by Akan Ido

Pastor Emmanuel Nuhu Kure, the National Secretary of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) has revealed some of the issues that transpired during the sickness of former president Umar Musa Yar’Adua who died in office in 2010.

Kure, who was one of the Christian leaders invited to Aso Rock Presidential Villa to pray with the then ailing president said he advised the president’s handlers to evacuate him from the Villa to somewhere far removed from the presidential residence to enable him recover.

According to the pastor, if they had listened to him, Yar’Adua might have lived longer than he did.

“I told them to take him away from there (Aso Rock) because while  there within those three weeks, even if as much as one mosquito bite him, he would die. I told them I saw only three weeks,” he said.

Read the Vanguard Newspapers report below:

The three other pastors were Bishop David Oyedepo of the Living Faith World Outreach, aka Winners Chapel; Cardinal John Onaiyekan, the Catholic Bishop of Abuja; and erstwhile Aso Rock  Chaplain, Prof. Yusuf Obaje. The pastors visited the seat of power for the prayer session after Yar’Adua was flown back from Saudi Arabia where he had been taken for treatment for an undisclosed illness.

The PFN National Secretary said he told the Yar’Adua family at the meeting that there was the need to take the president out of Aso Rock within three weeks to keep him alive.

According to him, however, they shunned the advice as they were afraid that President Goodluck Jonathan, then vice president, would take over (power) if they took him out of the Villa immediately.

“Of course, I was not obeyed and exactly three weeks after that visit, he died”, Kure, based in Kafanchan, Kaduna State, but spoke to Sunday Vanguard in Lagos, last week, said.

Narrating what transpired at the prayer session for Yar’Adua, which he claimed lasted about 10 minutes, “sharp and straight to the point”, the PFN leader said: “When we went in there, they pulled me aside and said the reason you are here sir, go beyond that, can God show mercy? Can God change these things? It’s like deep inside of them, they felt he (Yar’Adua) might not survive. And they had the right to ask God for mercy. That was why they called in the Muslims and the Christians”.

He continued: “So I knew my own mission but I sensed things do not happen like that and I told them what would make him escape death. I told them privately. That is, me and them, it had nothing to do with the four (he and the other pastors). My reason for being called was slightly different from the other three. I think Oyedepo was called because of the miracles (he was performing) in the Living Faith Church. We were called in because they believed we have access to God and that we could pray some effective prayers that would help the matter.

‘Not politically convenient’
“I told them the Lord said that within three weeks they should take him out of the Villa to somewhere he’d be without pressure. That was the time the polity was heating up. I told them to take him away from there (Aso Rock) because while  there within those three weeks, even if as much as one mosquito bite him, he would die. I told them I saw only three weeks. So if they had taken him out within those three weeks, maybe God would have shown mercy and given him some rest and added some time to his life.

“I don’t know how much, I’m not God. I’m just an oracle who spoke for that season. And the understanding I got later, I was told they couldn’t take him out because it was not politically convenient. They were afraid that Jonathan would take over if they took him out immediately. He kept him there to ensure that Jonathan did not take over even when it was to the detriment of his health. Maybe it was a tactical move; the wife had no say in the matter”.

Captivity
Exonerating the former president’s wife, Turai, from blame over the failure to move Yar’Adua from Aso Rock as advised, Kure said, “Nigerian politicians are very complicated and sophisticated people when they know their interests are at stake; they will use you to remain relevant. They will keep you there until they get what they want. I think she was also in captivity.

“Of course she would have wanted her husband to live; she would have wanted to remain the first lady naturally. Let’s not pretend about these things. Constitutionally it was not her call; it was the politicians’ call which was what the people in the National Assembly and Nigerians were making that, `let the constitution have its way’. It was a constitutional call, it was not her call”.