By Emeka Alex Duru
Absence of President Muhammadu Buhari at the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, last Wednesday May 3, despite assurances from his media handlers, has further raised concern on the true state of his health.
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo chaired the meeting in place of the President, who has consecutively missed the last three gatherings of the cabinet that comprises ministers and top advisers. He was also absent from the Muslim traditional Friday prayers last week.
Waiting on the President
On two previous occasions when Buhari had skipped the FEC meeting, his aides had explained his absence on his working from home. Even as the explanations had not been convincing in any way, what seemed to imbue them with veneer of credibility, was his appearance at the Friday prayers.
But when he failed to show up in any of the events last week, speculations ran high that his health, which has not been exciting since March, may have again, gone bad, perhaps, worse than it had been.
The President, had earlier in the year, undergone a long period of treatment for an undisclosed illness in London. On his return, the Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, had claimed that he needed rest and was therefore, working from his private residence.
While Buhari made occasional and in some cases, guided appearances, most of his schedules were delegated to Osinbajo and his aides. Not many had found the trend enduring.
In the last two weeks for instance, the President has been under growing pressure to disclose his state of health.
Soyinka throws challenge
Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, threw the challenge when he argued that the President should come clean on his health in order to clear the speculations surrounding it.
In a forum with journalists in Lagos, he asked, “Why is the President hiding his state of health? “He is supposed to understand that he is a public property”.
Soyinka told Buhari, “once you are in Aso Rock or you occupy a similar position, you have a responsibility to come out frankly to your citizens. Guarding your state of health like Donald Trump (American President), is guarding his tax returns, is not what we expect from a Nigerian President”.
Ohanaeze weighs in
Apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo also expressed concern over Buhari’s unwillingness to declare the true state of his health despite its deteriorating condition that had prevented him from attending to important public issues.
President General of Ohanaeze, Nnia Nwodo who stated its position, at a news conference in Enugu, asked him to declare his health status.
That fell in line with views of individuals and groups in condemning the secrecy surrounding Buhari’s health status and the consequent suggestion for him to seek appropriate attention.
Human rights groups creep in
Acting in this regard, leaders of various human rights bodies in the country, on Monday, called on the President to take a medical leave to enable him attend to his health, immediately.
These rights activists, according to reports, include Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana; the Executive Director, SERAP, Adetokunbo Mumuni; Director, Centre for Democracy and Development, Professor Jibrin Ibrahim; Executive Chairman, CACOL, Debo Adeniran; and Country Director, Search for Common Ground, Chom Bagu.
They made the call in a joint statement. “As we join the Nigerian people of goodwill to pray for a speedy recovery of President Buhari, we are compelled to advise him to heed the advice of his personal physicians by taking a rest to attend to his health without any further delay,” they wrote.
They explained that their call was based on the observation that since Buhari returned from his medical vacation in the UK and despite repeated claims by government officials that there was no cause for alarm over his health, he does not seem to have fully recovered.
Akande joins the fray
Founding National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bisi Akande, was more pungent on the matter and urged Nigerians to pray fervently for the President’s health.
He had, in a statement in Osogbo, remarked, “The health of the leader is intricately intertwined with the health of the nation. It is more so in a delicately fragile union of nations called Nigeria. I did not see President Buhari at the wedding of his adopted son in Kaduna, last Saturday. I was sad and I wept.
“When last we met at the wedding of his daughter in Abuja, last December, I complained to him that I was not happy about his stressful looks”.
The observation, coming from Akande, was not taken lightly in some quarters. While some saw it as true indication of Buhari’s failing health, critics of the APC interim chairman accused him of mischief.
ACF fires back
For example, Northern cultural organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum, slammed Akande, and other Nigerians for what it considered their ‘unhealthy’ comments over Buhari’s health.
National Publicity Secretary of the Forum, Muhammadu Ibrahim, said in a statement in Kaduna, that the fears and concerns over the president’s health were unnecessary and uncalled for.
It expressed concern that “some individuals are carelessly making unnecessary remarks pertaining to the health of President Muhammadu Buhari”, stressing that what Nigerians need to do now is to pray for the good health of the President.
Aisha Buhari speaks
Aisha, the wife of the President, equally lent her voice on the debate, claiming that the health of her husband, is not as bad as people are portraying it to be.
She made the assertion in series of tweets, adding that Buhari has continued to carry out his responsibilities as President of Nigeria.
“I wish to inform everyone that his health is not as bad as it’s being perceived, Meanwhile he continues to carry out his responsibilities”, Aisha stated.
Learning from the past
Ordinarily, the explanations by the President’s information managers, would have been enough to assuage the feelings of obviously concerned Nigerians. But their antecedents in communicating with the public on Buhari’s health even before it took the current uncertain dimension, had not been encouraging. When for instance the President departed for London early in February, a terse statement from his Media Adviser, Femi Adesina, merely explained that he was embarking on his annual vacation and would in the process, see his doctors.
The visit which was originally scheduled to last 10 days, ended up taking almost two months. Even when Nigerians expressed concern on the true state of the President’s health, leading members of the administration and APC, including Osinbajo, Lai Mohammed and even Akande, claimed that he was hale and hearty.
It took Buhari, on his return, to confess to Nigerians that he was seriously ill. “This is why nobody is ready to believe whatever lie they are spewing this time around on the true state of his health. How can you say he is in good health, when he has severally absented himself from FEC and other crucial engagements? Why was he not in the Mosque last Friday? Why was he not seen during the May 1, Workers Day? It is better they let us know the true position of things. Nigeria has grown past this hide-and-seek game”, volunteered an obviously flustered APC chieftain, who pleaded not to be mentioned in the Lagos office of the party.
Cynicism trailing the explanation by Buhari’s aides is not without reasons. The dummy they are seen to be selling to Nigerians in explaining his health, is not entirely new. Their predecessors in office had done so at various times.
Between 2009 and 2010 when serious suspicion arose on the health of late President Umaru Yar’Adua, the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had dismissed the apprehension as mere insinuation by the opposition. Even when the late leader was flown out and later stretchered home in uncertain conditions, spokesmen of the administration kept maintaining that all was well. It took his eventual death on May 9, 2010, for most Nigerians to know the true state of affairs.
Such was in some ways, the situation earlier in 1998, when the late Sani Abacha was the Military Head of State. Given the near pariah status of the country then, Abacha could not seek treatment abroad. But while Nigerians argued that his health was shrinking, his foot soldiers dismissed the observation, till he dropped dead on June 8, 1998 in unclear circumstances.
Both the Yar’Adua and Abacha instances, took tolls on governance in the country. This is the current situation with the Buhari scenario.