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MARCH 19, 2007 VOL. 20. NO 23

Battling With Ill-health

**Yar'Adua, PDP 2007 Presidential Candidate.**

For almost a decade now, the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) presidential standard-bearer, Umaru Yar’Adua, has wrestled with acute kidney failure
By Innocent Chukwu
Before his hazy emergence as the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) presidential flag-bearer for the April 2007 elections on December 16, 2006, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, the Katsina State governor, had neither the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), nor the PDP screening committee hurdle to scale. He also had no qualms to worry about in terms of petitions (if ever they came) regarding how he managed his state’s funds, or corruptly enriched himself.
Yet, deep down in the mind of the Mutawallen Katsina, as Yar’Adua is fondly called in the State, he nursed a haunting fear that was not of a political nature. While his opponents in the PDP presidential primaries such as his colleague-governors: Donald Duke, Peter Odili, Obong Victor Attah, Adamu Muazu, Sam Egwu and Adamu Abdullahi, grappled with fear of being disqualified following allegations of graft, and the ruling party’s veto decision, Yar’Adua’s adrenaline remained on the rise only because of uncertainties surrounding his health, which he knew was capable of disqualifying him permanently from contesting the election.
Notedly, until now, a relatively few number of Nigerians were conversant with the Yar’Adua personage. Perhaps, because of the poor state of his health-acute kidney failure- the Katsina State number one citizen had confined himself to the State, preferring to deliver dividends of democracy to his yearning indigenes instead of pursuing, like his contemporaries, undue media attention and popularity.
But immediately the Katsina State governor’s name was touted as President Olusegun Obasanjo’s anointed successor, and was so anointed at the PDP convention in Abuja during the December 2006 presidential primaries of the party, the name Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was linked with a terminal illness which he (Yar’Adua) is said to have nursed since eight years whe n he was elected governor.
Instructively, many complained that Yar’Adua was asthmatic while others insisted that he was hypertensive; yet, some others that are close to him confessed that he was nursing the dreaded abnormal kidney disease, acute kidney failure. Whatever the nature of the illness was, the conclusion by many was that Yar’Adua, as a result of the sickness, was incapacitated and unqualified to rule Nigeria, given the country’s complexity and numerous political and leadership hurdles.
These warnings, however, climaxed in President Obasanjo’s paperless certification that the man Yar’Adua was hale and hearty and could, against critics observations, surmount political pressures to emerge the country's next president.
Speaking at the inauguration of the National Campaign Council for Yar’Adua’s presidential pursuit, on Wednesday, January 10, 2007, Obasanjo disclaimed critics who fly the kite of Yar’Adua’s ailment as a hindrance to his presidential quest, claiming that such people were making mockery of God’s creation.
Obasanjo: “I know all about Umaru’s ailment and it has disappeared since 2001. It was a miracle. So those calling him a sick man are the ones who are sick. After all, only God can tell who is sick or not. I wonder how somebody can open his mouth and say that a human being created by God is a sick man. I am sure he has proven to those who say he cannot stand stress that all that is not true”.
In fact, no matter how the PDP flag-bearer’s health profile is promoted, ostensibly to indicate that all is well, his opponents still insist that Yar’Adua is undeniably sick. They argue that his looks in this regard are not convincing enough as according to them, it is apparent that he is sick. For example, a Katsina-based politician and chieftain of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP), Alhaji Mohammed Balarabe, said that he was aware that since 1999, Yar’Adua has frequently jetted out of the country to receive medical treatment abroad.
Balarabe: “The governor has some ailments, but I don’t know what they are specifically. I also know that between 1999 and 2002, he was always travelling abroad for treatment”.
Besides Balarabe’s revelation, Yar’Adua’s media adviser, Nasir Abdul, reportedly admitted that his boss had been hit by acute kidney failure since 2000, causing him to be in and out of hospital since he became Katsina State governor Abdul revealed this fact two weeks to the PDP presidential primaries in Abuja.
