WHY MR PRESIDENT’S MAILMAN SHOULD GO

Recently Nigerians woke up to hear reports that our President did write to the legislature informing the honourable lawmakers of his intention to go on a medical leave. The report said the letter was hijacked by the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters Senator Mohammed Abba Aji who then said the report was inaccurate stressing that the President did not send any letter(s) to the National Assembly.

The big question is; who are we to believe?

A lot has been said and written about President Yar’Adua especially since his recent hospitalization. I must say I was one of those who did not think he should have been president mainly because I, like many others did not know much about his politics.

His tenure started fairly well until he started showing some unusual patterns especially with the constant reversal of his own policies which prompted the talk that he may have been hijacked by a click.

The aim of this opinion is not to criticize the President but rather to bring the readers attention to forces that may be at play in the Presidency.

Let me get back to Senator Mohammed Abba Aji and the letter issue. Assuming the President actually wrote to the National Assembly just before he left and Abba Aji decided against delivering it after digesting the information inside, does that not tell us something? Who is running the show here? Does the Adviser have the authority to open a letter not addressed to him from the President and Commander-In-Chief?

I have researched the duties of the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters and there is nowhere it authorizes the officer to open and read the President’s letter given to him for onward delivery.

The Senator was hired to ‘advise’ the President purely on National Assembly matters and so far he hasn’t exactly done a good job. He is the same person who said it is not stated anywhere in the Constitution that the President must write the National Assembly when he is going away on leave, a deliberate misinterpretation and disregard for the sacred document. Mohammed Abba Aji has no business advising the President. His conduct only gives credence to our assumptions that Umaru Yar’Adua has been hijacked by a few, and the former Senator will sure know more about this group.

I recall the President said he was not consulted before a directive was issued to Nigerian embassies worldwide to deny Nasir El-Rufai and Nuhu Ribadu consular services. Some politician(s) like Mohammed Abba Aji took this decision without the President’s approval.

The issues at stake here are grave and unfortunate, some have argued that someone from the Presidency may have sacrificed Abba Aji to ease the tension and criticisms on the President for not informing the National Assembly of his intentions to go on a sick leave. This is a fair argument too and it still points to Mohammed Abba Aji’s advising. I refuse to imagine that the President would openly disregard our Constitution, which he swore to uphold and protect, a Constitution that he rode to power on.

I believe President Yar’Adua is being ill advised by his handlers and he needs to wake up for his sake, our sake and that of posterity. The President’s adviser should resign. Our Constitution is supreme and must be respected at all times.