“To say that I, Olusegun Obasanjo, deliberately picked somebody who is an invalid, is the height of insult”
**Nigeria’s former President Olusegun Obasanjo has suggested that his successor, Umaru Yar’Adua, should resign if he is too ill for office.**He said there was “a path of honour and morality” for an office-holder unable to deliver because of his health.
Mr Yar’Adua, handpicked by Mr Obasanjo to run for president in 2007, is in a Saudi hospital for a heart condition.
It is Mr Obasanjo’s first statement on the president’s two-month absence which has prompted fears of a power vacuum.
YAR’ADUA ILLNESS TIMELINE
- 23 November 2009: Goes to hospital in Saudi Arabia
- 26 November 2009: Presidential doctors say he has pericarditis - inflammation of the heart lining
- 23 December 2009: First court case filed called him to step down
- 30 December 2009: Chief justice sworn in. Lawyers say this is illegal in president’s absence
- 5 January 2010: Two more court cases filed and a human rights group wants president declared “missing”
- 12 January 2010: President gives first interview since going to Saudi Arabia
Yar’Adua’s absence still rankles
Profile: President Umaru Yar’Adua
On Thursday, more than 1,000 gathered in Lagos on Thursday to protest against Mr Yar’Adua’s prolonged absence.
Some carried placards saying: “Enough of the offshore president and a people’s constitution now.”
The protesters argue that when the president left the country to go to hospital he did not hand executive powers to his deputy, as required by the constitution.
In a BBC interview from his hospital bed last week, the president said he was recovering and hoped to return home, without giving a timeframe.
Mr Obasanjo was answering questions at a public lecture when he made the comments about the president’s ill health.
He denied that he had been irresponsible when choosing his successor, AFP news agency reports.
“To say that I, Olusegun Obasanjo, deliberately picked somebody who is an invalid, is the height of insult,” he said.
In 2007, he put Mr Yar’Adua, who was known to suffer from a kidney complaint, forward as the ruling People’s Democratic Party’s presidential candidate when his own attempts to run for a third term floundered.
Analysts said that by backing Mr Yar’Adua to succeed him, Mr Obasanjo had hoped to continue pulling the strings after leaving office.
But it has not turned out this way and since then Mr Yar’Adua has proved to be his own man.