A reliable source, indeed, whispered to The Source that contrary to claims that Yar’Adua is fit to contest election, the PDP standard- bearer still displays signs of abnormal traits. The Source said that it is quite easily an ordinary symptom of renal failure.
Aside physical manifestations, Yar’Adua, The Source gathered, had broken down during the Muslim festival of Eid-el Malud late last year after the PDP primaries, where he was alleged to have recorded his first strenuous exercise in the last seven years. This, according to investigation, led to his being advised to have some rest by his doctors.
In reaction, Abdul denied the charge, rather claiming that his boss is “hale and hearty, attending meetings and other programmes in Abuja”. Insisting that Yar’Adua received visitors during the festival, Abdul further stated that “he (Yar’Adua) received the Emir of Katsina and other guests who thronged the Katsina State governor’s house. I was with them. He has no problem with his health at all. The Governor also went for durbar at the Emir’s palace before proceeding to Abuja to felicitate with President Obasanjo and the PDP leadership”.
But, perhaps, of much more concern to Nigerians are questions over the true nature of the PDP flag-bearer’s health problems. Has he had to battle the ailments all through his life, or did they just appear during or after the 1999 general elections? Some unconfirmed reports, however, indicate that the PDP presidential candidate was mentally unstable at a time, especially during his childhood– a situation which allegedly brought about his admission and rehabilitation in the Katsina State General Hospital.
Denying this allegation, Ibrahim Shema, the PDP gubernatorial candidate in Katsina State, said the governor was not deranged. “If the governor was not balanced mentally, I am sure a lot of Nigerians would want to be mental, if they can be as decent as him,” Shema said.
Ineed, the much ado about the prospective president’s health condition and his ability to rule the country is, however, somewhat being down-playd by Yar’Adua himself who has resorted to President Obasanjo’s I dey kampe histronics. Dismissing his reported ill health as a non-issue, Yar’Adua recently challenged his critics to a game of squash, insisting; “I am fit and healthy .. If they can play 12 straight sets with me, they are welcome.”
Accusing his detractors of desperately spreading false rumours about his health condition, Yar’Adua posited that having governed a state, he had all it takes to steer the wheels of the country, whether or not there are health impediments. Although there are reports that Yar’Adua suffers from a kidney-related ailment, which has made him a constant caller at a German hospital, Obasanjo remains adamant when it comes to Yar’Adua’s fitness to govern Nigeria. A few weeks back, Obasanjo, during the PDP campaign tour of Adamawa State, had while extolling the qualities in Yar’Adua, argued that his opponents harps on his health status to discredit him, and so urged Nigerians to disregard such critics and focus instead on the dividends of democracy which only PDP, he said, could deliver through Yar’Adua. Thereafter, he said that the PDP presidential standard- bearer could withstand the physical and mental rigours which the president’s office demand.
But medical experts have faulted Obasanjo and Yar’Adua’s claims, arguing that acute kidney failure is a deadly disease capable of terminating its victim’s life at any moment. Consequently, they caution that it will be a huge blunder to allow Yar’Adua run for the April 2007 presidential polls. Confirming the fore-going, a Nephrologist consultant at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Dr. (Mrs) Mabayoje, explains that “patients with kidney failure are always very sick and they have to go on what we call life-supporting treatment or dialysis, a way of using an artificial kidney, like a machine, to remove the toxins that accumulate in the blood from the body and send the blood back to the body of the patient, after it had been filtered of the toxins.”
Explaining further, the medical scientist stated that “when kidneys have failed, even water becomes poisonous to the body because it cannot be got rid of it. Can you imagine your drink now accumulating in the body, goes inside the lungs and stays in the blood, causing high blood pressure? The blood pressure goes very high and as the lungs are filled with water, they cannot exchange air.” The medical experts insists that the artificial kidney (dialysis), cannot function like the natural one and hence, the bearer cannot cope with routine jobs. This, according to Mabayoje, is because during such situation, a patient’s “system becomes loaded with poison, resulting in damage to the brain, heart and other organs in the body, until the patient eventually dies.”