IF you want to watch a captivating political documentary, get a filmmaker (and I suggest Michael Moore of the famous Fahrenheit 911 fame) to base one on Nigeria's political saga since November 23, 2009, when President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua was rushed out of the country under the cover of darkness, even without waiting for a visa, to receive medical treatment at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The filmmaker should not miss Yar'Adua's dramatic return on February 23, exactly three months later, still incapacitated. He was flown back unannounced in an air ambulance, again under the cover of darkness, and was briskly whisked away from the tarmac in a land ambulance.

Yar'Adua's motorcade in the dead of night should provide a unique spectacle in which the official state car is replaced by an ambulance, with soldiers, instead of schoolchildren, lining the street. So will be the scene showing the President living inside an ambulance, on life support machines. That scene may not last long, though, as an Intensive Care Unit is being built for him in Aso Villa, where he will continue to live on life support gadgets. The filmmaker should continue to collect data, because the drama has not ended, thanks to Turai, the President's wife, and the cabal that is bent on holding on to power, even at the expense of an Acting President, duly appointed by the National Assembly, and at the expense of national stability.

Understandably, Yar'Adua's return has raised many questions, including the manner and timing of his return and the lack of appropriate notification to the Acting President, the National Assembly, and even members of the Executive Council of the Federation (except perhaps the so-called kitchen cabinet, which is believed to have colluded with Turai in masterminding Yar'Adua's return). Why was Yar'Adua airborne when the delegation of Ministers (his own appointees) arrived in Saudi Arabia to see him? Who deployed the soldiers to guard his motorcade in Abuja? Who authorised payment for the ongoing construction of an ICU in Aso Villa? Why has the Acting President not been allowed to meet with Yar'Adua face to face? Given the secrecy surrounding Yar'Adua's return, who knows if, in fact, what we have inside the ambulance is the man, his body, or a dummy? If these questions appear too probing, or even cruel, they reflect the disrespect with which Turai and the cabal have treated citizens, whose patrimony is being used for the President's medical treatment and for feeding his family.

Speculations abound as to the timing and manner of Yar'Adua's return and why his affairs continue to be stage-managed. Perhaps the most important theory is about the desire of the so-called cabal to destabilise Acting President Jonathan and thwart his installation as full-fledged President-a development that might have followed had the ministers' delegation returned from Saudi Arabia with a gloomy report of his condition or without seeing him like three previous delegations. It is all in pursuit of the northern mandate, which was reinforced by Northern elders, who reiterated the need for a northern candidate for President in 2011, just a week before Yar'Adua's dramatic return. Besides, northern members of the cabal are said to be angry at Jonathan over his diversion of some funds to the Niger Delta, his refusal to allocate oil wells, and his promise to carry out electoral reforms. Turai is also said to be angry at Jonathan for accepting to be Acting President and quickly moving to shake things up. But the affairs of this nation must move on beyond the shenanigans of these selfish individuals. We must, therefore, confront the most important question of all: What next?

There is only one constitutional path to follow, and it requires the concerted actions of the Executive Council of the Federation, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House. They must promptly stop the current dual sources of power by declaring President Yar'Adua incapacitated so that Acting President Goodluck Jonathan could be properly sworn in as President. The cabal has demonstrated utter disregard for the affairs of state in pursuit of their selfish agenda. It is high time a new administration came on board to move the nation forward.

The alternative path to achieving this goal is to impeach Yar'Adua. This, however, is not an appropriate course of action under the present circumstances. Illness is not tantamount to "gross misconduct", which is specified in Section 143(1)(b) as grounds for impeachment. Yar'Adua's failure to invoke Section 145 by writing a letter to National Assembly leaders does not amount to gross misconduct either. For one thing, the provision is not mandatory. Besides, if Yar'Adua was in coma before he left the country, he could not have been able to write the necessary letter. Those who are calling for his impeachment should shelve it and direct attention to the appropriate institutions and officials empowered to remove him on grounds of incapacitation.

The procedure to be followed is properly laid out in Section 144 of the constitution. First, the Executive Council of the Federation shall declare "by a resolution passed by two-thirds majority of all the members" that the President "is incapable of discharging the functions of his office". Second, the declaration shall be transmitted to the President of the Senate, who shall set up a "medical panel" of "five medical practitioners in Nigeria", including the President's "personal physician" to verify the declaration by the Executive Council. Third, the medical panel shall certify in its report that the President "is suffering from such infirmity of body or mind as renders him permanently incapable of discharging the function of his office", and send such report to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House. Fourth, a notice based on the report shall be jointly signed by the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House. Fifth, the signed notice "shall be published in the Official Gazette of the Government of the Federation."

Available information about Yar'Adua's condition indicates quite clearly that the man is incapacitated. All that is needed to confirm this is access to him. It is this access that Turai has strenuously prevented since last November. Since then, she and the cabal have been using Yar'Adua to play political football, by preventing access to the man while simultaneously arrogating statements and actions to him, when, in fact, he can neither speak nor act. That's why no one has seen him or heard from him in over three months. That is why four major official delegations to his hospital in Saudi Arabia were not allowed to see him. That's why everyone, including Acting President Jonathan, has been denied access to him since his purported return.

Even the celebrated BBC telephone interview purportedly granted by Yar'Adua on his sick bed on the 50th day of his absence from duty has been described as a hoax, thus questioning the grounds on which the National Assembly based its action of February 9 in declaring Jonathan as Acting President. Here is how an American newspaper described the affair: "Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that the phone call in which the President supposedly called the BBC to confirm that he will return to the country when his health got better was a prank call ... the first lady and close friends of the presidency used voice-morphing software in which one of the president«s childhood friends spoke to the BBC in the guise of the president. The Nigerian ruler has not said a word in the last three months. Not even to Turai. He is in such a terrible condition that the first lady has been making frantic efforts to ensure that nobody sees him in the state he is in." (American Chronicle, Tuesday, February 16, 2010). The same story reports a nurse at King Faisal Hospital as saying "I don«t think your president can ever rule that country again. He is as good as dead".

It is common knowledge that multiple ailments afflict Yar'Adua. They include Churg-Strauss disease, renal failure, heart problem, skin disease, and lung cancer. He is also reported to be severely brain damaged and suffering from a severe stroke. None of these reports has so far been officially denied by the President's physician. The sum total is clear: Yar'Adua is permanently incapacitated. Otherwise, someone would have been allowed to set eyes on him or hear directly from him.

Under normal circumstances, Yar'Adua's condition calls for sympathy. So does Turai's plight as the primary caregiver. However, for selfish reasons, Turai and the cabal have robbed citizens of sympathy for both patient and caregiver. They have disrupted the fabric of this nation and trampled on its dignity. They must now be made to hear voices like Macbeth, because they, too, have murdered sleep. The agony they have been putting this nation through must be turned on them. Civil society organisations should resume their protests and demand the removal of Yar'Adua on grounds of incapacitation. If protests won't do, then it is time to invoke the noble legacy of Mahatma Gandhi. This nation must be salvaged from the cabal in order to restore its dignity among nations.

Professor Akinnaso teaches Anthropology and Linguistics at Temple University, United States