Presidential ill health

PRESIDENT Umaru Yar’Adua makes abrupt trips to Germany to see his doctors. What does the president suffer from? The newspapers say it is ‘an ailment.’ It seems their semantic diagnosis is wrong. The president does not need to go to Germany to cure a cold, which is an ailment. President Yar’Adua, it appears, suffers from a disease.

The president has refused to speak publicly about the state of his health. Unprompted, he released information about his finances, but has been silent about his fitness. The president’s spokesmen avoid throwing light on his condition by making light of it. The people have the right to know their ruler’s condition, but without the distressing details. A candidate with a medical condition should make this public before the election. His honesty, if his condition is not mentally disabling, may win him votes.

Francois Mitterrand, President of France from 1981 to 1995, was diagnosed with prostate cancer about six months into his first term. Treatment tied up the disease and Mr. Mitterrand may have been right to keep quiet about his condition. But the cancer escaped from its pharmaceutical prison before Mr. Mitterrand stood for re-election in 1988. Mr. Mitterrand kept mum about it. It was only in 1994, a year before the end of his second term in office, that he told a newspaper: ‘I know that in a few months or years I will no longer be alive.’

Dr. Claude Gubler, Mitterrand’s personal physician, said after the former president’s death in 1996, aged 79: ‘In his last months in office, he was no longer capable of carrying out his duties.’ Tancredo Neves was unable to take office as president of Brazil in 1985. He took seriously ill a day before his inauguration and Jose Sarney, his running mate, was sworn in as acting president. Mr. Neves was not flown abroad for treatment. Brazil had the expertise and the equipment to treat the president-elect’s illness. But Mr. Neves was 75 and did not recover from surgery. He lingered on for more than a month and the nation was in a state of suspended animation.

Ahmed Sekou Toure was absolute ruler of Guinea for 26 years. He died on the operating table in the United States in 1984. President Houari Boumedienne of Algeria was in a coma for 39 days before his death in 1978. Mobutu Sese Seko spent months in Europe undergoing treatment. His long rule had ruined Zaire, as he renamed the country, and had enriched him. He had no use for the run-down hospitals in his country. It must be a terrible experience to be afflicted with a devilishly determined disease or to watch helplessly as a loved one is being destroyed by a disease. It is only sickos who laugh at the sick.

Falling seriously sick in Nigeria is virtually a death sentence. The doctors say they are competent but have no equipment. Many people are treated for the wrong diseases and healthy organs become diseased. Relapse often accompanies relief. Medical care in Nigeria is a sickening scandal. President Yar’Adua does not appear to be in immediate or serious danger. And may he live to be 100. President Mitterrand’s doctors believed the cancer would carry him off within three years, but he resisted it for 15 years. He completed his second seven-year term in office. Mr. Mitterrand, according to an article in Time, ended his own life a year after he left office. He asked his doctors what would happen to him if he stopped taking his medications. He was told he would die within three days. Mr. Mitterrand died three days later.

Most Nigerians do not know what General Sani Abacha died of and only his family, the military and comrades in crookery mourned for him. The generals looked ridiculous in their black armbands. President Yar’Adua does not command hysterical adulation like some of the country’s politicians of the first and second republics. But he appears a decent person and most Nigerians, as far as I can tell, wish him well. But will he resign if his health makes it impossible for him to give effective leadership? Some people allow power to imprison them and their advisers act as watchful and wicked warders. The ruler’s resignation will remove their pedestal of purloined prosperity and they do everything to prevent it.

Edward Smith Stanley, the 14th Earl of Derby, was a British prime minister. Old and sick, he refused to retire. Wrote a biographer: ‘It was now beginning to be clear that Derby could not continue much longer as prime minister. He was reluctant to retire. But he received medical advice which he could not ignore. He was told that there was no prospect of recovery while he remained in office.’ Derby departed the premiership in 1868. Benjamin Disraeli, novelist, orator and inspirational leader, was Derby’s successor. The government was in very capable hands.

Your view

While it is certainly true that the CIA and other intelligence agencies have used people posing as journalists, archaeologists, aid workers and others to gather information, it is also true that most people in these professions are not spies. It is also true in the United States that the practice of using journalism as a CIA front is strongly discouraged by journalists themselves; most journalists I know would reveal the identity of an agent if they discovered one working alongside them in a dangerous environment like Iraq or Afghanistan, because to have spies posing as journalists endangers the lives of all legitimate journalists.

On the basis of your article, your readers may suspect that any foreigner they see, working as a journalist, filmmaker or otherwise, is actually in the employ of the CIA. While it may occasionally be true, it is certainly not true in most cases. As a journalist yourself, it would be wonderful if you were to show some solidarity to your profession and not paint all foreign journalists as spies. The CIA practice of using agents posing as journalists truly does endanger the lives of legitimate journalists — and so do articles like the one you wrote, which give the false impression that legitimate journalists are the exception rather than the rule. Most journalists want nothing more than the ability to do their jobs in a professional way, and in safety, without having to fend off false accusations that make it impossible for them to do their work and which put their lives at risk.
James Longley, james_longley@yahoo.com

*Wikipedia provides the following information about Mr. James Longley: James Bertrand Longley is the maker of the documentary, Gaza Strip, released in 2002. His production, Iraq in Fragments, presents a view of Iraq and Iraqis during the first two years of Iraq war. It was awarded three jury awards at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Documentary Feature, but lost to An Inconvenient Truth. His short film Sari’s Mother premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival and has been nominated for an Academy Award for Documentary Short. He is the founder of Daylight Factory, a production company committed to creating documentary films about international subjects with international appeal. Longley’s middle name is a tribute to philosopher Bertrand Russell.

I read your column on the CIA. It is classical, refreshing and mind-opening. I give you kudos for telling the whole world the deceits of the world police—the United States. Only if our leaders can help make Nigeria a better living place so that these slavery and deceit by the Americans can be stopped. God bless you Nosa.
Odun Fadoju, Lagos

I swear those who gave office space to the American military in the Ministry of Defence are CIA agents.
Elijah Eghagha, Warri

If CIA agents are here spying on us then blame the government for not giving Niger Deltans their fair share. Militants are fighting for their legitimate right.
Anayor, 08072006674

Spying is a serious crime as it undermines the security and sovereignty of a nation.
King Yemmy Adu, Benin City