Still on President Buhari….

So it is official, President Buhari is Sick! At least that is the reason for his continued stay abroad. News media reported that his doctors advised him to conclude a series of tests before he can return. Now, if it’s just a medical check-up, I don’t think they will be advising him to stay back. No they won’t, unless his life depended on it. It is now clear that indeed, his life depends on him being in the UK right now.

President Mohammadu Buhari and his handlers are a major disappointment to me right now. Please note that this is my personal opinion, and it has nothing to do with his performance in office or the lack of it, it’s purely on the way they have bungled this opportunity to get a good PR for the president from this situation. After all the grandstanding over his health, and their bellicosity about his good health and all that, they still will come back at the last minute to own up to the long standing rumour that he is ill? It’s the height of incompetence on the part of the president’s men and a lack of perception from the President himself!

So what is really wrong in admitting that the president was ill and had to see his doctors. I have a problem that even this president has to run to the UK and Germany every time he catches a cold, but that is story for another day. What is the problem with owning up and saying that he was not in a position to address the nation? A man can be ill, but if he is at the point when he has to wait for lab results to determine if he can come back work when all hell wants to break lose around him, then he is really ill, and it was just useless for his aides to have taken us through the jamboree of lies that they took us through.

I watched Femi Adesina, and I watched Lai Mohammed on TV swearing that the President was hale and hearty, and was enjoying the cold of London on a 10-day vacation, and I am a bit ashamed of them right now, with the obvious admission that things were worse with the president that they made us believe. Throwback to 2009, and remember how we all berated the handlers of the late president Yar’adua over how they were lying and twisting facts just to hide the true nature of his sickness from Nigerians. A few years down the line, it is amazing that history has not thought people anything, and today’s presidential aides and handlers are still doing the same thing.

Let me be clear! President Buhari need not disclose his ailment or his health status. He has the right not to, and I heard from Mr Femi Falana that the constitution also gives him the right to privacy as per as health. However, it’s not the legalese that we are interested in right now, but the feeling that god judgement seems to be lacking here. President Buhari is the head of a nation. His life, death, good health or ill health matters not just to him, or his family, but to the entire nation, Africa and even the rest of the world. It matters to the stock exchange market; the sovereign bond and treasury bills market depends on it; our currency’s exchange rate depends on it; the continued stability of this country depends on it; everything, everything and everything depends on it!!!

This is no time for people to be playing games. We need to know what is going on with him! We need to know how he is doing! The day he signed up to be president, he stopped being his own man! He belongs to Nigeria! He is Nigeria! He influences what happens here. We are in a limbo right now in the country. 2017 budget is not yet passed; Magu is not yet confirmed as EFCC chairman, stalling progress on the anti-corruption war or whatever is left of it; the nomination of the acting CJN as substantive CJ is also waiting for the President’s return, so it is very important that we are carried along on issues that may delay his return; it is that important. Even though we have the acting President, I am sure he understands his limits and knows his boundary. It is therefore obvious that the country will continue to be in a stand still till the president is back in the office.

At least they had the good sense to write to NASS before the Monday he was set to retun to office. I was saying to a friend that dead or alive, these guys has to make sure that the president resumes on Monday or they will have to speak up about his health. It was only a matter of time before the Buhari men had to do something, which was why I thought those frenzied movements of last week were not necessary. Now we know, our president is sick, and sick enough for him to not be able to speak to Nigerians.

I am sure that people everywhere are praying for him, on him, about him and even against him. Some are wishing him dead, so they can further their political interests; others are wishing him same so that they can continue looting the country’s treasures with impunity. Others are praying that he does not die not because they care about him, but so they can continue enjoying their privileges as brokers, or in their current political offices. Still others are praying so that he can return to the office to fulfil whatever promises he has made towards them before he left. I am sure also that a lot of Nigerians are praying against him since they have now seen him as the one troubling the nation. So if he dies, perhaps, things will revert back to what it was before.

The heavens are watching us now, and I wonder what the Almighty will be thinking about us as he looks onto these strange people he has assembled in this corner of his earth. Everyone is thinking about himself; no one, not one person I am sure is thinking about Nigeria, and how all these events affect the nation. However, I am sure that if no one is, God is thinking about us.

So there we have it; our president is sick. Let’s pray that he gets well soon so he can come back to his duty post. In the meantime, let the rest of the people in government continue to do what the President would have expected them to do which is to find solutions to our myriad of problems. And to Nigerians, let us continue to behave in a way and manner that will help the unity of this country, because if it collapses, many of us will be stuck in the ship when it goes under.