Battle lines drawn over Akunyili’s memo
Written by Nasiru L. Abubakar
Friday, 05 February 2010 03:21
Information and Communication Minister Professor Dora Akunyili
Urgent meetings were being held in Abuja last night by different caucuses of Federal ministers in preparation for next week’s meeting of the Federal Executive Council, when Information and Communication Minister Professor Dora Akunyili’s controversial memo comes up again for discussion.
The memo, which she introduced at the closing stages of Wednesday’s FEC meeting, urged her colleagues to revisit their earlier stance and urge the ailing President Umaru Yar’adua to transmit a medical vacation letter to the National Assembly so that Vice President Goodluck Jonathan can become the acting President. When several ministers protested that the memo should have been circulated earlier for discussion, Akunyili withdrew it. She has now submitted it to the Council Secretariat for circulation to members.
Daily Trust learnt last night that a meeting was being held by Education Minister Dr. Sam Egwu, Federal Capital Territory Minister Muhamed Adamu Aliero, Interior Minister Dr. Shettima Mustapha, Special Duties Minister Senator Ibrahim Kazaure and Information Minister of State Ikra Aliyu Bilbis, among others, to plan a reaction to Akunyili’s memo when it is represented next week.
Our reporter learnt that these ministers see themselves as bridge builders between a new anti-Yar’adua group in the council, led by Akunyili, and the ardent pro-Yar’adua ministers, namely Attorney General Mike Aondoaaka, Agriculture Minister Dr. Abba Sayyadi Ruma and Economic Adviser to the President Malam Tanimu Yakubu, who are likely to take a very hostile position to Akunyili’s memo.
Sources familiar with the ministers’ plans said they would argue that Mrs Akunyili’s memo, titled ‘State of the Nation’ was incompetent because traditionally, only the president or vice president could submit a memo to FEC on state of the nation. They would also ask Akunyili, sources said, whether she got her ministerial colleague in the Information Ministry, Bilbis, to acquiesce to the memo, as is the cabinet’s tradition.
Even though tongues were wagging yesterday that Akunyili was leading a ‘pro-Jonathan’ caucus, sources said the vice president himself gave the minister’s memo, presented under Any Other Business at Wednesday’s FEC meeting, the cold shoulder and told her to properly route it through the council secretariat.
Mrs Akunyili had begun the memo by reiterating her loyalty to the ailing President. She then said given the position taken on the matter by the Senate and the Eminent Statesmen, the council should urge the president to transmit the medical vacation letter and enable Jonathan to fully act as president. She cited the crisis in Jos, which she said requires full presidential powers to deal with. However, the memo was stood down when other ministers said it should have been circulated earlier. They had however taken a similar memo on the alleged plane bomber Faruk Umar Abdulmutallab, though it had not been circulated earlier.
Mrs Akunyili steadfastly refused to comment yesterday on her controversial memo. When reporters accosted her at the Ministry of Power, where she was attending a function, she refused to speak, saying she was there for a different purpose. Reporters who waited for her in her own office for several hours were similarly disappointed when she cancelled her scheduled engagements and disappeared into her office. Her assistant Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, who announced the cancellations to newsmen, also refused to answer the question thrown at him on the issue.
