Against the background of rumours on the purported death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Saudia Arabia where he had gone for treatment, his spokesperson and Senior Special Adviser on Communication, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi has denied the speculations saying that the president is alive and has been talking to some people including foreign broadcast media.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) also claimed to have spoken to the President in Saudia Arabia and he was reported to have said: “I am undergoing treatment and I’m getting better. I hope very soon there will be tremendous progress, which will allow me to get back home.”
Mr. Adeniyi who is in Angola as a member of the Nigerian delegation to the African Cup of Nations football tournament said: “The speculations are false. The president is alive and actually getting better. He is very much conscious, can talk and has been talking, including making phone calls to some people back home.”
Mr. Adeniyi even added he (Adeniyi) was in Angola on official assignment but he would return to the country because President Umaru YarÁdua had instructed. “I am here officially but I am coming back home hopefully tomorrow because he has so directed,” he said
Adeniyi urged the public to disregard the story which he described as not only false, but also a figment of the writers’ imagination.
The health of the Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has generated a lot of confusions and controversies since he was admitted to a Saudi Arabia Hospital about 50 days ago after he complained of heart problems.
The wide speculations which are largely spread through text messages, emails on online forums and postings on some websites give negative signals on his health and implication to Nigeria as a country.
The president, who was officially announced to have been diagnosed of acute pericarditis, had been rumoured on chatrooms to have been clinically dead and surviving on life supporting machine, while some alleged that he had been unconscious for weeks. A respected national media also claimed that Mr Yar’Adua was “seriously brain-damaged and unable to recognise anyone including his wife” while an American based newspaper was alleged to have reported on its online version that the President Umaru Musa YarÁdua was died before it later removed the page.
