I couldn’t get much off him, so I decided to see the CSO, who appeared to be more agreeable despite his apparent nervousness. The ADC and I are very good friends and were always open towards one another, but on this night he was very edgy and evasive, even defensive. The stress was quite evident on his face, but since he had been gone for such a long period, our discussion dwelt initially on mundane issues before progressing, at my prodding, to the rather touchy terrain of the president’s condition. I waited for about an hour after the convoy’s arrival at the villa before driving in around 3:30 a.m., whereupon I went straight to the residence of the ADC, who had just come back from the president’s residence. I knew this would only complicate the political situation, and I feared that my job would even be far more difficult than it already was. Even though the evacuation was so expertly done as to obscure any glimpse of it from the camera, I sensed trouble because what was happening could only mean one thing: the president was brought back home still sick. Like most Nigerians, I also watched the sad episode live on CNN as one of the aircraft was made to stop in the middle of the tarmac while an ambulance was driven to the plane to evacuate the president. By the time the chartered air ambulance and the presidential jet arrived at the Abuja international airport a few minutes apart at about 1:45 a.m., the vicinity was swarming with several pressmen, and CNN, with a camera hidden in the surrounding bush, was able to capture the arrival. Implicitly, all the plans contrived in Saudi Arabia by the handlers of the president to make the movement a secret affair had become futile. It was therefore no surprise that the moment the president left the hospital, they immediately alerted their correspondents in Nigeria.Īt the presidential villa, it was also not difficult for State House correspondents to guess that the president was on his way home, especially when troops from the Brigade of Guards began moving towards the airport. Given the political situation in Nigeria at the time, the illness of the president, and his continued stay in Saudi Arabia had caught the attention of the cable networks, most of which had detailed their correspondents in Saudi Arabia to monitor the situation. Sensing that the story might be true after all, I tried the Saudi numbers of the security details attached to the president, and when I could not reach any of them, I concluded that surely the president was indeed on his way back to Nigeria this time. Next, I tried the CSO also on all his mobile lines but got the same results. Then I tried his Nigerian mobile numbers (which were roamed), and they were also inaccessible. Naturally, my first move was to dial the Saudi line of the ADC. He had information that the president had left the hospital and was in fact at the Saudi airport on his way back to Nigeria, he wrote.Īlthough there had been hints from my previous discussions with the CSO and ADC of their possible return within the week, I had been told similar tales on several occasions, to the extent that I had become weary and no longer considered it serious. It was from Omoyele Sowore of saharareporters. The first indication I got that the president might actually be on his way back to the country came via an SMS after my phone beeped at 6:00 p.m.
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