I Was Aware Yar’Adua Was Ill but… – Obasanjo Says

BY VICTOR BUORO, ABUJA – Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that he was not unaware of the fact that late President Musa Umaru Yar’Adua was ill before he threw his weight behind him to emerge as the flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2007.

Chief Obasanjo, who stated this on Sunday during a virtual interview with an academic and historian, Toyin Falola, however debunked the allegation that he deliberately put up a weak Yar’Adua as candidate of the PDP for his own selfish interests.

The former president explained that upon receipt of the medical report on the late Yar’Adua, he sought for a medical advice from a renowned doctor, who declared that even though Yar’Adua had a kidney transplant, he was fit to act as President.

Obasanjo went further and explained; “Let me tell you the story of Umaru Yar’adua. I knew he was ill and before I put him forward, I asked for his medical report which he sent to me and I sent it to one of the best doctors of our time and a good friend of mine, who died only last year –Professor Akinkugbe.

“I said look at it because it is confidential and he said to me that from the report, this man has had a kidney transplant and it is successful, he is no longer under dialysis.

“And if you have a kidney transplant and it is successful, it is as good as if you didn’t have a kidney transplant at all. I accepted the medical advice and Umaru Yar’adua contested within the party and he contested within the country and came up,” he enthused.

Obasanjo further said; “In the process of the campaign, I remember that he had to go for a medical checkup abroad and he was not around for a campaign here in Abeokuta.

“I called him because the rumour was that he had died. I called him on my telephone and put it on speaker. I said, ‘Umaru, are you dead or alive?’ and he said, ‘I am not dead, I am alive’.

“Within a couple of days, he came back and reported that he was checked up and he was well. That was the position of Umaru Yar’adua and if anybody in his right sense will think that what I have done in that position was not right, I leave him in the hands of God.”

Yar’Adua died in office in May 2010.