You have been in the news recently as one of the outspoken members of the Yar’adua family. Nigerians like to know of your experience with the President.
His Excellency, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’adua (Matawallen Katsina) is my cousin. Although he is older than I am, we have been together since his youth, up to when he was a lecturer, and we worked together at Sambo Farms where he held forth as the General Manager. We are close. In fact, when our eldest brother, the late General Shehu Musa Yar’adua wanted to join politics, President Yar’adua and I were the only members of the family who joined politics with him so Yar’adua is my brother as well as a political mentor.
You are the first person in the country who has publically claimed to have seen him since his return from Saudi Arabia. Can you tell us about your meeting and the condition of his health?
I met him on a settee drinking tea when I went to visit him in the Villa. Before I went in, there were doctors who told me not to stay long and also, not to mention political issues in my discussions with him. They said I should just greet him and come back. When I entered, I greeted him in the usual Islamic way, Salamu Alaikum and he answered. He called my name, asked me how the people of Katsina were and how I was doing. I told him everything was good. I ask him, ‘How’s your body?’ He said he thanked God that he was getting better. He then told me to extend his greetings to a number of people he mentioned. We stayed together for about two to three minutes. He was in a settee. That’s how I foundd him.
Who are the people he asked you about?
He asked of quite a number of people. He named about 10 people, some of them family members and a few associates.
But there’s wide allegation that he is in coma and cannot perform anything.
No, that’s not true. Three things make doctors discharge people who go to hospital: The patient can die, or the doctors feel they can’t help the patient, or the patient is getting well enough to be safe away from the hospital ward. Since the president has come back to Nigeria it means he has become better. Our concern now as a family is not about power but the quick recovery of our ailing brother. What we know is that he was ill but has gotten better and is recuperating at present. We are committed in prayers to his recovery, but all this is not ours. It is God who will make him completely well.
It is said that people don’t hear him if he speaks because his voice is inaudible. How true is it?
If his voice was pale and he was inaudible when I met him, how could I have heard what he was saying? I will have told you I heard nothing from him because he couldn’t make himself heard.
Did he look like he will get better soonest and take on the rigours of a presidential job?
I said he is still recuperating. Even if it’s ordinary fever you had, you cannot recover immediately. You will be weak and need time to rest and recuperate. This is the position he is in now. By God’s grace, when he fully recovers, everybody will know that he has recovered and it is at that time that he himself will tell how fit he is to continue with work. All the argument people are making is unnecessary. He is one person that is very patriotic, very intelligent and morally upright. He is also a very honest person. If he feels at any time that he cannot continue with work, he will quit. And what has the country lacked? Heads of households often travel for months or years and return to find their households doing well. Who takes care of households except God? As it is now, President Umaru Musa Yar’adua is back but yet to resume the mantle of leadership. The man steering the ship is the Acting President, Goodluck Jonathan. He told us all that had been done were done to keep the country going and avoid a vacuum and it is true. There is nothing to shout so much about.
Sorry, if we have to go back to this: from the look of Yar’adua when you saw him, will you say he has improved?
Yes, he has, although I met him sitting down and I don’t know for how long he had been sitting in that chair. But I met him in the chair.
Did he look like he could walk?
Of course, he walks!
What is your view as a family about the things that are going on? Were you unhappy when power was transferred to Jonathan?
Not at all, after all Jonathan is his vice and they have been working together for long. We have never heard the President complaining about Jonathan. Jonathan has been loyal to him and the President has been saying so. Secondly, the constitution allows for a Vice to deputise for the principal when he is not there for any reason. In this case, something happened that was nobody’s fault. Yar’adua did not choose to be ill. So, who are we to fight about what God has decreed? As a family, we are people who believe in what God has decreed. I am sure if you go to the President today, he will tell you he is grateful about what God has decreed on him.
That’s how we were brought up. I remember when we spoke with him about this when our elder sister, Hajiya Dije died. He was cautioning us to submit to the will of God Almighty because they were together in Abuja before she travelled. She bid the President farewell hale and hearty before they proceeded for the Lesser Hajj. Incidentally, she died in the plane before they reached Egypt. He always used that as an example. He draws our attention to it and urges us to be mindful of our lives. He tells us always how our life is not in our hands.
During your meeting with him, did he say when he is likely to come to his home town Katsina to see those he was asking you about?
No! And I think even before now, it’s only when he wishes that he comes around occasionally to greet his family. But now, as I am speaking to you, there are still some doctors around him. He cannot do certain things without the advice of the doctors. He could hardly do anything, actually, without first consulting them. He may want to come to Katsina but they may advise against his travelling. In which case, I m sure he will respect their professional point of view. So, truly, I cannot say when he may come to Katsina. Get it right. He wants to come to Katsina. As I said, he asked me about different people in Katsina. Some are relatives some are friends. That means he will have liked to see people if the doctors considerered it safe. So, it is not really within him to decide what to do. He has to cooperate with the doctors till he recovers fully.
