| From The Editor |
 On Wednesday January 27, the nation waited with bated breath for the result of the deliberations in the Senate on President Umaru Yar’Adua’s ill health. That day marked the 65th day since the president left his duty post without a proper hand over to the Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan. The senators had been debating the matter for two days. When its resolution was finally made known, not a few people were surprised. For it was contrary to the dictates of the top hierarchy of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The party prefers a situation where the matter is better ignored. The senators asked the ailing president to send a letter for medical vacation to the National Assembly in line with the provisions of the constitution. This resolution follows in the wake of the briefing the senators got from Yayale Ahmed, secretary to the government of the federation, on the matter of the president’s health.
On the same day, however, about the time the Senate agreed on its resolution, the federal executive council rose from its weekly meeting, chaired by the vice president, to declare that the president is fit to continue to run the nation from his hospital bed in Saudi Arabia. Of course that line of thought serves the case of the president who appointed them. Self-serving as their resolution is, not much weight is likely to be attached to it. What the president does in respect of the Senate’s call is the next thing the nation is waiting for. Anayochukwu Agbo, associate editor, has been monitoring the politics and intrigues of the president’s absence from the country, and his report on the latest developments is one of the cover stories in this edition.
The other story is on the man who may be president. We are talking of Vice President Goodluck Jonathan. A simple and unassuming fellow, since coming into politics, fate has always dropped juicy positions on his laps. He was invited to be the running mate of Diepreye Alamieyesiagha in the governorship race for Bayelsa State Government House in 2003. When the governor was impeached for money-laundering offences, Jonathan became governor. He was re-elected governor in 2007, only for the big wigs of the PDP to draft him as running mate to Yar’Adua. Going by the latest developments in respect of the latter’s ill health, the vice president may soon step into the president’s shoes. And as the nation waited for the resolution of the contrived constitutional crisis Adejuwon Soyinka, senior assistant editor, was asked to do a profile on the man, Jonathan, and his streak of good luck.
AYODELE AKINKUOTU
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