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Tag: Buhari’s health

  • Buhari’s health: Akande warns against confusion

    Buhari’s health: Akande warns against confusion

    Falana, others advise President to go on leave

    AFTER a short break, the President’s health returned to the front burner yesterday.
    All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain Bisi Akande urged Nigerians to seek divine healing for President Muhammadu Buhari and warned power mongers of the danger of playing politics with the number one citizen’s health.
    According to him, the President has to be in a good shape to steer the ship of the nation.
    Chief Akande’s call came on a day some activists advised the President to proceed on medical vacation.
    The first APC acting chairman believes Buhari’s zeal and patriotism must have affected his health, which he said has direct impact on the health of the nation.
    In the statement, the APC chieftain noted that the President is surrounded by “mostly unpatriotic and greedy ruling class”.
    He also flayed the gulf between the Presidency and the National Assembly.
    The former Osun State governor warned those who plan to feast on the President’s health status for their selfish political gains, reminding them of the consequences of such behaviour.
    The statement reads: “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 grand 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. The rest is history but we must appreciate that his poor health is already taking a toll on the health of Nigeria as a polity.
    “There are two challenges facing the country today. The first and most critical is the health of the President which, unfortunately, is a development beyond his control and for which we did not prepare. The second is the disorder and lack of cohesion between the National Assembly and the Presidency.
    “These are two great red flag dangers that have the potential of plunging the country into unprecedented chaos and of destabilising the gains of democracy since 1999.
    “The greatest danger however is for political interests at the corridor of power attempting to feast on the health of Mr President in a dangerous manner that may aggravate the problems between the Executive and the National Assembly without realising if, in the end, it could drag the entire country into avoidable doom.
    “As delicately fragile the Union of Nations making up Nigeria, so delicately fragile the democracy and the rule of laws governing the polity of the Union called Nigerian Federation. Certain Nigerian leaders, having been blind-folded by corruption, assume the possibility of using money in manipulating the national security agencies to intimidate, suppress and hold down certain ethnic nationalities or playing one ethnic nationality against the other with a view to undermining the constitution and perversely upturning the rule of law.
    “To avoid the ugly consequences of letting President Buhari’s ailments throw Nigeria into confusion, I am urging all Nigerians to begin to pray for his divine healing and perfect recovery.
    “Let me warn today that those who wish to harvest political gains out of the health of the President are mistaken. This is not Nigeria of 1993. We are in a new national and global era of constitutionalism and order. We hope Nigerians have enough patience to learn from history.
    “My greatest fear, however, is that the country should not be allowed to slide into anarchy and disorder of a monumental proportion.”
    Also yesterday, some eminent Nigerians urged the President to heed his personal physicians, advice and proceed on medical leave.
    Their advice was contained in a statement jointly issued yesterday entitled: “President Buhari should take medical leave immediately”.
    The signatories are: Femi Falana (SAN); Senior Fellow Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja, Prof Jibrin Ibrahim; Executive Chairman, Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), Mr. Debo Adeniran; Senior lecturer/Researcher, Centre for Peace and Security Studies, Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola, Adamawa State, Dr. Chris Kwaja; Executive Director at Centre for Information Technology and Developmen(CITAD), Dr. Y. Z. Ya’u; and Country Director, Search for Common Ground, Mr Chom Bagu.
    The list includes: Chairman, Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA), Mr Olanrewaju Suraju; Chairman, Partners for Electoral Reform(PER), Ezenwa Nwagwu; Executive Director of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Mr Anwal Musa Rafsanjani ; Executive Director of African Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), Rev. David Ugolor; a Senior Communication Officer (Policy) in the Operations Communication Department, External and Corporate Relations, Vice-Presidency of the World Bank Group, Dr. Sina Odugbemi; National Coordinator, Procurement Observation and Advocacy Initiative (PRADIN), Mr. Muhammed Attah, and Executive Secrectary, Socio Economic Rights Project (SERAP), Mr Adetokunbo Mumuni .
    Their advice was given against the background of Buhari’s absence at the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting last Wednesday and other state functions, in particular, a statement credited to the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu in which he stated that “the President’s doctors have advised on his taking things slowly, as he fully recovers from the long period of treatment in the United Kingdom some weeks ago.
    The statement reads: “When President Mohammadu Buhari was recently in the United Kingdom on a medical vacation, which lasted 59 days, many public officers said that he was hale and hearty. But upon his return to the country, President Buhari disclosed that he had never been that sick in his entire life.
    “Even though the President did not disclose the nature of his ailment, he revealed that he went through blood transfusion. While thanking the Nigerian people for their prayers, the President announced that he might soon travel back for further medical treatment.
    “A few weeks ago, the Governor of Kaduna State, Mr. Nasir El-Rufai, urged Nigerians to give President Buhari time to recover from his sickness. The plea was made after the governor had visited and presumably assessed the state of the President’s health at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
    “However, due to the apparent deterioration in the President’s health condition, he has neither been seen in public in the last one week nor attended the last two meetings of the FEC. His absence at the last Jumat service in the villa has fuelled further speculations and rumours on President Buhari’s medical condition.
    “But instead of embarking on regular briefing on the actual state of the health of President Buhari, officials of the Federal Government have continued to assure the Nigerian people that there is no need for apprehension over the matter.
    “In defending the absence of the President at the last FEC meeting and other state functions, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu, stated that ‘the President’s doctors have advised on his taking things slowly, as he fully recovers from the long period of treatment in the United Kingdom some weeks ago’.
    “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”.

