President Umaru Yar'Adua has been drifting in and out of sicknesses before and after his inauguration as president on May 29, 2007.
He also contended with certain ailments while he was governor of Katsina State for eight years. The only difference is that as governor, it was nobody's business except of course the people of Katsina. Now, the stage has changed. The larger Nigeria canvas puts the president's wellbeing on the front-burner of national discourse.
Yar'Adua is no longer the 'private' property of the people of Katsina; he has become as it were a national acquisition. This is why his health has become for the rest of the country a totem on the neck of everyone.
Each time he sneezes, coughs or stutters through a speech, we rush to the laboratories in our minds to analyse the implications. And how often have we pronounced the man dead in the dark and devious corners of our minds? Last week, the rumour mill moved too fast. This time, as in the past, it pronounced the man dead. But at last, the maze cleared. The president wasn't dead. He was hospitalised in Saudi Arabia (and I wonder, why not at National Hospital, Abuja or any other hospital in a country that will mark her Golden jubilee next year). Not for the first time, though. In August, he was guest of the same hospital - King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Jeddah. However, this time, there was presidential disclosure of the diagnosis. Our president has an inflamed heart condition medically called pericarditis. Experts say it is not the worst of cases. They say it could be managed. And once done, the president would get back on his feet and get back to work. This is also my prayer and wish.
But my worry is not the fact that we have a president who goes in and out of hospital. My worry is that we are working hard to make a huge capital out of it. World history is replete with presidents who ailed all through their tenure in office. Some even died in office as a result of their ailments. Others slumped on the big stage while performing state duties. It is a long list, from the ancient to the contemporary.
John Adams, the second president of the United States (1797-1801), was reported to have suffered multiple maladies while in office. He was erratic and labile, a behavioural trait linked to hyperthyroidism.
Insight into the US presidency has revealed a long list of well managed, sometimes carefully concealed presidential illnesses. These were high-profile ailments well known to presidential aides but concealed from the prying media. Of the 16 US presidents in the 20th century, eight had heart conditions, five underwent major surgeries, three suffered cerebral haemorrhages and four died in office.
Dwight D. Eisenhower was the 34th president of America. He ruled for two terms, from 1953-1961. It was eight years of multiple medical challenges; a heart attack in 1955, surgery for intestinal obstruction in 1956 and a stroke later the same year. Yet, he did very well. He rallied to banish the last vestiges of racial dichotomy. "There must be no second class citizens in this country" was his heart's cry.
Woodrow Wilson, John F. Kennedy (Addison's disease) and Franklin Delano Roosevelt (confined to a wheel chair by polio, hypertension and later stroke) are part of a long list of US presidents assailed in office by an admixture of illnesses.
There have been many other presidents of different countries who grappled with the challenges of state duties alongside serious medical impairments. In most cases, these presidents out-performed otherwise healthy ones. Such presidents relied on their deputies, cabinet members and aides to get the job done. And together, they actually did.
In the Nigerian dilemma, the focus is so much on the president's health. We lament and wail over Yar'Adua's health but forget that the president has a deputy and scores of ministers and presidential aides. Yes, the president is sick, so what? It will not take Yar'Adua to fix the Lagos-Benin road. It will take the minister in charge of roads. It will require the effort of the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) to creatively find a solution to that niggling road. It will require a little thinking to do it.
We saw it in Lagos years back when Buba Marwa (now a retired General) was military administrator. He introduced direct labour agency. He sourced bitumen locally (and we have plenty of it). In a flash, Lagos roads morphed from rough to smooth. Somebody isn't just thinking in the Ministry of Works. We don't need to wait for the ceremonials of awarding billion-naira contracts to get the Ore portion of the road fixed.
Yar'Adua's ill, no doubt. But that is not enough reason for his ministers to shirk their responsibilities. It is not enough reason for heads of parastatals not to deliver premium quality service. The truth is that if this government fails, as it is failing, it will not be as a result of the president's ill-health, it would be as a consequence of the collective indolence of his cabinet members. The very fact that the president cannot get proper medicare in Nigeria 50 years after independence sums up this collective failure. And this rankles.
