Facts have emerged on the reasons state governors and some ministers hitherto opposed to the inauguration of Vice President Goodluck Jonathan as the acting president made a U-turn on their position- the health condition of President Umaru Yar’Adua may not allow him to come back to office under whatever guise.
Also, the disclosure last week that many of them who claimed to have seen the President in Saudi Arabia lied, as the arrangement put in place by the Saudis only allowed his wife, the Aide de Camp and the Chief Security Officer access to him, really make some of the governors and ministers to lose face with the public.
A source told News Star that the governors and ministers also changed their stance because they knew that there was no way they could go on telling Nigerians stories only meant to calm them down, but lacking substance.
An aide of a chieftain of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party in the South-South geo-political zone said in confidence that trying to buy time over Yar’Adua’s health challenges would end in futility.
“The truth is that even if the president comes back to Nigeria alive, whether he is on life support or not, there is no way he can continue in office. His condition is bad and it is better to allow the sleeping dog lie,” he said.
A local newspaper had reported that the president’s brain is damaged, while a foreign tabloid said he is clinically dead.
The local paper still went ahead to say it stood by its story following protest from government quarters and the government has not contradicted that since.   
However, former Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, is teaming up with Yar’Adua’s wife, Turai, former Delta State Governor, James Onanefe Ibori, special economic aide, Tanimu Yakubu, Attorney General, Michael Aondoakaa, and Governor Bukola Saraki of Kwara to plan further strategies on how the kitchen cabinet of the president will still hold on to power for a while.
The group, it was learnt, is ready to spend more in its bid to stay in power.
More than N20 billion has already been spent to bribe various groups and individuals.
In addition to huge bribes to legislators and judges, the members of Yar’Adua’s kitchen cabinet have resolved to deploy a few strategies to handle a restive nation in the days ahead.
Part of this strategy is to use the media in a constant campaign to misinform the Nigerian public to the effect that Yar’Adua’s return to Nigeria was imminent.
It was gathered that Babangida has finalised plans to re-enter the presidential race by claiming that it was the “last wish” of his late wife, Maryam, to run Nigeria in her memory.
Ibori is tipped as his vice presidential candidate.
In the event that Babangida’s plan fails, the group plans to plant former General Aliyu Muhammad Gusau, a close ally of Babangida’s who ran his intelligence operations, as the PDP’s presidential candidate, again with Ibori as VP.
Ibori, who is a member of Yar’Adua’s inner circle, has been entrusted with handling the bribing of the judiciary to ensure that no court judgment would change the status quo ante regarding Yar’Adua’s continuation as president even in absentia.
The kitchen cabinet felt a great relief when the chief judge of the Federal High Court, Dan Abutu, some days ago ruled that Yar’Adua had not broken any law by not transmitting a letter to the National Assembly regarding his absence.

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