By Ismail Omipidan
The popular saying that if one tells a lie, one would perhaps tell another to cover up the first lie, appears apt in describing the recent handling of President Muhammadu Buhari’s health status by his handlers, who have been going back and forth, all in an attempt to make their narratives plausible in the ears of Nigerians, who have continued to be agitated over the president’s true state of health, following his inability to join other Muslim faithful to observe the Juma’at prayer, right in the villa, last Friday.
When the President returned from his vacation, which later turned a medical one, on March 10, 2017, after 49 days, he had announced to the hearing of Nigerians and the world that he would be going back in another couple of weeks, for “follow-ups,” adding that, “I couldn’t recall being so sick since I was a young man, including in the military with its ups and downs.”
But about 58 days after his return to the country, the President is yet to return for another leg of his medical trip. And if his public appearances in the last one month is anything to go by, one certainly do not need a soothsayer to know that the Buhari Nigerians last saw on Friday, April 21, 2017, was not the Buhari they voted for about two years ago.
The President’s brief public appearance at the said Friday Juma’at service inside the Villa further heightened anxiety over his health status, a situation which may have prompted Kaduna state governor, Mallam Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai to appeal to Nigerians and party faithful to give the President some space to enable him recover fully.
But by the following Wednesday, the Information minister, Lai Mohammed, told Nigerians and the world that though the President could not attend the week’s Federal Executive Council, FEC, the President nonetheless was working from home.
Hear him: “We just concluded the Federal Executive Council meeting, I’m sure you noticed that the President was not there. He was not there because he asked that he be allowed to rest and asked the VP to preside. And he will be working from home. He has asked all his files to be taken to him in the house. He will be working from home today.”
When some Nigerians took Lai’s words to mean that the President would henceforth be working from home, like former minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, Mike Aondoaka once said during the late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s era that Yar’Adua could “work from anywhere,” including Saudi Arabia, Mohammed swiftly issued a rebuttal, saying that he meant the President would only work from home for that Wednesday alone.
However, by the next day, Mallam Garba Shehu, Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, issued another statement, which appeared like a counter to what Lai Mohammed tried to put in proper perspective.
Shehu had among other things said despite the President’s “lack of visibility, Nigerians should rest assured that President Buhari has not abdicated his role as Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria.
“He receives daily briefings on the activities of government, and confers regularly with his Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo. His private residence, in which he has been spending the majority of his time recently, also has a fully equipped office.”
For the past 10 days however, Nigerians have neither heard nor set their eyes on their President. But barely 24 hours after news broke that three former Nigeria leaders met in Minna, ostensibly over Buhari’s health status, the Attorney-General of the Federation , AGF and minister for Justice, Abubakar Malami and Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, claimed they met with the President last Tuesday.
But unlike previous engagements since the President’s health status became public debate, where pictures of such engagements were lavishly used on the pages of newspapers and even on social media, up till the time of filing this report, no one has seen any photographs taken at the meeting. And if the late Yar’Adua’s experience is anything to go by, where some Muslim and Christian clerics were made to lie to Nigerians to say they saw ailing Yar’Adua, when nothing like that happened, Nigerians may well be threading another avoidable but familiar path.
Following the news last Tuesday that the President had resumed work, with his wife, Aisha Buhari also saying the husband’s health was not as bad as some Nigerians were made to believe, many Nigerians had hoped that the President would show up at last Wednesday’s FEC meeting, at least to validate the Tuesday’ s claim.
But what did Nigerians get? Another explanation from the Information minister which appear inconsistent with the ones offered last week by both himself and Shehu on the same subject, on the same issue.
Hear what Mohammed said “He was in the office yesterday (Tuesday) as you all reported. And if the doctor says `oh, you take a rest’, I think you recover faster when you rest and when you ought to rest rather than by forcing yourself to work when you are not fit to work. All he is doing is that he is following the doctors’ advice. So, whatever is happening today is not any new development. Is actually what he said that he has been advised to take it easy by his doctors and that he would soon also go back for further medical attention in the UK.’’
