While Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua returned home on Wednesday after three months of medical treatment in Saudi Arabia, a spokesman indicated that he would not immediately seek to reclaim the powers that parliament transferred to his deputy two weeks ago.
Yar’Adua’s return in the early hours of Wednesday morning had raised concerns among diplomats in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, that a power struggle might unfold. Nigerian Vice President Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in two weeks ago as acting president.
In a statement quoted by news agencies, Olusegun Adeniyi, the presidential spokesman, said: “President Yar’Adua wishes to reassure all Nigerians that on account of their unceasing prayers and by the special grace of God, his health has greatly improved.”
“However, while the president completes his recuperation, Vice President Jonathan will continue to oversee the affairs of state,” the spokesman said.
The statement followed hours of uncertainty about the president’s intentions and intense jockeying among politicians, some of whom had been anticipating a new era under Jonathan, who had promised a drive against corruption and other significant changes in the oil-rich country.
News of the president’s return emerged after two planes landed at the presidential wing of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja and were met by a convoy of police vehicles and an ambulance. Soldiers lined the route from the airport.
“The president got back last night around 2am,” said Oronto Douglas, an aide to Jonathan.
“He was conveyed in an ambulance to the villa,” he said, referring to the presidential villa in Abuja.
Douglas said a delegation from Yar’Adua’s Cabinet had gone to Saudi Arabia to check on his condition, only to be told on arrival that the president was on his way back to Nigeria.
“Maybe it’s a pre-emptive step,” Douglas said.
Diplomats in Abuja attributed the ailing president’s return to maneuvering by his inner circle.
“Considering his condition, the only reason they brought him back is they’re desperately trying to hold on to power,” said one Western diplomat in Abuja who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.
The diplomat noted that some around Yar’Adua have felt exposed to renewed corruption allegations since Jonathan took power.
“All of these people who have been shielded from corruption allegations will now be vulnerable,” he said.
The diplomat said strenuous efforts were undertaken to shield Yar’Adua’s arrival early on Wednesday from public scrutiny.
“They had the plane disembark in an area where there is no light,” he said. “Not even protocol officers were allowed to see him.”
In his inaugural speech earlier this month, Jonathan, 52, a mild-mannered academic, promised that “the war against corruption will be prosecuted more robustly.”
Jonathan also pledged to strengthen the shaky peace in the turbulent Niger Delta, where militants and thugs battle for control of oil, and to reinforce the government’s faltering amnesty program in the region.
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