Buhari absent from Aso Rock Friday prayer

President Muhammadu Buhari was not at the State House mosque for yesterday’s juma’at service. The service was however attended by the governors of Kano, Zamfara and Ogun states, Abdullahi Ganduje, Abdulaziz Yari and Ibikunle Amosun respectively.

The governors had intended to join Buhari, who had always observed the weekly Friday prayer inside the Aso Rock Presidential Villa.

Indications that Buhari would not attend yesterday’s prayer became clear when his aid-de-camp, chief security officer, personal physician, private liaison officer and the state chief of protocol arrived the mosque at 1.20pm when the sermon was on.

Also at the mosque were the Director-General of the Department of State Services, Lawal Musa Daura, the Group Managing Director of the NNPC Mr Mikanti Baru and Interior Affairs Minister Abdulrahman Dambazzau, among others.

The president had, twice, been absent from the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meetings this month. The Presidency had Thursday assured that despite the insinuations in the media, there was no need for apprehension over Buhari’s health.

His Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, had said in a statement that Buhari’s absence at the Federal Executive Council on Wednesday was a last minute decision; “otherwise, the cabinet and the public might have been alerted in advance.”

Meanwhile, Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to make his state of health public to Nigerians.

Soyinka was quoted as telling journalists in Lagos yesterday that the current speculations about the president’s health were “unnecessary.”

“Why is the president hiding his state of health? He’s supposed to understand he’s public property, me I’m still private property, that’s why I’m not in Aso Rock. 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 is guarding his tax returns is not what we expect from a Nigerian president. Let him address the nation and stop all these speculations which create unnecessary political manipulations among other things,” Soyinka said.