Following yesterday celebrated dethronement of Nigeria’s most corrupt Attorney General since independence, Michael Aondoakaa, who was widely considered to be the most influential member of the Yar’Adua kitchen cabinet, Sahara reporters has learned that the group may have decided on immediate legal action, to be spearheaded by Northern politician, Tanko Yakassai. Rallying the deflated troops yesterday evening, its Abuja-based arrowhead, James Ibori, hurriedly summoned a meeting of its deflated remnants of the group. They met all night to consider fresh options to combat to Goodluck Jonathan, who was named “Acting President” via resolutions of both houses of the National Assembly 72 hours ago.
Jonathan started his new role by chairing the Federal Executive Council meeting perched on the seat of the president, which had been empty for close to 80 days. Before entering the chambers for the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting, sources say he tried frantically to sack Aondoakaa outright, perhaps to eliminate his divisive tendencies, but other members of the kitchen cabinet advised against it. It was then he settled for a minor reshuffle by moving Aondoakaa to a less conspicuous cabinet position where he will have limited powers to cause immediate havoc to what has become a shaky resolution by the legislative arm of the Nigerian government. That move alone was certain to change the dynamics within the government, and the country.
Ibori, the former Governor of Delta State has everything to lose with the removal of Andoakaaa from the coveted seat of AGF, as it immediately conjured up the nightmare prospect for him of his wife and associates facing criminal trial in a UK court may all end up in jail. The group last night resolved to respond by dragging the legality of Jonathan’s ascendancy to the presidency into question and transform the issue into a full-blown constitutional crisis that would position the military wing of the group to strike.
Sources say the EFCC may also have been activated already to search Aondoakaa’s house based upon a fresh petition that the Bayelsa State governor paid him $1.5 million to fight Jonathan, but what was found turned out to be the remainder of a $3 million deal the state had with Aondoakaa to sign off on Yar’Adua on citing a campus of the Nigerian Law School campus in the state. Aondoakaa routinely extorts money from state governors for favorable decisions concerning them to be made by Yar’Adua.
Another source told Sahara reporters that but for the removal of Aondoakaa yesterday, he was already armed with a lawsuit with which he wanted to get a judge in Abuja to help “interpret” the motions of the National Assembly by which Jonathan became Acting President, hence the mobilization of policemen to his house and office to forestall any such action.
Sahara reporters also spoke to several National Assembly members over their action, and they all insisted that they did what they did out of necessity and to close the vacuum and the political crisis created by Yar’Adua’s absence. Our sources said, however, that the members of the National Assembly acted only when it was leaked to them that a radical group in the military planned to take over power and wipe out the entire political class including former head of states, media owners, businessmen with political connections, some visibly political traditional rulers and some members of the clergy. The intelligence that was shared with them through diplomatic sources led to the “expedient” action to make Jonathan “Acting President”. There may be credence in this, given that only the previous week, many National Assembly members continued to stand by Yar’Adua.
On Tuesday, when the Senate President was making his declaration regarding the resolution to make Jonathan “Acting President and the Commander –in-Chief of the Armed Forces”, he had practically plagiarized the proposition of notable human rights activist, Femi Falana, who earlier proposed that the issue could be resolved on the basis of the “doctrine of necessity”.
Last night’s proposed response by Yar’Adua loyalists, in which they chose to seek ways to extend the crisis in order to turn things in their favour, suggest that Nigeria’s troubles are not over. So far, they have refused to allow members of the House of Representatives delegation currently in Jeddah to visit Yar’Adua. A source at the National Assembly confirmed to Sahara reporters that the delegation of the House of Representatives was denied access to Yar’Adua outright. According to their flight itinerary, they are now billed to return to Nigeria tomorrow.
Sahara reporters has also learned that another three–man delegation comprising the Governors of Katsina, Bauchi and Benue States may also meet with no success in their effort to see Yar’Adua, a mission that they could not accomplish by the close of business in Jeddah today. The delegation had been used as a back up to force out a letter from Yar’Adua’s wife, the woman who has been the most intransigent of all the kitchen cabinet members.Turai Yar’Adua has vowed that Nigeria will never see a letter transmitting power to Jonathan. She has kept that promise, but if by the vow she meant that Jonathan will not ascend to Acting President, it seems she needs a new calculator.
As for the Abuja based kitchen cabinet, they have resorted to agreed lines of propaganda, which Nigerians will see more of in the following days, to mobilize against Jonathan, including repeatedly using Obasanjo’s name to poison the political elite in the North again him. For example, Yar’Adua’s Chief Economic Adviser, in a text message obtained by Sahara reporters last night following the strategy meeting, said, “Obj, Aliko, Steve (Orosanye) all meeting. Obj has hijacked the gov(’t), Kayode is Obj nomination, They will sack Ruma next week. Farida is going! Nuhu (Ribadu) is coming back. And VP is coming for us. Gov(’t) is withdrawing from all lawsuits against Yar’adua-TY”. Various elements of this propaganda were repeated in James Ibori’s Daily Independence newspaper today.
Obasanjo was supposed to be attending an event promoted by his business partner Andrew Young thorough the LEON H. SULLIVAN FOUNDATION today at the National Press Club in Washington DC, but the event has been cancelled due to the inclement weather in the DC area. One of his aides told Sahara reporters that Obasanjo was actually at the Lagos airport last night enroute to the US but had to return to his farm in Otta because he was told the event in DC was canceled.
Part of the kitchen cabinet strategy is also to reactivate the rumor that Yar’Adua will return by the end of February 2010 when it would have been 90 days since his “marabouts” reportedly put him into spiritual and physical regeneration in Jeddah.
For the moment, some members of the National Assembly told Sahara reporters they are eagerly awaiting any legal moves by Yar’Adua’s loyalists as that would enable them embark on more drastic measures against the missing “president.” The options being considered include impeachment or a total invocation of section 143 or 144 of the constitution that would enable Jonathan act fully as president for the rest of Yar’Adua’s tenure.
Sahara Reporters.
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