Joseph Wayas Sick, Flown Abroad
Second Republic Senate President, Dr. Joseph Wayas is seriously sick and has be flown to India for treatment, YemojaNews can authoritatively reveal.
YemojaNews gathered that the diminutive former Senate President was in July diagnosed with diabetes and arthritis, but that his condition worsened in August.
According to family sources, Wayas, reputed to be the most flamboyant Senate President in the nation’s history, was on Monday flown to India for treatment.
It was gathered that Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River State approved the trip. Wayas is from Cross River State.
Before the India trip, the condition of the former Number Three man was said to have been so bad that he could hardly move his limbs.
“Doctor (Wayas) would suffer bouts of intense pains, often finding it difficult to do basic things as bathing or even walking,” a source told YemojaNews.
A beneficiary of federal government scholarship, Wayas, who is fluent in several Nigerian languages, trained in the United States and United Kingdom.
After his doctorate degree, Wayas returned to Nigeria in 1973, and was at the airport appointed Commissioner by late Brigadier Jacob Esuene, military governor of the now defunct South-eastern state.
At the time Wayas was 26.
In 1977, aged 34, Wayas was elected into the Constituent Assembly. Two years later, at 36, Wayas, one of the biggest financiers of the then National Party of Nigeria (NPN) was elected President of the Nigerian Senate.
A personal friend of boxing legend Muhammed Ali, and promoter Don King, Wayas, in 1977 caused a stir in the US when he bought off Elizabeth Taylor’s controversial choice home in Beverly Hills.
A very private man since General Muhammed Buhari sacked the Shehu Shagari government in 1983, President Goodluck Jonathan last year honoured Wayas with the rank of Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON).
Until the late General Sani Abacha gave Wayas a parcel of land in Asokoro, Abuja, the former Senate President didn’t have any property in the city. Unconfirmed reports had it that Abacha even helped build him the house.
In recent interviews, the former Senate President disclosed that he has been living on charity, since he has no business, and doesn’t receive any money as pension from the Senate.
