''I'm a normal human being who can fall sick; who can recover, who can die'' --Umaru Musa Yar'Adua. Perhaps if Yar'Adua had maintained this ajar approach over his health challenges, just maybe he wouldnt have bite the dust just yet.
Having read the entirety of the later days or what would better represent 'the dying days' of Nigeria's late President Umar Musa Yar'Adua, I have expediently taken several mental note on certain scenerio and exhibition that went a long way in validating the theory of secrecy as a veritable instrument of war against oneself and ultimately an extention to the altar of premature death!
Planted in the pages of this front-row masterpiece cum biography: POWER, POLITICS & DEATH, Mr Olusegun Adeniyi the authority behind the publication and Special Adviser on communication to Yar'Adua while he lingered in the ambits of federal power highlighted a hand full of imperative insight into the life and time of a distressed man with a daunting health challenge yet whose frail shoulders was balanced a complex and intricate nation with her ever revolving satelities of neverending travails and theatrics.
For the purpose of emphasis, permit this little digression: In the life of every man stands a mountain. This impediment often come in a varity of customes. To Mr A it could be financial logjam; Mr B may just be marital or domestic squabbles, while a stroke of ceaseless illness may stand on the way of Mr C. Mr D on the other hand can often turn out to be so unlucky and could be confronted by all of them!
Regardless of the attire or configuration this embargo seems to appear in, the fact yet remains that no man is left unattended in his life sojourn. However what actually becomes the crowning glory is how well MR A, B, C and D managed and maneuvers this mountain through the plain and gorge of survial while fulfilling their respective destiny unaltered.
Now back to the matter: Our late President Yar'Adua have been discribed in many quarters as apparently the best president we never had. This was informed on the sole fact that Yar'Adua was bedevilled by a terminal ailment that prematurely halted both his political mandate and of course his life.
On that note this question suffice: How did Yar'Adua personally oversaw his ailment? particularly the mental awearness and consciousness that he is probably most vulnerable amongst his contemporaries at the pinnacle of power and also that his capabilities may come under intense scrutiny if the truism of the illness that engulfed him gain public knowledge? Olusegun Adeniyi gave us a frontial overview of the President's subconcious reaction when ever the topic of his health challenges is unwraped for discussion.
On page 171 in the fourth paragraphy the writer wrote: ''I felt, nevertheless, that there was need to put a definite closure to the matter with a statement....... I approached the President about the issue. Not only did he disadree, I noticed his countenence changed. He never wanted to discuss anything related to his health ''From the foregoing it's evident Yar'Adua abhor the thought of disclosing his weakness, principally in the event that any of his subjects takes the initiative to roam around the subject. Besides it seems to appeal to my sensibility that the major rational that prompted those spontaneoues disgust at the mention of his health challenges was borne out of the fear of creating a wrong impression. This wrong impression which in this case happens to be the very truth. Yar'Adua though appears to be humble with a good heart but obviously he was one whose pride were well guided. Thus he would rather not make his health challenges an open topic which by implication becomes subjected to individual opinions from close and casual allies. Both evil and benigh.
My mother would always sing: ''when you hide a problem, the problem would hide you.'' Apparently I may at this juncture not unearth statistics to buttress my notion on the stable of scientific precept but there is a dawning cultural knowledge that those who openly express their weakness seemingly last longer than those who conceal theirs. Sadly these constituent of people who take solace in deceit, hide behind their pains, struggling in silence only to end up in the abyss having pillied up their secret into an intimidating pyramid that eventually come crashing.
Yar'Adua on this regard carried the burden of his sickness from his body and placed it on his heart and the heart being the engine room of the mortal system requires anything less than that to tarry on.
He probably felt by concealing his predicament from the world it would help militate against the consciousness that one is in reality unlike others (which is also untrue in itself) with a deficiency; a limitation that cannot be helped after all. But at the long run Yar'Adua lost the priviledge to chose who knows and sees what; and the people eventually saw the very worst of their Commander-in-Chief.