President Muhammadu Buhari is sick. That’s no news and there is no controversy about that. What is in contention is whether the sickness is serious enough to incapacitate him from performing the functions of his high office; and how much longer would he stay off his beat. Lack of concise information on the magnitude and nature of what ails the President has thrown our country into the vicious clutches of political hyenas and jackals in the corridor of power. Just like in the dying days of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, between November 2009 and May 5, 2010, an infamous cabal has been having a field day with all manner of intrigues and power play that are inimical to the political health of Nigeria.
These hyenas and jackals, as Senator Sani Shehu dubbed them, have shown no sympathy for our sick President. Instead, they have cocooned him, and are working themselves to the bones to undermine the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo. Osinbajo’s performance so far has pleasured most Nigerians who attest that the law professor has done a great job holding forte for his boss. That endorsement notwithstanding, the jackals still bay for blood. They are neck deep in ruthless political calculations and dangerous manoeuvres that could torpedo the ship of state.
Rather than pray for him to recover fully and continue the war on corruption, among others, the political rascals, in their innermost recesses, wish the President dead. God will not grant them that pleasure. In pursuance of their evil enterprise, these overtly ambitious individuals have been flying all kinds of dangerous kites including, but not limited to, suggestion of coup, undermining the Acting President, generating bad press for him, and peddling the satanic rumour of a phantom power vacuum in Aso Rock Villa.
Some of the clowns even went as far as canvassing the impeachment of the President and his Deputy. The most recent drama occurred on July 4, 2017, when a clowning senator, in a motion, declared a power vacuum and canvassed the coronation of Dr. Bukola Saraki, President of the Senate, as Acting President. In the warped estimation of the bearded former governor-turned-senator, Nigeria had become rudderless just because the Acting President had flown to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to attend a one-day meeting of the African Union, AU. The motion, however, died on arrival. It was speedily amputated by the potential beneficiary, Dr. Saraki. Smart guy.
As indicated, the hyenas-and-jackals allegory is not my creation. It belongs to Sani Shehu, human rights activist-turned-politician; now a senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District. Obviously exasperated by the antics of the infamous cabal, the outspoken lawmaker had, upper week, declared on his Facebook page that: “Prayer for the absent Lion King has waned; until he’s back then they will fall over each other to be on the front row of the palace temple. Now the hyenas and the jackals are scheming and talking to each other in whispers; still doubting whether the Lion King will be back or not…
“It is the wish of the hyenas and the jackals that the Lion King never wakes up or come back so that they can be kings. It is the prayer of the weak animals that the Lion King comes back to save the kingdom from the hyenas, the wolves and other predators.”
First Lady, Aisha Buhari concurred, upper Monday, stating on her page that, “God has answered the prayers of the weaker animals. The hyenas and the jackals will soon be sent out of the kingdom. We strongly believe in the prayers and support of the weaker animals.”
Prof. Osinbajo put his seal on the two declarations when, after returning from a whistle-stop visit to his boss in London, he told State House Correspondents that the President was recuperating “very quickly” and would “return soon”. But “would the President return before the expiration of the 90 days…?” a correspondent pressed Osinbajo. The Acting President replied that matters of health were difficult to put a deadline on, and insisted that the President would “return soon”.
Being a respected Pastor, I want to believe that Osinbajo meant what he said. But it seems his assurance offers little comfort to Nigerians who haven’t stopped wondering how much longer their President would be away from duty. Indeed, ‘How much longer would the President stay away?’ has become one huge question Buhari’s traducers have been using day counters to calculate.
Although President Buhari properly transmitted power to his Deputy before he left for London on May 7, as required by law, the non-disclosure of the nature and magnitude of his sickness stoked the confusion and uncertainties that have been rocking the polity ever since. Shrouding the President’s health challenge in secrecy has galvanised the rumour mill, and may have sent wrong signals to the international investing community that we struggle so much to impress.
