In this report, EYES OF LAGOS writes on the roles played by
some stalwarts of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on
President Muhammadu Buhari’s ill-health.
Last February, they received accolades for visiting the then
convalescing President Muhammadu Buhari in London, thereby
reassuring the populace there was nothing to fear over his health.
But today, the two stalwarts of the All Progressives Congress (APC),
its former National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande and National Leader,
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu are in the eye of the storm for their recent
comments on the health status of the president.
Buhari, until he embarked on another medical vacation on the night of
Sunday May 7, had been rumored to be incapacitated, with calls from
unexpected quarters for his resignation. The two politicians have also
made comments many feel are both unpatriotic and unstatesmanly on the
health of the president.
It took the ingenuity of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who
according to an impeccable source in the presidency urged Buhari to
summon the leadership of National Assembly, Chairman of Nigeria
Governors Forum, Abdul’aziz Yari; prominent politicians and top
government functionaries to a brief meeting and take group photographs
with them before he would embark on his follow up overseas medical trip.
The idea, according to the source was to make the whole world know
and believe that the president was neither incapacitated nor was he
smuggled out of the country. This singular adroitness of the senate
president doused the raging tension and stabilized the almost overheated
polity.
It was gathered that it was after the meeting that the president
walked out of his room at the Presidential Villa and headed to the
airport after transmiting a letter to the National Assembly.
“Many people did not know the president was going on medical follow
up until Sunday night when a statement was released to that effect. A
call had earlier been made to Saraki that the president would be
traveling on Sunday and that the letter would be sent to him to that
effect. It was then that he suggested that it would be better to invite
the leadership of the National Assembly, Chairman of NGF and some top
government functionaries to see the president and even take photographs
with him so that Nigerians would be rest assured that Mr. President is
not incapacitated, and in order to avert any constitutional crisis”, the
source quoted.
Saraki’s role in this complexity is however, contrary to the
insinuation making the rounds in certain quarters that he is part of the
cabal working against the president, the presidency, the North and
national interest.
The letter which was later sent to the senate read thus: “In
compliance with section 145 {1) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, I
wish to inform the Distinguished Senate that I will be away for a
scheduled medical follow-up with my doctors in London. The length of my
stay will be determined by the doctor’s advice.
“While I am away, the Vice President will coordinate the activities
of the government. Please accept, the Distinguished Senate President,
the assurances of my highest consideration.’’
The letter, however almost degenerated into constitutional crisis on
the floor of the Senate as Senator Mao Ohaunbuwa (PDP Abia North)
through a point of order faulted the President for not categorically
designating the Vice President as Acting President in his absence as
stated in section 145 of the 1999 Constitution as amended. He said the
status of coordinator of economic activities does not exist in the
section of the constitution and therefore should not have come up in the
President’s letter and therefore called for rejection of the letter.
After the issue had been dragged forth and back, Saraki again saved
the day by averting what could have led to a constitutional crisis when
he declared that: “I think it is a very clear issue and what we should
be guided by, is the constitution and I think that it is clear, the
letter has referred to the constitution and there’s no ambiguity in the
constitution. So, I don’t think there’s any issue there. I hereby rule
Senator Ohuabunwa out of order.”
Recall that prior to the trip, Buhari had been absent a number of
times at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meetings and had also made
little public appearances, thus fueling the speculation that he might
really be sick.
It was also gathered that the emergency Minna, Niger State, meeting
among three former presidents and heads of state, Gen Olusegun Obasanjo
(rtd), Gen Ibrahim Babangida (rtd) and Gen Abdusalami Abubakar (rtd), on
Monday May 1st, a few days to Buhari’s overseas trip was in connection
with the rising security tension over his health.
It was gathered that one of the resolutions reached at the meeting
was that it was safe for the president to travel. Prior to the meeting,
there was a speculation that certain political elements were poised to
use some military officers to cause chaos in the nation in the event
anything untoward happened to the president. There was also a report of a
certain police office that threatened to kill at least 200 persons in
the event that the president died.
This, perhaps was why the president tarried in the country a little
longer than expected, having disclosed on his return to the country on
Friday March 10 that he would soon return to the United Kingdom for his
treatment. But rather than return overseas, it was gathered that medical
personnel were brought into the country to treat him, until his
eventual overseas trip.
A day after the Minna meeting, Buhari’s wife, Aisha also took to her
Twitter handle @aishambuhari, and her Facebook page, Aisha Muhammadu
Buhari, to inform the nation that her husband’s health is not as bad as
certain individuals have made some people to believe.
Pundits are of the view that Mrs. Buhari’s tantrum may not have been
unconnected with a statement issued about that time by Chief Bisi
Akande, a former National Chairman of the APC, where he described the
president’s health as worrisome.
Akande, had in the statement noted that: “The health of the leader is
intricately intertwined with the health of the nation. It is more so in
a delicately fragile union of nations called Nigeria. I did not see
President Buhari at the wedding of his adopted son in Kaduna, last
Saturday. I was sad and I wept.
