Nigeria’s Cabinet will decide within 14 days whether President Umaru Yar’Adua is fit enough to govern Africa’s most populous nation after a two-month absence for medical treatment, the Attorney General said on Friday.
The 58-year-old leader has not been seen publicly since leaving on November 23 to receive treatment for a heart ailment in Saudi Arabia. He has not transferred power to his deputy, triggering debate over the legality of government decisions.
Judge Dan Abutu ordered the Cabinet to pass a resolution on Yar’Adua’s fitness within two weeks after a former lawmaker brought a legal case against the government, saying his failure to transfer power was in breach of the Constitution.
“We will abide by the judgement of the court. The Executive Council of the Federation will within 14 days, as directed, consider a resolution on the state of the president’s health,” Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa said.
The Senate, which was briefed on Thursday on Yar’Adua’s health in a closed-door session, is due to meet next Tuesday for an update and may also take a position on whether the president should remain in office.
The Cabinet unanimously agreed in early December, less than 10 days after Yar’Adua left for Saudi Arabia, that there were no grounds to seek his resignation, rejecting calls for him to step down or prove his fitness to govern.
Some political analysts say ministers are reluctant to come out against Yar’Adua because they fear they would lose their jobs if Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan were to take over.
But pressure for a resolution has mounted since December.
Nigeria has had to cope with clashes between Christian and Muslim gangs, which killed hundreds of people in the central city of Jos this week, as well as the risk of resurgent violence in the Niger Delta, the heartland of its mainstay oil industry.
More than 3 000 people marched to the state government headquarters in the commercial capital, Lagos, on Thursday, a rare public demonstration of political anger, demanding Yar’Adua give up his executive powers or return to Nigeria immediately.
It was the second major street protest following a similar demonstration in the capital Abuja. — Reuters