ACTING President Goodluck Jonathan has, according to sources, cancelled all plans to see the ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua, following  several failed attempts  to see him.
Sources informed the Nigerian Tribune on Monday that contrary to the report on an internet-based site, the acting president had not seen President Yar’Adua and that he had cancelled any fresh attempt to see him.

Sources claimed that the report contained on the website of the internet-based news site was false.

It was gathered that though there were indications that the ailing leader might have been moved from the ambulance that brought him from the airport, there was no attempt by the acting president to see him again.

The last attempt, according to sources, was on Saturday, when the acting president promised to visit the first family between 5 and 6 p.m.

A source said that by 6 p.m. on Saturday, no message came from the president’s wing to the acting president and that the acting president called off the meeting when it was 7 p.m.

According to a source: “There are no further plans to see him  (President Yar’Adua, I think the acting president has come to the conclusion that he has tried enough to see his boss and that there has not been a breakthrough. There have been several attempts but they have been blatantly refused by the handlers. Some close associates of the acting president are of the view that the slight is becoming unbearable and that he should not bother again until President Yar’Adua is ready to step out and address Nigerians.”

The source also said that the acting president had concluded that he would not see the ailing president alone anymore.

According to sources, the thinking among the top hierarchy in the acting president’s office was that the other heads of arms of government should also make efforts to see the ailing leader so that they can brief the representatives.

“There is the feeling that since the acting president has made several attempts to see his boss without success, there is nothing that stops the heads of the other arms of government from coming together and visiting the president. The Senate President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who are the heads of the legislative arm, the Chief of Army Staff and the National Security Adviser, all of them can come together and request to see the ailing leader and report to Nigerians.”

Said another source close to the power base: “The cabal has appropriated Yar’Adua and they may have turned him into an object of worship that we only see probably once in a year.”

Sources in Abuja said on Monday that the Nigeria Governors’ Forum will meet with the acting president in the late hours of Tuesday (today).

It was gathered that the forum will first meet at 4 p.m. before moving to the acting president’s side of the Presidential Villa for a decisive meeting on Tuesday night.

Besides the planned meeting with the governors, there are indications that the ministers have also begun moves to activate Section 144 of the Constitution to declare Yar’Adua incapacitated.

A source said that the  picture would become clearer after Tuesday night’s meeting.

Meanwhile, Niger State governor, Dr Mu’azu Aliyu, on Monday, took a swipe at members of the kitchen cabinet of ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua over their stance on the health of the president, describing them “as unpatriotic Nigerians.”

Aliyu also accused members of the kitchen cabinet, who are mostly ministers, of using “public funds to deceive the public.”

Speaking at the opening of a two-day North-Central Forum on the implementation of the Vision 20:2020, Aliyu regretted that some Nigerians who were not elected by the people had hijacked governance and were now dictating to the country.

“These unknown people have taken over the country; they now use public funds to deceive the public,” the governor said, adding that if they were not called to order “we (Nigeria) will be going in circle and think we are making progress.”

While saying that “we should pray for the good health of the president,” Aliyu added that cooperation with the acting president was the most important thing needed for democracy to survive.

On the inability of President Yar’Adua to hand over formally to Dr Jonathan  before travelling to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment, he said it was an unconstitutional act, adding that the president “failed to realise that INEC would have rejected his nomination if he did not name a running mate.”

On the implementation of the Vision 20:2020, Governor Aliyu also chastised state governors, who had not been able to pay the salaries of their workers, because of the global economic meltdown, saying such a situation was a glaring display of bad managerial capability and lack of planning.

“We should have adjusted to the effects of the global economic meltdown,” the governor said, adding that it was also  “shameful” that Nigeria was still importing fuel and rice while the country had them in abundance.

Earlier, the Minister of Finance, Dr. Mansur Muhtar, represented by Professor Sylvester Monye, Secretary, National Planning Commission, challenged state governments to domesticate the Vision 20:2020.

“States must know where they are now and move up for the realisation of the dreams of the founding fathers of the states,” Usman declared.

In another development, Leaders of the Ohaneze Ndigbo on Monday warned that the current confusion in the presidency over the health status of President Yar’Adua and the standing of Acting President Jonathan should be cautiously handled to avert a state of anarchy. 