“When last we met at the wedding of his daughter in Abuja, last
December, I complained to him that I was not happy about his stressful
looks. His reply connoted some allusions to circumstances where an
honest man fighting corruption is surrounded mostly by unpatriotic
greedy ruling class. He felt painfully frustrated.
“He assured me he would soon be going on vacation. I then knew that
corruption has effectively been fighting back. And I prayed for Nigeria.
That was why Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and I rushed to meet him in London in
February this year when he was sick and could not return as scheduled
from his vacation”.
While Akande’s statement was not only a surprise but of great concern
to the leadership of the APC, a number of Nigerians were also worried
about a certain revelation of Tinubu on how he was allegedly stopped by
Bukola Saraki, the Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai and some other
politicians from being the Vice Presidential candidate to Buhari in the
2015 general elections.
This position was contained in a book titled ‘Against the Run of
Play,’ written by the Chairman, Editorial Board of ThisDay, Olusegun
Adeniyi. According to Tinubu, his opponents persuaded Buhari to look for
another running mate on the grounds that Christians in the North would
not embrace a Muslim-Muslim ticket, and as such, could jeopardise the
party’s victory.
Tinubu added, “What they (Saraki and others from the PDP) did behind
my back was wrong. We always do things as a group. By the time they
joined, we were already too far ahead in our processes but we
accommodated them.
“We agreed to take their state structures and subsume them into the
part and they all had their opportunity to nominate the candidates of
their choices for different political offices. But they went behind to
instigate Buhari and some other people in the party against me on the
pretext of religion. That was not right. They were canvassing arguments
that the Christians in the North would not vote for a Muslim-Muslim
ticket.
“Nasir el-Rufai was also selling the same argument within the CPC
(the defunct Congress for Progressive Change) because at that point, he
still wanted to have Pastor Bakare brought in as Buhari’s running mate.”
With this revelation, pundits are wont to ask if Tinubu is regretting
not being the Vice President at a time Buhari is seen not be enjoying
good health; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who was also said to have
been nominated by Tinubu not having the political sagacity and charisma
to of the former Lagos State governor.
Recall also that Nigerian civil society leaders at that period also
asked the president to immediately take medical leave to attend to his
health. Several activists, including notable lawyer, Femi Falana, and
Jibrin Ibrahim, said the president should heed the advice of his
personal physicians without further delay.
“As we join the Nigerian people of goodwill to pray for a speedy
recovery of President Buhari, we are compelled to advise him to heed the
advice of his personal physicians by taking a rest to attend to his
health without any further delay,” they said in a statement.
Others who signed the statement are Debo Adeniran, Chris Kwaja, Y. Z.
Ya’u, Chom Bagu, Olanrewaju Suraju, Ezenwa Nwagwu, Anwal Musa
Rafsanjani, David Ugolor, ‘Sina Odugbemi, Muhammed Attah and Adetokunbo
Mumuni.
While pundits have alleged Tinubu to be the brain behind Akande’s
letter and protest of the leaders of the civil society organisations due
to his relationship with them, a northern group, Northern Patriotic
Assembly (NPA) has warned against exploitation of Buhari’s health
situation for political gains, saying such action is immoral and
despicable.
The group in a statement issued in Kaduna and signed by its
President, Hon Idakwo Jibrin and Secretary General, Alhaji Adamu Wakil
decried what is said to be the exploitation of President Buhari’s health
by some Yoruba leaders to create crisis in the country.
The group cited remarks relating to the President’s health credited
to Chief Bisi Akande and Femi Falana, describing such as part of a
larger plot to plunge the country into crisis.
The group regretted that what is a personal challenge to the
President has been politicised beyond comprehension by politicians who
hide behind the pretext of agitating for what is in the country’s best
interest.
In the same vein, another group, National Coalition of Democrats
which is a coalition of over 22 democratic elements has also expressed
dismay over the activities of Tinubu.
Addressing a press conference in Jos, the Plateau state capital,
recently, the group described Tinubu as a leader of a cabal seeking to
use issues around Buhari’s health as an opportunity to achieve a
clandestine motive.
The conference was addresed by Ambassador Melvin Ejeh, the Executive
Director of Global Peace and Life Rescue Initiative (GOPRI) and Dr
Charles Okoroji of the Action Against Oppression Initiative (AAOI).
They stated that Nigerians have followed the recent turn of event
around the President’s health and how some self acclaimed political
gladiators are making a storm out of a tea cup in pursuit of reinventing
their fledgling political stature.
It is worthy of note that issues relating to health should not be
toyed with, especially as they relate to the status of a sitting
president.
While the gesture of the three former heads of state who met in Minna
at the heat of the demand for Buhari’s health status remain
commendable, other notable Nigerians will do well to work on the
progress of the country while wishing the president soonest recovery.