By today, July 23, 2017, the President has spent 127 days or 18 weeks out of office so far. His first medical vacation (January 19-March 10, 2017) took 50 days or seven weeks. The current (May 7-July 23, 2017, still counting) has taken 77 days or 11 weeks, which is 13 days short of the 90 days ‘deadline’ that his antagonists gave him to return to his seat. Or the country may be thrown into another avoidable political impasse.
At almost 75, no sane person would crucify Buhari for falling sick. At that age, one thing or another must eat the body. Even the strongest of mortals, even people not up to half the President’s age, do suffer system meltdown. It is natural. Since being President does not make Buhari a super human or immortal, Nigerians deserve to be properly briefed on his health issues. The over 15 million Nigerians who put their lives in Buhari’s hands by voting him as President in 2015 have the right to know what their President suffers from. No one should blame them for being inquisitive. The near-catastrophic political stalemate that preceded the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on May 5, 2010, is still fresh in their memory.
But why do governments, across the world, struggle desperately to hide the afflictions of their Presidents from the public? Washington Post provided the answer in an article it published in the countdown to the November 2016 Presidential election in the United States. In the article titled, The hidden history of presidential disease, sickness and secrecy, the highly influential newspaper nailed it on “political calculation”, especially the morbid fear of losing power.
Inspired by the fainting and wobbling episode of Hillary Clinton at last year’s 9/11 memorial in New York, Washington Post cited the case of President Woodrow Wilson, who, in 1919, was incapacitated by a debilitating stroke. But the problem was concealed from the American people for many months. The paper also mentioned President Grover Cleveland who, in 1893, required surgery to excise a cancerous tumour in his mouth but chose to do it secretly in his friend’s yacht.
There was also the case of President John F. Kennedy, JFK, who the paper said appeared “vibrant and flamboyant” in public but was actually afflicted by “serious medical problems, including Addison’s disease.” And the problem was so serious that JFK was hooked on steroids and other drugs to supress the symptoms. Presidential aides perfectly concealed everything from the public.
One of the experts quoted in the article was historian Matthew Algeo, who, while writing about President Cleveland’s secret cancer surgery in his book, The President Is a Sick Man, disclosed that many American Presidents were so paranoid about the public detecting their health problems that they avoided the best doctors the state can provide. “With presidents, a lot of times they don’t get the best care,” Algeo said. “But they’re so paranoid about anyone knowing what’s wrong with them that they employ old family doctors.”
Bringing the matter back home, I don’t think the Presidency should be unnecessarily paranoid about President Buhari’s health situation. Full disclosure would not bring hell down to Nigeria. Rather, it will help citizens to channel their prayers appropriately for the President’s full recovery. Nigerians love the great work that the administration has done, especially in tackling insurgency and taming corruption. The only people who are scared to death about Buhari’s return are the hyenas and the jackals who are desperately angling to snatch power through the back door; and the class of the corrupt who not only want corruption to continue thriving but also want it to be rewarded while honesty becomes a self-sacrifice (Ayn Rand); and truth is nailed to a bleeding cross.
Though he is human, therefore not infallible, Buhari is one leader who has demonstrated sufficient will-power to tackle the twin problems of corruption and insecurity that threatened to bring Nigeria to its knees during the preceding administration. Whereas the defunct Jonathan Administration squandered monies meant to degrade and destroy the Boko Haram insurgency, and, in the process, exposed our troops and commanders to avoidable death, the Buhari Administration has walked the talk. It has driven the insurgents back to their hellhole.
Whereas political office holders and public officials in the last administration elevated mega looting to the realm of religion; whereas they stole as if the tons of money (dollars, pounds sterling, euros and naira) they were looting and the numerous property they were acquiring illegally would secure mansions for them in heaven, Buhari has proved that hell for looters starts right here on earth.
Even if some bad eggs manage to steal under the President’s nose, as some people insinuate, the mere mention of the name Muhammadu Buhari is sufficient to scatter looters wherever they gather in whatever name. If Buhari comes back wholly restored, and I pray he will, and he is able to intensify the anti-corruption war and win it, he would have laid a permanent foundation for responsible and accountable governance in Nigeria. This is a valid reason every well-meaning Nigerian must pray for the President to come back to us alive and in health. Very soon.
God bless Nigeria.