LAGOS: Nigeria’s President Umaru Yar’Adua, who is in poor health and has made no public appearances since November, has met with a delegation of Muslim dignitaries, one of them said yesterday. “We met him yesterday, we shook hands, we prayed for him to have a speedy recovery,” said the imam of the national mosque in the Nigerian capital Abuja, Ustaz Musa Mohamed, reached by telephone.

With three other Islamic officials, the imam went to see Yar’Adua at the end of the day on Thursday for a visit that lasted about a quarter of an hour, Mohamed said. “We sat with him, we met him sitting along with his wife and his aide de camp,” the imam added. “He was recovering.” “We shook hands, he extended his hand to us. He also extended his hand again to say bye bye to us.” Yar’Adua, 58, was evacuated last November to a hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, suffering from a severe heart condition. After three months in hospital he returned discreetly to Nigeria overnight on February 24.

His deputy, Goodluck Jonathan, became acting president of Africa’s most populous nation on February 8, a status that was confirmed when Yar’Adua returned to his homeland. No pictures of Yar’Adua have been shown since he left for Saudi Arabia and he has made no public comment, nor has there been a meeting with Jonathan, who has taken charge of the world’s eighth oil producer. Apart from those close to Yar’Adua, few people appear to have had access to the head of state since his return.