Yar'Adua had a serious kidney complaint in 2000, and tried to dismiss rumours of continued ill health ahead of his election in 2007 by challenging his critics to a game of squash. In November 2009 he came to the Kingdom, where he was treated for acute pericarditis. He stayed here and little was heard from him for more than three months, amid growing concern about the power vacuum at the top until parliament finally voted into office his deputy, Jonathan, as acting president. He returned to Nigeria in February but never fully recovered from the ailment and did not make another public appearance.
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