The group also warned that those posturing that the North must complete its perceived slot at the presidency should not see the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) internal arrangement or constitution as superior to the constitution of the country. 

Speaking with newsmen in Awka, on Monday, the Ohanaze president general, Chief Ralph Uwechue, with his predecessor, Dr Dozie Ikedife and First Republic Minister of Aviation, Chief Mbazurike Amaechi, said “the manner of Yar’Adua’s return in an air ambulance and this, after the best form of medical care that money can buy, coupled with the fact that he has not yet been able to show himself publicly to his countrymen and women who prayed fervently for his recovery, clearly indicates that for Nigeria, it is not yet uhuru.”

The Ohaneze leaders said “to save this nation from further underserved agony, the president should relinquish office on the grounds of incapacitating illness.

“Ndigbo now calls on the relevant constitutional organs to immediately set in motion, the process of ascertaining the fitness or otherwise of the president to continue to exercise his functions as demanded by his exalted office.”

According to the group, “no human being will feel happy over the illness of another person, but the nation must not grind to a halt because the president is sick and no longer in a position to carry out his responsibilities.

“Those who are propping him up in his total incapacitation, in defiance of the constitution, are creating a situation of anarchy and we all know what follows such in a polity.”

The group said though Nigeria survived the civil war, the annulment of a free and fair election, the many coups and counter-coups that kept the military in power for about 38 years, but warned that “it may not survive the heavy cloud that is ominously gathering in the horizon.

It warned that “those who will break this egg will certainly not eat the yolk,” adding that Dr Jonathan must be sworn in without further delay as the substantive president and commander-in-chief.

Chief Ikedife said “Jonathan is a Nigerian, and as an acting president, I do not see why he should not contest for the presidency in 2011. He is quite qualified and he is familiar with the terrain.”

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has asked ailing President Yar’Adua to address the nation on televison and radio for the people to see him physically and be sure that he was actually the one that was brought to the country last week Wednesday.

In a press statement signed by its president, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, entitled, “Time to act in the sole interest of Nigeria,” the association asserted that President Yar’Adua’s state of health must be seen as one that would not put the affairs of the country in a precarious situation.

The NBA said it had been observing with keen interest the unfolding events in the country since the purported return of  President  Yar ‘Adua, after a three-month stay in Saudi Arabia, adding that the manner in which certain people had turned the country into their personal estate was condemnable.

In another development, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has warned that the Federal Government should be wary of taking advice from foreign governments and countries on issues that were purely domestic, while aslo warning that the nation’s Armed Forces must not be dragged into politics through the current political logjam.

The NLC vice-president, Issa Aremu, who is also the general secretary of the National Union of Textile Garments and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, in Kaduna, said Nigerians should rather organise themselves for better elections and governance from 2011.

The NLC said the problems of the country could not be solved by replacing  Yar’Adua with Acting President Jonathan.

Nigerians, he said, should avoid addressing the current political crisis engendered by Yar’Adua’s ill health in such a manner that the military would feel encouraged to dabble into the politics and governance of the nation.

Relatedly, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), on Monday, accused forces loyal to the ailing President Yar’Adua of trying to truncate the nation’s democracy and vowed to resist any attempt to plunge the country into anarchy.

NANS president, Mr Jude Imagwe, while addressing newsmen in Abuja , said the over 44 million Nigerian students had been watching the unfolding events since the mysterious return of President Yar’Adua to the country last week Wednesday.

He warned that the Nigerian students would resist the antics of the anti-democratic forces.

Imagwe urged the Chief of Defence Staff  to “urgently investigate and make public the circumstances that led to the movement of 3,000 troops to the airport and other places on February 24, purportedly without the knowledge of the acting president and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

He called on him to promptly and openly bring culpable officers to book, while also tendering an open apology by the military hierarchy to the acting president and to Nigerians.

The students’ body said it was waiting for the decision of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), on Wednesday, on the   health status of President Yar’Adua in order to declare its next line of action.

The students urged Acting President Jonathan to assert himself, while expediting action on the vexed issue of electoral reform by revising the Justice Muhammed Uwais-led panel report, with a view to conducting free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria in 2011 and beyond.