Speculations about President Umaru Yar’Adua’s health heightened at the weekend following reports that he had undergone surgery at a hospital in Saudi Arabia.
The fear that the president may actually be ill, contrary to the official position that he is undergoing the Muslim lesser pilgrimage of Ummrah in Saudi Arabia, was fuelled by the fact that he did not return to the country this weekend as expected.

Last night, an Internet-based news site, pointblanknews.com reported thus:
“‘There are strong indications that Nigeria's President, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s life may be hanging on very thin thread of survival following complications from his recent surgery in a Saudi Hospital. Pointblanknews.com has just received reports that President Yar’Adua has now been placed on a life support equipment.
“According to sources, Yar’Adua who was admitted at Soliman Akkeh Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, was operated for an undisclosed ailment but he was known to have a medical history of kidney problem and Churg Strauss Syndrome, an inflammation of the blood vessel.

“There is growing apprehension about the President’s condition amongst top officials at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa concerning serious deterioration in President Yar’Adua’s medical condition. He was originally billed to return to Nigeria during this weekend but a Saudi source said that "that possibility looks very unlikely even in the next two weeks. President is barely conscious and would need all the prayers to be able to make it through this time,’ a source at the Soliman Akkeh Hospital told pointblanknews.com”

Sunday Sun however gathered that Yar’Adua may not return soon as he may have undergone renal kidney transplantation that would require some time for him to recuperate.
Medical experts say it takes at least three weeks to recover from kidney transplant.
According to a Lagos-based medical practitioner, Dr Emmanuel Enabulele, in the first six hours after such surgery, “the new kidney should begin to function, if there is no rejection. The suture should heal with 6-8 days and the stitches removed.

“All things being equal, within two weeks of kidney surgery, the patient should recover and a week thereafter, begin to carry out minimal activities.
“However, if there is rejection, those signs of kidney failure will reappear.”
Our source said the government decided not to disclose the current state of the President’s health because of its security and diplomatic implications.
But one of his aides, who spoke to Sunday Sun on condition of anonymity, maintained that Yar’Adua was in stable condition and was actually performing the lesser hajj in Mecca.
Asked why he had not spoken to Nigerians like he did prior to the April 2007 elections when there was a similar speculation about his health, the aide said: “At the appropriate time the President will speak to Nigerians.”

He also said it is not true that Yar’Adua was due to travel to Brazil on a state visit before it was reportedly cancelled at the last minute.
“I can tell you that President (Yar’Adua) was not billed to travel to Brazil as reported in the media. It is not in his schedule for now.
“Such visits are not secret. When he was to go to Britain, was it not public knowledge to everyone before the trip? The President cannot escape from the country just like that,” he said.
Muslim clerics have also said the lesser hajj is not supposed to last longer than seven days.

Clerics who spoke to Sunday Sun but preferred not to be named for fear of being tagged anti-Yar’Adua elements explained: “Ummrah is any pilgrimage outside or apart from the annual hajj. It is actually supposed to be the last 10 days of the Ramadan. It is not one of five pillars of Islam but a time for special prayers for Muslim faithful.
“A believer on lesser hajj visits holy places and Mosques Mecca and Medina. He offers his prayers and supplication and all that are not supposed to take more than five to seven days.”
A Muslim government functionary corroborated the clerics’ stand, saying modern means of transport can further reduce the number of days spent on Ummrah.

“Mecca to Medina takes about five or six hours by road and one hour by air. A lot of us who went on Ummrah last year did the distance by air. And Arabs are not given to lengthy prayers like Nigerians. You can conclude Ummrah within a week.
“In fact, in the days of M.K.O. Abiola, I remember he went on Thursday and returned on Sunday. The target is to be in Saudi on a Friday and observe a Jummat there.”
Meanwhile northern elders are reportedly worried over Yar’Adua’s health, to the extent that they are believed to be consulting with a view to “advising him appropriately.”