•His ill health affecting Nigeria, says Akande
By Adetutu Folasade -Koyi
Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and rights lawyer, Femi Falana, academic, Jibrin Ibrahim and activist, Debo Adeniran have urged President Muhammadu Buhari to take an urgent medical leave from governance.
Buhari returned from medical vacation, in t56he United Kingdom, in March.
And, since his return, the president has only made a few public appearances, fuelling speculations about his health when he did not attend the Jumat service last Friday.
But the Presidency has said that there is no need for apprehension over president Buhari’s health.
In a statement issued on Monday, Falana, Ibrahim and Adeniran urged Buhari to heed the advice of his personal physician and take some time to attend his health.
“When president Muhammadu Buhari was recently in the United Kingdom on a medical vacation, which lasted 49 days, many public officers said that he was ‘hale and hearty.’ But, upon his return to the country, president Buhari disclosed that he had never been that sick in his entire life.
“Even though the president did not disclose the nature of his ailment, he revealed that he went through blood transfusion. While thanking the Nigerian people for their prayers, the president announced that he might soon travel back for further medical treatment.
“A few weeks ago, governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El-Rufai urged Nigerians to give president Buhari time to recover from his sickness. The plea was made after the governor had visited and, presumably, assessed the state of the president, at the Presidential Villa, in Abuja.
“However, due to the apparent deterioration in the president’s health condition, he has neither been seen in public in the last one week nor attended the last two meetings of the Federal Executive Council (FEC). His absence at the last Jumat service in the villa has fuelled further speculations and rumours on president Buhari’s medical condition.”
The statement further noted that, “instead of embarking on regular briefing on the actual state of the health of president Buhari, officials of the federal government have continued to assure the Nigerian people.
“In defending the absence of the president at the last FEC meeting and other state functions, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu stated that ‘the president’s doctors have advised on his taking things slowly, as he fully recovers from the long period of treatment in the United Kingdom some weeks ago.’
“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.”
Last week, Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, asked the president to declare his health status to Nigerians on the premise that the president is public property.
Also, former Osun State governor, Chief Bisi Akande, has warned those in the corridors of power to stop feasting on Buhari’s health.
In a personal statement, yesterday, Akande said the president’s ailing health is taking a toll on the country and expressed fear that the country may be thrown into anarchy if Nigerians do not learn from history.
“These are two great red flag dangers that have the potential of plunging the country into unprecedented chaos and of destabilising the gains of democracy since 1999. 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.
“Let me warn today that those who wish to harvest political gains out of the health of the president are mistaken. This is not Nigeria of 1993… We must appreciate that his poor health is already taking a toll on the health of Nigeria as a polity.”
He urged all Nigerians to pray for the president’s recovery, saying it was necessary to prevent Nigeria from being thrown into confusion.
“To avoid the ugly consequences of letting President Buhari’s ailment throw Nigeria into confusion, I am urging all Nigerians to begin to pray for his divine healing and perfect recovery,” he said.
“We are in a new national and global era of constitutionalism and order. We hope Nigerians have enough patience to learn from history.
“My greatest fear, however, is that the country should not be allowed to slide into anarchy and disorder of a “monumental proportion.”
Akande also spoke about a personal encounter he had with Buhari in December, recalling the trip he and Bola Tinubu, national leader of the APC, made to London see Buhari.
He said he felt so bad that Buhari could not attend the wedding of his grandson in Kaduna on Saturday.
“I did not see President Buhari at the wedding of his grandson in Kaduna last Saturday. I was sad, and I wept,” Akande said.
“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.
“His reply connoted some allusions to circumstances where an honest man fighting corruption is surrounded mostly by unpatriotic, greedy ruling class. He felt painfully frustrated.
“He assured me he would soon be going on vacation. I then knew that corruption had effectively been fighting back. And I prayed for Nigeria.
“That was why Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and I rushed to meet him in London in February this year when he was sick and could not return as scheduled from his vacation.