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Nigerian President Returns Home

   VOA News 24 February 2010
   Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua

Photo: AFP

   Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua (File)

   Nigerian  officials  say  President Umaru Yar'Adua has returned to the
   country after spending three months in a Saudi hospital.
   Witnesses  said  an  ambulance was waiting on the tarmac as two planes
   landed at the at the presidential wing of Nigeria's Abuja airport.
   There was no immediate word on the condition of the 58-year-old leader
   who  had  been  receiving  treatment  for  a  heart condition in Saudi
   Arabia.
   Since  Mr. Yar'Adua left Nigeria on November 23, he has given only one
   brief radio interview and made no public appearances.
   His  absence  brought Nigeria to the brink of a constitutional crisis,
   until  parliament installed the president's deputy, Goodluck Jonathan,
   as  acting  president  this  month.   Some  lawmakers and lawyers have
   questioned whether that move was constitutional.
   Since  President  Yar'Adua  was hospitalized, little information about
   his  health  has  been  released.   He  was  originally reported to be
   suffering acute pericarditis, a dangerous inflammation of the membrane
   that  covers  the  heart.   Mr. Yar'Adua also has had a chronic kidney
   ailment.
   Some information for this report provided by AFP and Reuters.

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