after he took over office, started dismantling Obasanjo’s policies. He also fell out with "Obasanjo’s boys".

When Yar’Adua first ‘disappeared’ from the country, Obasanjo refused to comment on his absence. Despite prodding by the media, he shrugged off comments about Yar’Adua’s illness, until he spoke at the Trust Dialogue in Abuja about three weeks again.

Another of his ‘boys’ has been empowered by the National Assembly to act as president.

But will it also be an opportunity for Obasanjo to bounce back into reckoning? Time will tell.

By
Olukorede Yishau
COURTESY: THE NATION NEWSPAPER