• To fill power vacuum as a result of President Yar’adua’s illness:  

Attorney-General of the Federation, Michael Aondoakaa, has written to the Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan, requesting him to avoid any vacuum in the Presidency by acting on behalf of the President, Umar Musa Yar’Adua, on all matters of state as envisaged by “Section 5” of the constitution. 

In a letter delivered to the vice president yesterday, Aondoakaa told Goodluck Jonathan that “Section 5 of the Constitution gives the vice president wide and unfettered latitude to act for the President at anytime and on all matters brought before him” at any time when the president is not available to excercise those powers. 

Aondoakaa is believed to have taken the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, and other top administration officials into confidence before handing this important letter to the vice president. The Attorney-General, Peoples Daily also learnt, took the extra effort of flying to Katsina, the home state of President Yar’adua yesterday to brief the President’s mother and other family members of the latest development. 

A family source who briefed Peoples Daily on the issue explained that the attorney-general was acting to avoid a vacuum in the Presidency because, as he said, no such vacuum had been anticipated by the framers of the constitution. “That is why they called the vice-presidential candidate a ‘running-mate’ in an election. By virtue of this, the running mate (Vice-President) is expected to step in to replace the presidential candidate whenever the need to do so arose.” 

Peoples Daily learnt reliably from another source that the change of heart by the inner caucus of the administration was informed by the fact that many issues that will require the physical presence of the President will soon come-up, hence the need to checkmate the sustained calls for President Yar’adua’s resignation

The source, close to the Presidential Villa confided in Peoples Daily that another reason for the latest decision was the need to take the vice-president along and win his confidence. According to the source, his continuous alienation may have its repercussion as he may be the ultimate beneficiary of any eventuality. 

The source said the new approach was a departure from the earlier position, where it was resolved that all matters requiring the attention of the president will be delivered to him on his hospital bed for his approval. 

“That was why the earlier plan to take the supplementary budget to the president in Saudi for his assent was discarded as it will not only reinforce the call for the president’s resignation but also make the vice-president feel further alienated and that can have dire consequences at the end”, the source said. 

When contacted on the issue on telephone last night, the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice-President on Media, Ima Niboro said: “In that circumstance, you know the appropriate quarters to call, since you’re claiming that the AGF wrote the letter, then call the AGF to confirm to you if he wrote such letters.

“But I don’t know anything about that,” the vice president’s spokesman stressed.

Concerted efforts to reach the Attorney-General last night however failed. Several calls to his line did not go through as it was said to be “currently switched off” up to press time. 

However, when contacted last night, Chief Press Secretary to the AGF, Ambrose Momoh said: “I’m hearing that for the first time. I just resumed yesterday and I’m hearing that for the first time. I’m not privy to that.”

A legal expert who spoke to Peoples Daily yesterday said with the resort to “Section 5”, the Attorney-General had defused the potentially explosive issue of the alleged lack of hand over by President Yar’Adua to Vice- President Jonathan as envisaged by the constitution under “Section 145”.This has caused a bitter argument between the government and its opponents. 

He also said that with this development, the underground contest for the position of vice- president will be rested because Goodluck Jonathan is just an Acting President and does not need a vice-president and President Yar’adua will now have sufficient time in his hands to attend to his health.

The prolonged absence of the president has stalled the 2009 Supplementary Appropriation Bill that addressed critical issues of state which has been duly passed by the National Assembly since November 24, 2009. 

Just last week, the amnesty programme in the Niger Delta being personally supervised by the president ran into a hitch that led to protests by ex-militants and resumption of attacks by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). 

Although the Senate confirmed their nominations, more than a week ago, the new Chief Justice of the Nigeria and the President of the Court of Appeal could not assume their respective offices because their oath of office that should constitutionally be administered by the president could not be carried out in his absence.