BEVERLY HILLS, May 2, (THEWILL) – The secrecy woven around the state of President Muhammadu Buhari’s health has become a source of worry to well-meaning Nigerians. As an elected President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the health condition of President Buhari can not be a private affair.
Indeed, the least entitlement of Nigerians who voted in the President is knowing his health status, also taking into consideration that the cost of his treatment and welfare is borne by the taxpayers. Letting the public know what is troubling his wellbeing can only be a plus rather than a minus to Buhari’s political capital.
Nigeria is currently facing multifaceted challenges that need to be tackled by a healthy and committed leader, not a “resting” one that is missing from state functions and chooses to work from home. This calls to wonder the impact of such disposition to the most important job in the land on investors’ confidence in the Nigerian economy.
The impression created by the Information minister, Lai Mohammed’s announcement that the president would be working from home is that Nigeria now has a president who would not devote his full time to his duties. This is more so as citizens have no means of ascertaining that he is actually working from home.
THEWILL however joins well-meaning Nigerians in praying for the President’s quick recovery to enable him face the onerous task of governance. Those hoping for the worst need to be reminded that the political system and the country will sorely lose out if anything untoward happens to Buhari.
Meanwhile, we demand the prosecution of the police officer from Biu in Borno state, Inusa Saidu Biu, who threatened in a Facebook post to kill at least 200 people if Buhari dies while in office. It’s unconscionable for a policeman to make such a careless, reckless and offensive utterance without the authorities being seen to be doing much about it.
All the merchants of violence eager to latch on to the heightened anxiety caused by the president’s health condition to spill innocent blood must not be given a leeway. This is all the more reason why the president’s handlers must prevail on him to carry Nigerians along in whatever affliction he is wrestling with.
THEWILL equally urges the first family to encourage their patriarch to see himself as father of the nation and not allow the so-called cabal at the presidency make nonsense of Buhari’s swearing-in assertion of “belonging to everybody and belonging to nobody.”
There are still palpable fears that governance is now in the hands of this cabal, members of which Nigerians do not know and cannot hold accountable for whatever goes wrong with the Buhari administration.
If the president’s health condition continues to oscillate around this clandestine corridor of secrecy, this will provide the cabal room to be arbitrary and even act with impunity since Nigerians did not give them any mandate. Yet the buck stops at Buhari’s table and it is only him that will be judged by posterity.
Therefore, if the president’s frail health is such that has forced him to allow this cabal exercise presidential powers without recourse to him, THEWILL must then advise President Buhari to temporarily handover to the man with whom he was elected on a joint ticket, and then go take care of his health. It is human to fall sick, after all.
Buhari should be reminded that it is Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo that Nigerians entrusted to do his job anytime he is indisposed, and that it is in view of a time like this that it was made mandatory for a standard bearer to contest the presidential election with a running mate.
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