One man that has however been consistent in calling on the presidency to come out clean on the true medical status of President Buhari is Kano-based Russian-trained medical doctor, Dr. Junaid Mohammed. He believes that some members of the cabals are holding Buhari down, thereby preventing him from seeking “sound and better” medical attention, for their own selfish interest.
Although presidency sources told Daily Sun yesterday that there was no cause for alarm, as the President was recovering, Dr. Mohammed thinks otherwise.
He told Daily Sun:“Let me honest with you, the truth is that the All Progressives Congress, APC as a party, and the country is confused. Buhari’s situation has thrown the country into another round of turmoil, because he is physically and mentally unable to perform his functions as a President.
“Unfortunately, some characters around him, who he engaged have begun to exercise these powers on his behalf. This is totally unacceptable. Buhari is today suffering from what I call performance legitimacy. Look, I am a medical doctor, there is no leader the world over who had cancer has been able to perform in office.
“I am perhaps sure, left for Buhari, he would want to go and attend to his health, but the cabals around him don’t want him to go. They do this because as long as he his around, he serves their interest that is why they don’t want him to go and have the best medical attention. Once he leaves, the cabal loses out. But Nigerians must know that we did not vote for any cabal, we voted for Buhari. Therefore Nigerians must insist the right thing is done,” Mohammed, added.
When the president returned from his medical trip, he was welcomed at the State House helipad by Osinbajo, military chiefs, Minister of FCT, Mohammed Bello and other top government aides.
The President, who advised Nigerians against self medication, had said “I have rested as much as humanly possible, I have received I think, the best of treatment I could receive.
“I couldn’t recall being so sick since I was a young man, including in the military with its ups and downs. I found out that technology is going so fast that if you have a lot of confidence you better keep it because you need it. Blood transfusions, going to the laboratories, and so on and so forth, but I am very pleased that we, when I say we I mean the government and the people all over, are trying to keep with technology.
“I couldn’t recall when last I had blood transfusion; I couldn’t recall honestly, I can say in my 70 years. I couldn’t remember this drug that Nigerians take so much, very common… I think one of our terrible things is self drug administration. We have to trust our doctors more and trust ourselves more because where I visited, they only take drugs when it is absolutely necessary. They don’t just swallow everything.
“Having said that I am pleased that I am back, I am pleased that the Vice President enjoyed this break and he has to do much more this time around. Youth and intellect is squarely behind him, age and purely military experience is behind me. Continue to do the work. Nigeria will continue whether we are here or not.
“I am deeply grateful to all Nigerians, Muslims and Christians alike, who have prayed and continue to pray for my good health. This is a testimony that in spite of the hardship being experienced, Nigerians support the government in its efforts to tackle our country’s challenges. The best way for me to pay you all is to rededicate myself to serving you, protecting your interest and keeping your trust. I thank you very much. I feel much better now. All I will need is to do further follow ups within some weeks.
“Rather than sending delegations to Abuja to welcome me, may I appeal to our people to continue to pray for the country’s unity, progress and prosperity. I thank you very much and may God bless our country.”
However, rather than pray for the country’s unity, Nigerians, especially within the ruling APC are already getting divided along ethnic lines, over the President’s ill health, the same way it happened during the late Yar’Adua’s era.
Former Interim National chairman of the party, chief Bisi Akande, had last Monday warned against exploiting Buhari’s health condition, for political gains, adding that “the greatest danger, however, is for political interests at the corridor of power attempting to feast on the health of Mr. President in a dangerous manner that may aggravate the problems between the executive and the National Assembly without realising if, in the end, it could drag the entire country into avoidable doom.
“My greatest fear, however, is that the country should not be allowed to slide into anarchy and disorder of a “monumental proportion,” Akande, had said.
By last Tuesday, the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, carpeted Akande, saying his comment was “unnecessary.”
In a statement signed by the group’s National Publicity Secretary, Muhammadu Ibrahim, the group said, “Arewa Consultative Forum has observed with concern that some individuals are carelessly making unnecessary remarks pertaining to the health of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“What Nigerians need to do now is to pray for his good health and not to speculate or draw conclusions which will do no one any good.
“ACF advises Nigerians to please pray for the improvement of Mr. President’s health so that he can serve the nation with more vigour.”