ABUJA (AFP) –
Nigeria's government gave ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua a political lifeline on Wednesday, declaring he is fit to stay in office.
Its decision, however, sparked a standoff with the senate which wants him to step down over lingering doubts about his health.
The cabinet announced that the 58-year-old president was fit to remain at the helm of a regional powerhouse despite his hospitalisation abroad for more than two months for an acute heart condition.
"The president is not incapable of discharging the functions of his office," the cabinet said in a terse statement in response to a High Court order last week asking it to deliberate on the president's fitness to govern Africa's most populous state.
Separately and minutes earlier, the senate had urged Yar'Adua to pull back from the brink of a constitutional crisis by taking steps to transfer power to his deputy.
The 109 members of the upper house of the Nigerian parliament voted unanimously to back the demand at the end of a two-day debate on the health of the president, who has been receiving treatment in Saudi Arabia since November.
Senate president David Mark said after the vote in the upper house of parliament dominated by Yar'Adua's party: "We... urge the President... to formally notify the national assembly of his medical vacation," to meet the requirements of Nigeria's constitution.
Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, who has been filling in for the president, has been unable to assume full powers because Yar'Adua has not formally informed parliament of his absence, which his opponents say is a breach of the constitution.
Government said receiving treatment outside the country did not constitute incapacity to warrant his removal.
Mark said the senate also directed its panel on constitutional issues to propose an amendment to the law in a bid to "resolve the apparent flaws exposed by the present circumstance."
He did not elaborate, but legal experts say the weakness of the 1999 law is that it does not compel the president to write the letter.
Outspoken Nigeria lawyer Femi Falana said if Yar'Adua fails to comply with the senate decision, he risks impeachment.
The senate decision "has a strong moral force on the president which he should not ignore", said Falana, suggesting the decision must have been reached after wide consultation in the ruling People Democratic Party (PDP) rank-and-file.
"He therefore stands the risk of being impeached if he ignores the resolution of the senate," warned Falana.
The law also fails to make clear the maximum period a president can be absent from office.
Adebayo Okunade, political scientist at Nigeria's premier University of Ibadan, said the problem with the cabinet is that it was handpicked by Yar'Adua and has to play it "safe."
"They are scared to say the obvious, and therefore they play safe," he said. On the other hand, the senate's decision, "will definitely bring a change to pass", he added.
"The Senate has spoken and its decision has to be takeb serious as its members represent the people in a democratic set-up," he said.
Pressure has been piling up in recent weeks for Yar'Adua to step aside. Even his own mentor and predecessor Olusegun Obasanjo has suggested he resigns.
Critics have called for Yar'Adua him to step down, or failing that, for the cabinet to replace him on the grounds that his lengthy absence from the helm of Africa's second-biggest oil exporter demonstrates an "incapacity" to perform his functions.
Taken from here
