Kingsley Kobo, AfricaNews reporter in Abidjan, Ivory Coast
Nigeria's former President Olusegun Obasanjo has urged ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua to resign from office, a move that shocked many because both men had been good collaborators. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Obasanjo asked hospitalised Yar'Adua to "tread the path of honour and resign."

The former president has often come under attacks for handpicking Yar’Adua, a sick candidate, to succeed him. And recently, some critics accused him of a continuous backing of the offshore president (a new term for Yar’Adua who currently receives treatment far away in Saudi Arabia).
But Obasanjo now joins a great number of Nigerians calling for the president’s resignation.
“If you take up an assignment, a job-elected, appointment, whatever it is, and then your health starts to fail and you will not be able to deliver to satisfy yourself and to satisfy the people you are supposed to serve, then there is a path of honour and the path of morality to resign,” he said in a Nigerian daily The Punch.
This move may put more pressure of resignation on Yar’Adua who has been away in a Saudi hospital since November 23 treating a diagnosed acute pericarditis - inflamation of the heart lining.
There have been public protests in Abuja and Lagos by the opposition calling for the ailing president to handover to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan.
A federal court in Abuja opens a hearing next week on the power vacuum in the presidency and the transfer of the executive to the vice president.