Politics

Throwback: What Ekweremadu Said About Yar’adua’s Medical Vacation

Published

8 years ago

February 8, 2017

Since it is a season of “throwbacks”, let us have some throwback on comments made by the Deputy Senate President in 2009 regarding Yaradua’s absense from office. As fate would have it, he also was the DSP back then.

Hear him:

On Thursday December 3, 2009, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu made some outrageous statements about President Yar’Adua’s health and the resultant leadership crisis in Nigeria. He said, “The constitution did not make provision for how long a president could stay out of the country and then he would lose his job. There is no such provision in our constitution.

“So, if he spends one year abroad, of course you have a vice-president who will be acting in his place. The constitution did not say if he spends one month or one day or one week, then he would lose his job.

“There is no such provision. But I don’t think there is anything for anybody to worry about; and that is why it is good to always create a system.

“Now nobody is bigger than a system. So if we have a system that is running, even if the President is not there, hopefully I am sure that things will move normally.”