Nigeria’s main opposition Action Congress (AC) party has criticised the federal government for mismanaging the information on the health of President Umaru Yar’Adua, who is in Germany for medical treatment.
While the president’s aides had said the President was being treated for an ”allergic reaction”, the Internet has been awash with stories alluding to a more serious ailment.
In a statement, the opposition party blamed the growing rumours on the dearth of official information, and laid the blame squarely on the shoulders of the government and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“Unfortunately, the officials saddled with this responsibility are limited in their scope, otherwise they would have known the damage being done to the President and the country by the speculations on the information superhighway due to the absence of official information,” the party said.
It expressed concern that the government and the PDP ”have not shown enough respect and fairness to Nigerians in the handling of information concerning the health of the President”.
“Perhaps they don’t realise that the fate of this country is tied to the fate of the President, hence his state of health is not a private matter and the nation deserves to be fully informed about it,” AC said.
It added: “We hereby call on the FG to give the nation regular updates on the state of health of President Yar’Adua.”
The state of the President’s health has been an issue since last year, when he had to cut short his electioneering campaign to go to Germany for urgent medical treatment.
Some local media reports had said the President collapsed from the rigour of electioneering campaign and had to be flown to Germany for treatment.
According to official information, President Yar’Adua is due back in Nigeria Tuesday.
