By Olakunle Olafioye
The biggest question on the lips of Nigerians today is this: What is really wrong with Mr. President?
Before leaving the shores of the country last month, President Mohammadu Buhari, speaking through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, had informed Nigerians that he was embarking on a 10-day annual vacation to the U.K, where he would also undergo medical checks. The president’s vacation was initially billed to last between January 23 and February 6.
But while Nigerians were anticipating his return on February 6, as they had earlier been informed, Adesina, in a statement told the nation that the president had written the National Assembly on the need to extend his leave in order to complete and receive the results of a series of tests recommended by his doctors.
In another statement released last Tuesday, the president was again quoted as saying that the results of the medical tests carried out on him showed that he needed longer time to rest.
Of course, this is not the first time President Buhari would be embarking on a medical trip. He had in June 2016 traveled to London to seek medical treatment after contracting an ear infection. However, unlike his previous medical trip when Nigerians were informed about the nature of treatment the president had gone to seek, his current trip is shrouded in secrecy, a development that has given rise to speculations over the true status of his health.
Not a few had expressed the view that Nigerians were being fed with rumours, half truths and outright lies about the true status of the President’s health, just as his aides are believed to be keeping Nigerians guessing about what actually is the problem with Mr. President.
The misgiving being expressed by many Nigerians over Buhari’s prolonged stay in the UK may not be unfounded after all. Some notable politicians had in the last few days paid the president get-well visits, a situation many people have interpreted to mean that all may not be well after all with the President.
But if the claim that the President is hale and hearty, as those who visited him often chorused on their return has in any way helped to douse the mounting anxiety over his health, the get-well wishes and prayers being offered on his behalf belie the impression that he is in good health.
While the seeming contradictions appear to have heightened Nigerians’ curiosity to know the President’s true state of health, some Nigerians are of the opinion that the fuss over Buhari’s health condition is unwarranted since he did the needful by transmitting power to the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, before jetting out of the country.
Indeed, history has a way of repeating itself.
In the wake of the late president Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s health saga, the national publicity secretary of the then opposition Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, the current Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had upbraided the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party for failing to give Nigerians daily updates on the health condition of their leader.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday, December 20, 2009, he said: “It is clear to discerning Nigerians that those pretending to speak authoritatively on the president’s health are deceiving the public, since they are neither well informed on the issue nor competent to speak on it.
“Therefore, a daily briefing by the minister of information, based on authentic details provided by the president’s doctors, should start forthwith. As we have said many times, the health of the president, as a public figure can no longer be of interest only to his family and friends. Nigerians have a right to know.”
Now with Mohammed presiding over the Ministry of Information under another President who is currently on medical vacation, Nigerians are demanding to know the true state of health of President Buhari more than a month after leaving the country.
Speaking in a telephone interview with Sunday Sun, the founder of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and former presidential candidate of United Progressive Party, (UPP), Chief Chekwas Okorie said Nigerians were entitled to know the true state of health of the president’s health.
According to Okorie, “the issue of the health of the president should not be treated as a confidential matter. Rather it should be a matter of public knowledge no matter the circumstance. That is what operates in every civilized society. While I don’t subscribe to people who are insinuating calamity, I think the president needs to authorize his medical handlers to disclose his state of health as a way of dousing insinuations and speculations about his health status. His medical handlers are not expected to lie about his status but I think he needs to give them the go-ahead to tell Nigerians about it,” Okorie said.
A former commissioner of police, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav, however, said the issue concerning President Buhari’s health is a private affair of the president especially as he is not holding the country to ransom having transferred power to the vice president.
“This is a personal affair of the president and his family. Those demanding to know his state of health are not doctors. The president is sick and he is being treated by specialists. I don’t see anything wrong with that. Is the general public going to treat him? They are not doctors. The man has gone to see specialists. The sickness is his personal affair and he is taking care of it. When he was going he handed power to the vice president. He is not holding the country to ransom,” Tsav stressed.
A chieftain of Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, in his own reaction disagreed with the former police commissioner, saying the health condition of the president should be a major concern of over 170 million Nigerians he rules over.
“Every Nigerian is entitled to know the true state of the health of the president because if he is not healthy, there is no way he can give us good governance. That is why his state of health should be the concern of all Nigerians. The health of the president should not be treated as a private matter of his family. It is the concern of over 170 million people he governs. So it shouldn’t be made a secret,” Chief Adebanjo said.
Also lending his voice to the call, Executive Director, Civil Liberties Organisation, Ibuchukwu Ezike said Nigerians demanding to know the true status of President Buhari’s health were right in making such demand.
Ezike said getting to know the true health status of the president would enable Nigerians to be able to assess if the president still measured up to the constitutional demands, as regards health, to occupy the position.
“Nigerians need to know the health condition of the president because the Constitution of the country prescribes the health condition of the leaders of the country. There are certain conditions the person will find himself and he will not be able to discharge his responsibility of his or her office. In that case, how do you know if the person is no longer capable or qualified to carry out the responsibility given to him except you know his health situation?
“Even before the Federal Executive Council should meet to comply with the provision of the constitution. They have to know the status of the person. Secondly Nigerians elected him to be the president of this country so he is responsible to us. A private person doesn’t need to disclose his or her health situation to anybody unless he or she wishes to do so. But as a public office holder, he must own up to the country. Those demanding to know the true state of health of the president are right in their demand,” Ezike emphasised.
Meanwhile, the President Buhari’s spokesperson, Femi Adesina yesterday disclosed that he had a telephone conversation with his principal for the first since he left the shores of the country over a month ago. Adesina had during previous interviews said he was only speaking with those around the President.
According to him, Buhari’s Personal Assistant, Tunde Sabiu called him at exactly 2.43pm and requested him to speak with the president during which his principal thanked him for holding out against mischief makers.
Adesina who described his chat with President as a defining moment wrote on his Facebook and twitter handle, “Not once did I ask them to take the phone to him, deliberately so, because I didn’t need to speak with him to validate the fact that he was alive. And since he was on vacation, he had a right to his privacy.
“Of his own volition, President Buhari spoke with me. It made my day. Even if he hadn’t done so, he would have remained my president, my leader and my man any day,” Adesina wrote.