Wikileaks: Yar'Adua Refused Second Transplant

Late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua

 

The late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua refused to go for a possible life-saving second kidney transplant in December 2008 because he feared public backlash, the latest US diplomatic cables released by the whistle-blowing website, Wikileaks, have revealed.

The cables, co-ordinated by the immediate past US Ambassador to Nigeria, Ms Robin Sanders, from Abuja, also claimed Yar’Adua’s wife, Turai, admitted that her husband was suffering from chronic kidney problems and asthma but denied that he had lung cancer.

It also emerged that Northern political figures were already gravitating towards Gen. Muhammadu Buhari as North’s hope of getting back the presidency in the eventuality of Yar’Adua’s death.

The leaks, released on Saturday, also claimed that former Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources, Dr. Abba Sayyadi Ruma, donated his kidney to Yar’Adua in 2002.

Ruma denied the report in an interview with AP, describing it as “malicious”.

Yar’Adua died in May 2010, six months after he was last seen in public and had been flown to Saudi Arabia to treat a heart problem.

The leaked cables read: “We understand that travel to Germany was being heavily considered by the Villa in December 2008, but given that it sparked renewed public concern about Yar'Adua's ability to govern, the President remained in Nigeria. This has been confirmed by (name withheld).

“(Name withheld) told Ambassador on December 22 that First Lady Turai Yar'Adua confided in (name withheld) that Yar'Adua would travel to Germany for a second renal transplant between December 16 and January 1 (Ref. C). Yar'Adua did not take this planned trip given public reaction to rumors about travel and concerns about his ability to govern. We have no information on whether this trip may be rescheduled.”

According to Wikileaks, Sanders, in tracing the history of Yar’Adua’s ailment, wrote: “(Name withheld) contended that Yar'Adua began experiencing symptoms of acute renal failure in late 1999, and travelled at that time to Mainz, Germany, to consult with kidney specialists. (Name withheld) claimed, that in 1999, German doctors told Yar'Adua to undergo dialysis treatment, and that a dialysis unit was subsequently installed in his private Katsina residence in 2000.

“According to (name withheld), when Yar'Adua's condition worsened in 2002, he travelled to Saudi Arabia to receive a kidney transplant. To ensure his body would accept the transplant, Yar'Adua took steroids and other medications which in due course reportedly caused the discolouration that we see today on the President's face.”

“On May 26, 2008,” Sanders was reported to have written, “(name withheld) said that Yar'Adua began experiencing symptoms of acute renal failure in late 1999, after travelling to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for the lesser pilgrimage in Mecca. Upon returning from Saudi Arabia, (name withheld) claimed, Yar'Adua travelled to Mainz, Germany to consult with kidney experts… the German specialists instructed Yar'Adua to promptly go on dialysis treatment… the German-based Julius Berger construction company, which had significant financial ties to the Yar'Adua family (through the President's elder brother Shehu Yar'Adua), was contracted to set up a dialysis unit in Yar'Adua's home in Katsina. Doctors from Germany were brought to Katsina to train local physicians in dialysis operations, though, (name withheld) asserted, Yar'Adua also retained the services of German kidney specialists in Wiesbaden, making frequent trips there between 2000 and 2002.

“Following a 2001 visit to Saudi Arabia, (name withheld) said, Yar'Adua's condition worsened, and he was diagnosed with chronic renal failure. Upon returning from Saudi Arabia, Yar'Adua's dialysis treatments become more rigorous, (name withheld) confided, and his dialysis machine was moved into his private bedroom. (Name withheld) maintained that Yar'Adua likely received a kidney transplant in Saudi Arabia in either late 2001 or early 2002. (Name withheld) also claimed that Yar'Adua's dialysis machine was removed from his Katsina residence in 2002 and that discolouration was evident on his face at that time, which he assessed was the result of Yar'Adua taking steroids and other medications to enable his body to accept a transplant.

“(Name withheld) rejected notions Yar'Adua suffered from Churgg-Strauss syndrome. Additionally, (name withheld) explained that the raised patch of skin often noted by observers on President Yar'Adua's right hand is not connected to his kidney ailments, but instead the result of a serious car accident Yar'Adua sustained in 1999. According to (name withheld) after Yar'Adua's car accident, his physicians removed some tissue from his buttock area to graft to his injured, and badly disfigured hand.”

Sanders commented that Buhari, then of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), told PolOff (political officer) at his Kaduna home in May 2008 that “given the North's trepidation of power returning to the South (if, for instance, Yar'Adua cannot complete his term), Buhari feels vindicated in his insistence on challenging the President's election. Buhari intimated that members of the Northern political elite have begun visiting him to affirm their allegiance to him, and to support him as he continues to contest Yar’Adua's election at the Supreme Court. Buhari noted that, in light of news of Yar'Adua's troubling health, some Northern power brokers now believe fresh polls (wherein Buhari emerges the victor) might be the best way of ensuring that the North retains the presidency”.