As Mr President Continues To Rest… By Yomi Odunuga

WHERE is Sai Buhari? Well, some would say the answer to this poser is simple: President Muhammadu Buhari is on medical vacation in London. The next question is: when would he be back to assume his responsibilities as President and Commander-in- Chief of the Armed Forces including chief propeller of the engine of state of the Nigerian nation? Now, that is where the problem lies. No one, not even those who have turned his temporary address abroad to some sort of pilgrimage site, can tell us how soon that would be. Of course, among the visitors are those with genuine feelings for Baba’s health and those who were there to, as they say, fulfill all righteousness.

Ask them if our octogenarian President is battling a life-threatening ailment and you get stoned with a barrage of reasons on why that couldn’t have been a possibility. They tell you he was in cheerful, hale and hearty. They argue that his continued absence from official duties should not cause any panic as he has officially handed over the reins of power to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in addition to intimating the National Assembly of an indefinite stay due to his doctors’ advice following series of tests carried out on him. If you think that was not convincing enough, they throw in the Donald Trump punch line.

Then you ask, how does a telephone conversation with the bumbling President of the United States of America justify the fit-as-a-fiddle narrative of a Nigerian President that has remained incommunicado for more than 36 days in a foreign land? Surely, this is not the time to play games with the intelligence of the citizens. Speculations thrive when those that should say the truth about the true state of health of the Nigerian leader embark on an endless misadventure of half-truths and deceit.

The other day, one of the anchors of a popular live breakfast show asked what I consider to be the dumbest question ever: he wanted his guest to confirm if it was right to conclude that the President’s prolonged absence meant that he could be dead! Of course, the guest—an Editor of a leading newspaper in the country— rambled his way through the baseless question. However, this particular scenario perfectly paints a troubling picture of how fatalistic we have become as a people. It is, to say the least, a sad commentary that such a question came up on a live discourse in spite of the different photo-ops that were made available to the Nigerian media presumably to debunk his rumoured death.

But then, isn’t that what secrecy breeds? Why, for example, is it difficult for Aso Rock to come out with something close to a believable truth on why a hale and hearty President finds it convenient to rest in London? In fact, we really dont know what to believe again. The other day, my good friend, Kehinde Amodu, came up with this collage in a response to something I posted on Facebook which has nothing to do with the President’s health. He asked: “Is he on extended vacation? Medical vacation? Test-induced vacation? Cabal-enforced vacation? Or could it be doctor-advised rest?” So, which is which? I understand the frustrations of the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who challenged the security forces to deal decisively with peddlers of fake news which he said was deadlier than the Boko Haram insurgency.

But then, who gifted the social media community the free podium to flagellate the wavelengths with salaciously wicked versions of the Buhari health matter? It is no other person than the President’s men. I am sure the honourable minister would not have expected a forever suspicious citizenry to be balled over by all the pictures of the visits made to the Nigeria House in London by different categories of people to wish Mr. Buhari quick recovery. He should know that the sore point in all the visits remains the hastiness with which all some of these VIP guests sneak out pictures of their meetings and the adroitness with which they pronounced the President healthy and ready to resume duty in due course. When you juxtapose that with the plea to Nigerians to pray for the President and the contradictory statements from his media managers that their principal is yet to secure a certificate of clean bill of health from his medical team abroad, you can’t help but attempt to resolve the puzzling missing links.

That is how speculations set in and we sink into this needless miasma of arguments and counter arguments. Some have asked, what’s all the fuss over the health status of a 74-yearold man who is probably succumbing to the challenges of all men in his age bracket? They remind us that we all fall sick once in a while and Buhari should not be an exception. How I wish it were that simplistic. The problem here is that Buhari is not just any other Nigerian. He is the President of Nigeria, a flagrantly raped and perennially abused country in dire need of redemption. On his lean shoulders rest the fortunes or misfortunes of over 170 million Nigerians. If he falls sick, the entire nation feels the pain. Unfortunately, there is a limit to how far anyone who acts in his capacity can go, especially with the kind of ethno-religious politics we play in this part of the world. And that is why it appears many didn’t believe Acting President Osinbajo when he said he spoke to a President who sounded hale and hearty.

Does that mean he is mentally and physically fit to continue from where he stopped? How did this professor of law and pastor jump to that conclusion? Or was he just flying the usual political correctness card? Fake news abounds because this government has not made any conscious effort to avail us the alternative fact to the Buhari leave cum medical check-up saga. Instead, they seem to be treading the same route that led to the catastrophic ending to the story of then President Umaru Yar’Adua. We cannot afford to risk a repeat of that heart-rending episode at a period when Nigerians are swallowing the pills of poverty with the water of anguish. There are too many things that demand the urgent attention of a fit, robust and focused leadership. Unfortunately, that force of authority lies only in the hands of our ailing President. Ailing? Yes, contrary to the wishes of his sworn haters, our President is not dead.

He is alive but under the weather. Buhari confirmed our fears when he reportedly told the Kano State Governor, Umar Ganduje, that he was getting better in his latest phone call to select Nigerians. Of course, the rational conclusion should be that he was in London to treat an ailment. So, he is not dead. Question is: can he combine the painstaking rigour of treatment with the arduous task of piloting the affairs of state? I seriously doubt it. We live in denial when we shy away from this reality. I am sure a patriotic Buhari wouldn’t have stayed a day longer than necessary if he was truly in top notch condition as the hawks around him would want us to believe. Now that he has requested additional time for the healing process, The Presidency would do us a world of good by coming out with the real deal.

The public needs to know if they are in this for a long haul like it happened in the case of Yar’Adua or for some few more weeks. Aso Rock’s criminally opprobrious silence over this matter is unacceptable. Could it be possible that some powerful forces are holding our President hostage against his wishes? What kind of ailment would prevent this hale and hearty man from engaging millions of well-wishers in a 5-minute Skype teleconference? And why must we rely on the medical reports given by fourth or fifth parties to assuage our fears? In case The Presidency has forgotten, the social media community only lashed on to the lapses embedded in the official statement issued on Buhari’s trip to the United Kingdom some weeks back. It would have been dumb to gloss over the ease with which a 10-day leave transformed into an ad-infinitum extension. No sitting President anywhere in the world enjoys that luxury. And so, this endless wait for Godot is deleterious to the health of the entire nation.

We couldn’t have forgotten so soon how Nigeria regressed into coma with the anxiety over the late Yar’Adua’s health. We couldn’t have forgotten how a so-called cabal took maximum advantage of the unfortunate circumstance to fleece the country dry. Did we also remember the inspiring role played by the late Dr. Dora Akunyili who blew the lid on the officially packaged lying machine of that era? Could there be a possibility that we are about treading the same path with the ominous sign hanging over the actual state of health of our President? Who is the Akunyili of the Buhari regime anyway? Muhammed was right when he said fake news left unchecked could wreak damning damage on our tender societal fabric and cause unimaginable conflict.

But, on this matter, the easiest way to put an end to the wicked lies on the status of the nation’s leader is for those who sit on the facts of the matter to make it available to the millions who tend to believe the lies being peddled daily on the social media. What would it cost them if Sai Baba (as Buhari is fondly called) is persuaded to speak to those who cannot afford to fly on public funds to London to wish him soonest recovery in his hale and hearty condition? How much longer are we going to wait for this Godot who insists he needs to rest more in the UK on doctors’ directives even if there is no cause for alarm? How long?

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