  • Insight into Buhari’s health, by Nigerian Professor of Medicine

    Insight into Buhari’s health, by Nigerian Professor of Medicine

    •Pathologist develops clinical diagnosis using London photo
    •Eliminates dehydration, anaemia, jaundice
    •Identifies clubbing of fingers, others

    A fresh perspective is evolving on the health status of President Muhammadu Buhari who is currently on medical vacation in the United Kingdom.

    Professor Femi Williams, a certified physician in Anatomic pathology from London and Ireland, has used a recent published photograph of the President to arrive at a preliminary clinical diagnosis of what may have gone wrong with Buhari’s health.

    He ruled out dehydration, anaemia and jaundice but called for further investigation on the history of Buhari’s ear infection with a view to determining the true state of his health.

    Details of his ailment remain a secret leaving room for speculations in many quarters.

    However, Professor Williams in a statement, ‘Clinical diagnosis of President Buhari’s requests for medical vacation’ he said Nigerians have a “constitutional right to know the health of our President.’

    “It is a moral prerogative to be concerned about our President’s health. The physical and mental well being of most Presidents in the world are usually not shrouded in secrecy because details of  the health of current and past Presidents in the developed world are published in the public domain.

    “Speculations about the health of some of our leaders should not be subject to benign or malignant analyses by medically qualified and non- medically qualified pundits.”

    Prof. Williams who said he used a recent photograph of the President to arrive at a preliminary clinical diagnosis threw some light on the photograph “that may allay the fears of all the concerned citizens of this nation and in the Diaspora.”

    His words:  “As a board certified physician in internal medicine and a board certified physician in Anatomic pathology from London and Ireland I hereby venture to throw some light on this invaluable photograph that may allay the fears of all the concerned citizens of this nation and in the Diaspora.

    “My negative findings, based on this single photograph are as follows:

    * The president is not dehydrated

    * The president is not clinically anaemic

    * The President is not clinically jaundiced

    * For his age, there are no wrinkles on his forehead indicative of good preservation and nutrition and

    * The national costume does not permit a superficial assessment of whether he has lost weight or not.

    “My positive findings based on this single snapshot are as follows:

    * The photograph shows some degree of clubbing of the fingers

    * the photo shows a small nodule on the lateral aspect of two fingers and one of these bumps has a hyper pigmented  rim  suggestive of an infective etiology (cause) in the recent past

    *there is mild reduplication of skin over the knuckles ( not enough for elastosis).

    *there are multiple transverse opacities on the nails particularly of the left hand suggestive of an infection? Viral or other infections.”

    Continuing, Prof. Williams said: “The summary of these positive findings suggest that if the clubbing of the fingers are not congenital, the President may have a disease associated with finger clubbing, some of which are not serious and some of which are serious and cannot be speculated upon. The most serious of these is cancer somewhere.

    “One relevant question to ask is whether the President smoked cigarettes at some point in his life. Furthermore the multiple opacities in the nails suggest some infective pathologies at different times as these opacities appear layered in disposition.

    “The little bump on the finger with a hyper pigmented rim is benign and suggests a previous infection or even an insect bite. In my opinion, there may be no cause for alarm if the finger clubbing is something he was born with. If not there may be cause for alarm if the underlying cause is a serious disease and there are many to consider.

    “The significance of his past history of an ear infection is worthy of further investigation as head and neck cancers may masquerade in a number of ways.

