NIGERIA’S PRESIDENTIAL VACUUM IN REAL TIME (JAN 2010)

Posted on 17. Mar, 2010 by The Muse in The Muse

JANUARY 1, 2010: The US blacklist Nigeria, this meant the introduction of more stringent criteria for visa applications, more intensive searches and extra security checks on its air passengers. In the weeks to follow (in the absence of a President), various members of the government including the national assembly makes public speeches appealing Nigeria’s inclusion to the US terror watchlist.

JANUARY 10. 2010: With the distraction of the Nigerian suicide bomber intensifying, the country finally realises that a key part of the counter-terrorism piece is missing. WHERE IS THE PRESIDENT? WHY HAS HE NOT SPOKEN OUT AT SUCH A CRITICAL IMPASSE IN THE COUNTRY’S INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS? IS HE ALIVE? IS HE DEAD?

JANUARY 11, 2010: Reports from 234next says that the president is brain-dead! Other reports (notably the Amerian Chronicle) claim that the president is indeed dead! But all reports lack conclusive evidence.

JANUARY 11, 2010: According to Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, Presidential spokesman, who spoke from Angola, where he was participating in the ongoing CAF Nations Cup, he said the public should discountenance the story, insisting that the president was not only alive, but very much conscious and getting better. This is echoed by key members of the National Assembly and by the Presidents Economic Adviser, Tanimu Yakubu.

JANUARY 12, 2010: In the early hours of the morning, a radio interview is aired which is “claimed” to have been the President himself. I will leave to draw your own conclusions but this writer had and still has his doubt.

JANUARY 12: 2010: The aftermath of the radio interview is outrage and a public protest by notable Nigerians such as Wole Soyinka. Please watch attached video.

JANUARY 13, 2010: A High Court judge effectively sidelines Nigeria’s ailing and absent President by ruling that his deputy can take executive decisions. “The court verdict has now empowered the vice president to start assuming the powers of an acting president,” Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa told reporters after the ruling, at a federal court in the capital Abuja.

JANUARY 14, 2010: Like clockwork, chaos ensues in Jos, Plateau state. Accompanied by a most regrettable loss of lives and property.

JANUARY 27, 2010: The Federal Executive Council (FEC) resolves that the President is not incapable of discharging the functions of his office. And that the medical treatment outside the Country does not constitute incapacity to warrant or commence the process of the removal of the President from office, under Sections 144 and 146 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.