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Cabinet
cracks as Akunyili demands Yar’Adua’s exit Ministers
lost their temper yesterday at the Federal Executive
Council (FEC).
There
was a row over a memorandum by the Minister of Information
and Communication,
Prof.
Dora Akunyili, urging
President Umaru Yar’Adua to write the National
Assembly for medical vacation.
Mrs Akunyili had asked the FEC to rescind its December
3, last year decision that the President is not incapacitated.
After
the December 2 FEC meeting, Mrs Akunyili told State
House correspondents
that "the Council unanimously
resolved that there is no basis for the invocation of
provisions of Section 144 of the Constitution for the
reason that the President has not been found incapable
of discharging his functions".
But
yesterday, the Minister broke ranks with her colleagues
in defending a joint
decision – that
the President is not incapacitated. Her action put
the cabinet in disarray.
She pleaded with FEC to reverse its decision and prevail
on the President to transmit a letter to the National
Assembly to proceed on medical vacation.
Investigation by The Nation revealed that the meeting
was set to rise and it was time for Any Other Business
(AOB) when Mrs Akunyili presented her memo to the council.
But the memo was hardly presented when some ministers
rose to fault the procedure.
According to a Minister, who pleaded not to be named
because of what he described as the sensitivity of the
matter, the drama was better seen than imagined.
The
source said: "What
happened was that when we got to AOB, Mrs Akunyili
brought the
attention of FEC
to her memo to ask the President to transmit a letter
to the National Assembly on his illness.
"The
memorandum was shocking to us because the same Minister
has been
defending
the absence of the President.
"Immediately,
there were shouts of Akunyili not following due process
in
presenting
her memorandum.
"We broke into two ranks of pro-Yar’Adua
and those in favour of the transmission of a letter.
The Vice-President, who presided over the meeting, was
speechless.
"Normally,
she is expected to give a seven-day notice and circulate
the
memo because
of the contentious
issue at stake.
"She
stood her ground that the memo was of utmost urgency
and we all insisted
that she cannot come through
the backdoor to ask FEC to reverse its earlier decision
that the President is not incapacitated.
"At
this point, Mrs Akunyili withdrew her memo and apologised
for not
following
due process for presenting
memorandum."
It was learnt that after the meeting, while some Ministers
went to congratulate Mrs Akunyili for her courage, some
derided her action.
Mrs Akunyili is said to have remained adamant on her
memo; she is determined to follow due process.
A
top official of the Ministry of Information and Communication,
who spoke
with The
Nation, said: "The Minister stayed
briefly in office after the FEC meeting. But she is pushing
ahead with the memorandum to FEC.
"By
Thursday, we are going to circulate her memorandum
to all members
of the Federal
Executive Council to meet
up with the stipulated seven-day notice for any memo.
"She is adamant on her memo and we have been placed
on standby to circulate the memo with other arguments
or details on why FEC should rescind its decision on
the President’s ill-health.
"All
members of FEC will get a fresh memo on Thursday (today)."
At
press time last night, ministers and aides loyal to
the President were holding
a marathon
meeting on how
to handle the fall-out of Mrs Akunyili’s memo.
A
source in the Presidency told The Nation: "We
have been meeting on a counter-strategy to put the absence
of the President in a perspective when the motion is
re-presented for debate at the FEC meeting.
"We
have not heard the last word on this matter because
at the end of
the day,
the decision of the majority
will be binding on every cabinet member.” Source:The
Nation
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