It was shocking, as the British
Broadcasting Corporation of Nigeria, BBC, has called for the immediate
resignation of President Muhamamdu Buhari, based on health grounds.
Here is the full article published by the BBC, dated May 1, 2017,
In
our series of letters from African Journalists, the Editor-in-Chief of
Nigeria’s Daily Trust newspaper, Mannir Dan Ali, writes that President
Muhamadu Buhari, has been accused of being as secretive about his
health, as his US counterpart, Donald Trump, has been about his tax
returns.
Nigerians
are increasingly worried about Mr Buhari’s health, hoping that he does
not die in office like President Umaru Yar’Adua did in 2010, after a
lengthy illness which saw him fly to Germany and Saudi Arabia for
treatment.
The
latest concerns have been fuelled by the fact that Mr Buhari, 74,
missed the last two cabinet meetings and failed to attend Friday’s
Muslim prayers, even though the mosque is about a minute’s walk from his
office and residence.
The
government has shared little information about his health, and a
journalist with a leading newspaper was thrown out of State House by the
president’s chief security officer after he reported on the latest
concerns.
Mr
Buhari’s media aides distanced themselves from the officer’s actions,
and got a more senior security officer to overturn the ban on the
reporter attending State House press conferences and other events.
Mannir Dan Ali:
“The president has cut down on his official engagements and no longer ventures out of State House”
The
incident showed that the president’s aides are finding it difficult to
deal with questions about the health of the former military ruler.
Unfortunately for them, the issue is not about to go away.
After
returning from a seven-week medical trip to the UK in early March, Mr
Buhari said he had never been “so sick” in his life and hinted, without
giving details, that he had had a blood transfusion.
Since
then, there have been credible reports that his UK doctors have been to
Nigeria to treat him, although these have not been confirmed.
The president has also cut down on his official engagements and no longer ventures out of State House.
Buhari’s unhealthy start to 2017
19 January: Leaves for UK on “medical vacation”
5 February: Asks parliament to extend medical leave
10 March: Returns home but does not resume work immediately
26 April: Misses cabinet meeting and is “working from home”
28 April: Misses Friday prayers
He
used to chair the weekly cabinet meetings and attend Friday prayers –
an opportunity for his close allies to shake hands with him.
But
after failing to attend Wednesday’s cabinet meeting, Information
minister Lai Mohammed told reporters that on the advice of his doctors,
Mr Buhari would spend the day working from home and asked for all files
requiring his attention to be sent to his official residence.
While
many Nigerians are heeding the minister’s appeal to pray for the
president’s speedy recovery, some, like Nobel Prize-winning author Wole
Soyinka, are asking the president to give more details about his health.
“Guarding
your state of health like Donald Trump is guarding his tax returns is
not what we expect from a Nigerian president,” he said in a statement.
It
is unclear whether Mr Buhari will be more transparent about his health,
but people are hoping that the president, who is halfway into his term,
gets better soon so that he can devote himself to tackling the tough
challenges facing Nigeria, including the biggest economic downturn since
the end of military rule in 1999.
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