Lagos - Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, who has been hospitalised in Saudi Arabia, insisted in a newspaper interview on Monday that he was in good health and expects to be released shortly.
"All is well. I am very okay," Yar'Adua told ThisDay newspaper in a telephone interview from Saudi Arabia nearly two weeks after his departure from Nigeria on what the government said was a religious pilgrimage to Mecca.
Yar'Adua said he would return to the country "anytime from Tuesday" after the start of the Ramadam month of fasting.
He made no other direct reference to his health in the interview late on Sunday.
A Saudi hospital official on Sunday said the head of state has been hospitalised for several days, but the Nigerian government insisted he was in good health.
Yar'Adua is being treated at the King Fahd Armed Forces Hospital in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, the administrative official said without specifying his medical condition or the treatment he is undergoing.
Nigerian independent media have reported that Yar'Adua, 57, is believed to have undergone surgery.