LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua returned to the West African country Saturday after more than two weeks in Saudi Arabia, where he reportedly spent a lengthy stint in a private hospital, officials said.
Information Minister John Odey told The Associated Press that Yar'Adua landed in Nigeria early Saturday and is "strong and well."
The opposition has demanded more disclosure on the state of Yar'Adua's health and Nigerian media reported that Yar'Adua spent much of his trip to Saudi Arabia in a hospital undergoing treatment for his chronic kidney condition.
While Yar'Adua has long been known to suffer from a kidney ailment, government officials say he traveled to Islam's holiest land primarily as a pilgrim, although they say he has consulted with doctors during his 16-day trip there.
But the political opposition has been pressing for more details.
The Nigerian media has reported that Yar'Adua's situation is more serious than the government has acknowledged, and that many members of Yar'Adua's family and political allies have traveled to Saudi Arabia to be with him. One major mass daily newspaper reported Friday that Yar'Adua may have undergone a kidney transplant.
Yar'Adua has made several lengthy trips to overseas medical clinics since he became governor of a northern Nigeria state in 2000.
He also flew unannounced from the country in mid-2007, disappearing to Germany for days, just before April 2007 elections that he won. Election observers condemned the vote as rigged and unrepresentative of the public will.
The government has insisted that during Yar'Adua's trip to Saudi Arabia he had been able to fulfill his presidential duties — apparently trying to forestall challenges to his authority.
If Yar'Adua were to leave power before his term ends in 2011, the official reins of government would be passed to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan.
But under an informal agreement among Nigeria's business and political elite, presidential power should be rotated between Nigerians from the north and the south, the country's two main population blocs.
Yar'Adua's predecessor was a southerner, as is Jonathan, Yar'Adua's deputy. Many fear that power passing again so soon to a southerner would raise fierce opposition from northerners, and potentially undermine the country's fragile political consensus. |