Yar'Adua wilted away in office 'Adeniyi's book

Nigerias late President Umaru YarAdua grew so weak while in office that he needed once to be carried by a soldier off a runway during a state visit to Togo, ultimately becoming unable to speak in the last weeks of his life, according to a new book by his former spokesman, the Associated Press has reported.The book by Olusegun Adeniyi tells of how the ill former leader became a political pawn in a charade that saw soldiers deployed without authorisation and rumours of a possible coup float among the elite in the oil-rich nation. It describes the rise of militancy in the oil-rich countrys crude-producing southern delta, including how a militant leader stole thousands of machine guns from Nigerian army depots.Though portraying his former boss in a largely flattering light, Adeniyis book shows how tenuous democracy is in a nation plagued by vote-rigging and that cast off military rule only 13 years ago."If we will be honest with ourselves, we all know how we rig elections in this country," Adeniyi quoted YarAdua as saying during a closed-door January 2008 meeting about the corrupt election that saw him become the nations leader. "We compromise the security agencies, we pay the electoral officials and party agents while on the eve of the election we merely distribute logistics all designed to buy the vote."The AP obtained an advance copy of Power, Politics and Death: A Front-Row Account of Nigeria Under the Late President YarAdua from the author.Reuben Abati, the spokesman for the current President Goodluck Jonathan, declined to comment on the book. A spokesman for the ruling Peoples Democratic Party did not respond to a request for comment.
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