How Buhari’s ‘sick leave’ is affecting Nigerian politics

Nigeria’s political environment has not been the same since President Muhammadu Buhari left for medical vacation in the United Kingdom. However, attempts at gauging the body language of politicians and Nigerians in the past two weeks unveils an intriguing

Afew hours after President Muhammadu Buhari left Nigeria for the United Kingdom, rumours floated on the social media that the number one citizen had died of an undisclosed ailment.

This was despite the fact that the president walked out of his room at the Presidential Villa by himself and headed to the airport after transmitting a letter to the National Assembly.

In 2015, Buhari rode to power on the pedestal of popular votes from across Nigeria in the midst of increasing great expectations for a new dawn in social, political and economic fortunes.

But recent events, occasioned by “dashed hopes”, have begun to tell on the president’s popularity.

While some Nigerians believe that a good foundation has been laid by Buhari, others are of the opinion that the “tea party” is over as indicated by the use of his trip to ventilate their anger, with many drawing his rule to an end with the death rumours.

In the letter, President Buhari told the legislators of his desire to embark on a 10-day vacation and within the period, undergo a routine medical check-up.

Ordinarily, the fact that the president had transmitted a letter to the National Assembly effectively ceding executive powers to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, just like what he did in the past, should have calmed frayed nerves.

However, curious analysts, opposition politicians and those who are not in tune with his style of governance picked hole in the “abrupt” manner the journey was announced and executed. A suspicious gap

When the president was departing for the 10-day vacation, Vice President Osinbajo, who was in Davos, Switzerland, attending the 2017 World Economic Forum, returned to Nigeria the following day and resumed duty as acting president.

“This abrupt departure of the president and abrupt return of the VP was the first thing that aroused suspicions that Buhari’s trip was not normal as Nigerians were made to believe,” said opposition politician, Musa Ali Bagi.

“Protocol-wise, it was not normal for the president to start a vacation while his deputy was away because a vacuum was created,” he said.

And the suspicion of the president’s weak health state heightened when it was announced that he would not return on the appointed date.

Buhari was to return on Sunday, February 5, so that he would be in his office on Monday, but sadly, it was on that Sunday that his aides announced he would not come.

“It was wrong for the president to also send a letter to the National Assembly, extending his leave without telling Nigerians when he would resume,” said PDP’s spokesman, Dayo Adeyeye.

“The President should know he is not a private citizen. He should know that Nigerians are the ones paying his health bills and therefore, he should tell them the true state of his health. He should not treat Nigerians with levity and should also know what is obtainable in civilized countries. Nigeria is not a jungle,” he added.

Considering the anxiety, several pictures of Buhari and his wife, among others, apparently “enjoying his vacation” at the Nigerian House in London, went viral, a public relations strategy that equally drew elaborate commentaries, with some saying the pictures were either old or fake.

But the APC National Publicity Secretary, Malam Bolaji Abdullahi, said the party was overstretching its boundaries.

“Does the PDP know more than what we have been told? What we know is what we have been told. This is the president of the country. The elections are over, he is our president, he is the president of Nigeria, not of the APC or PDP. If the president told us that he needed to stay back to do some other medical things, it behoves on us, as responsible citizens, to pray for him and stop sensing an opportunity to retaliate,” he said. Engagements at the Villa Since his departure and the return of Osinbajo, President Buhari’s office has since almost been deserted. Politicians, in particular, are no longer visiting the president’s office, and the acting president has been operating from the Vice President’s Wing of the Aso Rock Presidential Villa.

Since Osinbajo became acting president, only five state governors have at the time of filing this report on Friday, visited the Presidential Villa. They include Abdulaziz Yari (Zamfara State), Mohammed Abubakar Badaru (Jigawa), Rochas Okorocha (Imo), Samuel Ortom (Benue) and Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo).

The National Chairman of the APC, Chief John OdigieOyegun, was at the State House for a meeting with the acting president Monday. He was not accompanied by any of the party’s national working committee.

The acting president had met with the leadership of the

This abrupt departure of the president and abrupt return of the VP was the first thing that aroused suspicions that Buhari’s trip was not normal as Nigerians were made to believe