- Written by Segun Adeniyi
Given that the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua showed me much affection and trust, it was natural that I would feel for him at his most trying moments, especially during the crisis that followed his last trip to Saudi Arabia. At that critical period, there was no doubt in my mind that the correct thing to do was to send a letter of notification to the National Assembly so that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan could assume the presidency in acting capacity as specified by the Constitution. I did all I possibly could to make those who were in a position to influence such decision see reason but I failed.
With this situation, towards the end of 2009, I began to weigh all my options. By then also, there were people calling on me to resign from government. I can categorise them into two: the first comprised my friends and well wishers who argued that I couldn’t possibly justify being spokesman to a president with whom Nigerians had lost contact. I agreed with the position of this group but nonetheless felt that it was better for me to wait for the arrival of the president before taking any such decision.
I had my reason: At that point, I had nothing to lose by resigning since I had my exit plan already mapped out but the question I asked myself was: how would Yar’Adua feel whenever he recovered and he heard that I had jumped ship just because he was sick? He definitely didn’t deserve that from me. Incidentally, there was a second group that also wanted me to resign but was not thinking of my interest or for that matter that of the nation. By that period, there were already cold calculations towards the recently concluded 2011 general elections and different politicians were making their projections. Owing to the strategic position I held, there were those who felt that a public announcement of my resignation would weaken Yar’Adua’s hold on power and they wanted to use me to achieve that end.
By going into public service, I was under no illusion that everybody would like the choices I would make but at every point in the course of my stewardship, I tried to stay true to the values I espoused as a commentator on public affairs. Did I make mistakes? Yes I did. But my decision at every point was based on the evaluation of the information I had and what I considered to be the best approach in the circumstance I found myself at the time. It is possible that others might react differently given the same situation but I made my choices and I take responsibility for them. Quite naturally, the illness of Yar’Adua and the power struggle it unwittingly fuelled led to all manner of speculations, the most ludicrous of which was the myth of a cabal that had hijacked power in Aso Rock and for which I was fronting.
While I never placed much premium on the “cabal” theory, a conversation on the day Architect Namadi Sambo was sworn-in as VP put the issue in its real perspective. As Governor of Kaduna State, anytime Sambo came to the villa, he always visited my office after seeing his childhood friend, then State Chief of Protocol (SCOP), Ambassador Ghali Umar and with that we became quite close. So when he was nominated to the position of VP, I decided to visit him the moment it was confirmed by the National Assembly. I met him at his new Akinola Aguda official residence but as I made to leave, he requested that I witness his inauguration. I joined the vehicle of Mr Isaiah Balat, (erstwhile Minister of State for Works and Housing under President Olusegun Obasanjo) where there were other important personalities. On the way to the villa, Balat asked: “Segun, this Cabal thing, were you really a member?”
Before I could respond, Mr. Nasir el-Rufai (the big masquerade behind the Save Nigeria Group which played a prominent role in the media and civil society campaign that eventually culminated in the National Assembly making Jonathan the acting president) interjected: “There was no cabal, we created the myth to neutralise Turai”.
While Balat and other people in the vehicle appeared shocked, I was not. The former FCT Minister explained how the idea of ‘cabal’ came into being as well as his understanding of the role played by former First Lady, Hajia Turai Yar’Adua and the different people whose names were frequently mentioned as being members. El-Rufai was right only to the extent that the myth of a ‘cabal’ capturing power at a time Jonathan was effectively in charge was mere propaganda. The fact is that whatever may be her faults, Mrs Yar’Adua never interfered with government as being reported by a section of the media, she simply prevented people from seeing her husband. But the presence in the villa of a president Nigerians were not exactly sure as to whether he was dead or alive indeed engendered a situation in which the federal government had broken into several ‘cabals’ of vested interests all desperate either to retain their powers and privileges under a Yar’Adua they could not see; or to seize control under the presidency of Jonathan whose legendary ‘good luck’ (derived from his first name) some ministers made song and dance about within the Federal Executive Council. It was a terrible period for the nation. It was also a most difficult period for me.
