Nigerian President Yar'Adua Receives Kidney Transplant

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Nigerian President Yar'Adua Receives Kidney Transplant

NEWS
31 August 2008
Posted to the web 31 August 2008

President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua received kidney transplant in faraway Saudi Arabia, LEADERSHIP SUNDAY can authoritatively reveal.

It was learnt that the operation was undertaken at the King Abdulaziz Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. This has put to rest the many speculations about the president's health.

During the last week, there was anxiety over the president's health. Government claimed he was in the Arabian country performing the Ummrah, a Muslim religious pilgrimage. Speculations had been rife that the president was hospitalised at the Dr Soliman Fakeeh Hospital in Jeddah. But nobody knew what ailment he was being treated for.

Anxiety over Yar'Adua's health peaked again with his failure to travel for an earlier scheduled visit to Brazil. It was learnt that an advance team of the president had been in the South American country only to learn that the president would not make the trip. Instead, a spokesman for the deputy chief of mission for Brazil in Abuja told a bewildered public that the visit to his country by the Nigerian president had been cancelled.

At first, the minister of foreign affairs, Ojo Maduekwe, said that the visit to the president was not cancelled but rescheduled. Also, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) told the public that the president was hale and hearty in Saudi Arabia and performing the lesser Hajj, Ummrah.

When the president travelled out on August 20, he went in company of a lean entourage comprising his wife, daughter, chief security officer, two other security aides and two medical doctors - one Nigerian and the other foreign. This created a bit of suspicion. But even more curious for many was the claim by government officials that the president had gone for the lesser Hajj. This was because the Ummrah, some adherants believe, is performed during the period of fasting.

But with the recent revelation of the successful kidney transplant for the president, all speculations as to the president's health have been confirmed.

Attempts made to get a response from government on the matter was not successful. Repeated calls to Segun Adeniyi, special adviser on media to President Yar'Adua, got no response. LEADERSHIP SUNDAY also exclusively gathered that the president is fast recuperating from the operation and would be back in the country soon.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200808310003.html