The account of the unfortunate health saga of President Yar’Adua, including how he was brought back to the country from Saudi Arabia under the cover of darkness, will be told but it is convenient for my critics to ignore the fact that between November 23, 2009 when he travelled to Saudi Arabia and his controversial return 93 days later, I spoke only five times. The first, to announce on the day he travelled that he was going on medicals; the second, four days later, to say that diagnosis revealed he had pericarditis (which I had a challenge pronouncing); the third, to say on January 10, 2010 from Angola (where I had gone to watch the Cup of Nations) that the president was not dead as a reaction to the rumour fuelled by a story in NEXT; the fourth, to announce on February 24, 2010 that he was back to the country (where then acting President Jonathan was addressed as VP: explanation will come another day) and the fifth, 24 hours later, to clarify that Jonathan remained acting president!
It is usually the lot of people like me who had the privilege of reporting events and analyzing same to be exposed to cynicism whenever we cross the line but I remain indebted to the late Yar’Adua for giving me the opportunity to experience governance at the highest level in my country. The job that I did is basically media work, dealing with the same constituency and I have no doubt been enriched by the privilege of seeing both sides of the coin. The late Mr. Tony Snow, Spokesman for President George W. Bush (whom I met in the White House on his last day in office in the course of the International Visitors Program for which I was invited by the US State Department in July 2007) had written shortly after taking the job “for somebody like me who's been a pundit for many years, you become part of something that's very rare...”
By the end of 2009, however, it was glaring the health of the president had become an issue that would not go away. I therefore came to the inescapable conclusion that I had to leave government. But mindful of several factors, including ethnicity and religion, I resolved I would have to do it with tact. I recall that when I was appointed, there were some people from the Northern part of the country who felt that Yar’Adua had not made a wise political choice. The argument was that his predecessor, President Olusegun Obasanjo, a Yorubaman and Christian, picked three kinsmen of his (and of the same faith) in succession and so by the same logic, Yar’Adua ought to have picked a Hausa Fulani Muslim. At a period ethnicity and religion had crept into the issue of his illness, I didn’t want to give those who criticized my appointment an opportunity to say “we warned him”. He didn’t deserve that from me. But I had my plan.
Through the help of my friend, the Consul General of the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria, Mr. Guo Kun, I had secured a very generous Chinese scholarship for a special one-year MPA programme at Beijing University that included going to China with my family. My plan therefore was that whenever the president came back, I would inform him that I had secured admission which would then mean I could disengage from government. That way, there would be no question of disloyalty as the reason for my resignation would be clear. But the circumstances of his arrival back to the country in late February did not make such discussion possible. So, I kept things to myself.
Even though it was a very difficult period for me, I just could not abandon my boss at his hour of trial, especially when I knew the state he was in as one of the very few people granted access to see him. Incidentally, even his Katsina loyalists whose names were touted in the media as ‘cabal’ members never saw Yar’Adua from the time he was in Saudi Arabia to when he died at the villa but I did. I recall having a conference call with THISDAY Editors who told me to resign until I confirmed to them I had seen the president. I also explained my exit plan to them given my Beijing University admission.
By a stroke of fortune, however, on April 14, 2010, a friend sent me an internet link to the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, the largest international research center within Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Without bothering to examine the requirements, I simply applied and sent my resume to the program director, Dr. Kathleen Molony. Less than an hour later, I got a response from her. She wrote that application had closed two months earlier on February 25 and participants had been taken. She however added that given that she found my application quite compelling, she would discuss it with the selection board to see if they could make exceptions to accommodate me. That began an exchange of correspondences with Harvard University and on May 4, 2010, I finally got the offer of appointment. Choosing between Beijing and Harvard was not an easy decision given my desire for my children to speak Mandarin but they preferred going to US. By 5pm the next day I was with acting President Jonathan to show him the letter from Harvard and to submit my letter of resignation from government. He was evidently happy for me and I must have spent about 30 minutes with him as we reviewed the state of the nation. Less than four hours later, President Yar’Adua died.
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