    “It will be in the best interest of all concerned for more information to be released as extended requests for sick leave make the prognosis to be suspect.

    “For those who may wish to be more enlightened on finger clubbing there are several references on the Internet and text books of medicine.

    “I may be wrong as this synopsis is based on a newspaper snapshot which is presumed to be of recent vintage. In that case this is not meant to mislead the public but to fill a huge void in the absence of reliable information.”

    About Professor Williams

    Femi Williams is an eminent professor of medicine. He graduated from Trinity College, University of Dublin in 1961.

    He obtained arts and medical degrees with post graduate medical education and Fellowships in Internal Medicine and Pathology at Queens University and Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, Ireland.

    He also got Board Certification in Internal Medicine and Pathology UK and Ireland.

    He held faculty positions at Dublin University in Pathology and later at Ibadan University Nigeria.

    Williams was Professor and Chair of Pathology, University of Ibadan and University College Hospital Ibadan as well as

    Foundation Dean and Chief Medical Director, College of Medicine, University of Calabar.

    He is a visiting Professor Universities of Minnesota, Howard, Vanderbilt, New Jersey, Hopkins Cleveland Clinic as well as Executive Secretary, Science Technical Research Commission, (STRC) African Union, Addis Ababa.

    The pathologist is also chairman, Committee on Solar Energy for Africa and chairman of Board Africa Union Center for Soil Science, Harare, Zimbabwe.

    He is Scholar-in-Residence National Cancer Institute, Fogarty International Center, Bethesda, Maryland.

    Williams is founder and Director, African Cancer Center, Lagos and fellow African Academy of Science

    He is author of over 100 peer reviewed publications in medical journals and seven monographs/books.

    He has several national and international awards to his credit.

     

  • Furore over Buhari’s health

    Furore over Buhari’s health

    A legitimate push for openness about the president’s health must be matched with due sensitivity in such matters

    To the extent that President Muhammadu Buhari is public property, everything about his health must be an open book, which every citizen can read. That is the rule of thumb.

    Reason? In a republic, he is a citizen vaulted above all other citizens by law, by virtue of his high office. Since the public till takes full care of his needs, including travels for overseas medical checks and treatments, the owners of that till, the people, must be fully briefed on what they are spending scarce resources on. Besides, such full disclosures are imperative, if morbid rumours, of purported deaths, are not to envelope the polity.

    As a corollary, you could even insist that the state of health of every presidential candidate must be routine electioneering fare, so that voters can vote, with the full knowledge and conviction that whoever they elect has the requisite health and stamina to cope with the rigours of the presidency.

    In this particular case of President Buhari’s vacation cum medical tour abroad, since made open-ended from February 6 when he was expected back home, has the presidency managed the news very well? Hardly.

    The culprit, yet again, is lack of “full disclosure”. An open and transparent government unconditionally demands that. But an opaque culture on health matters, which is automatically carried over into politics and governance, assures the direct opposite. Add the customary global confidentiality in medical and health matters; it is left to conjecture how the “full disclosure” credo can possibly hold in its purest form.

    Yet, other things being equal, that would depend on how open the society is. Since some societies (Europe and the United States) are more open than others (Africa, Asia and Russia), how near or far from full disclosure would depend on how relatively open or close the society is.

    Nigeria is not an especially open society, particularly on health issues. So, though it is desirable that the presidential media managers were much more open about the matter, it is doubtful if they could have been, given the prevailing societal ethos. That, however, is the only area they could have earned some blame.

    Otherwise, the president’s subsisting vacation has not breached the Constitution, and therefore, not made much difference to governance. As demanded by Section 145(1) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, the president has duly informed the National Assembly about his travel; and his intention to run medical tests.

    By the virtue of that disclosure, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has moved in seamlessly as Acting President. Even on the delay in coming home, the president also informed parliament, fingering his doctors’ reported advice to complete some tests as the cause.

    It is debatable, of course, if that terse statement was sufficient. From the general reaction, it would appear not; and the anxiety among the people has hardly reduced. But the president has conformed to the Constitution. Again, there is no vacuum in government and that is the clear intendment of the law.

    Not a few could argue that the public has been extra-restive — many out of sheer mischief; but a good number too because of their raw experience with the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Candidate Yar’Adua had clear health challenges, that were however glossed over during electioneering. Even as president, Yar’Adua’s health was top official secret. But to the questing Nigerian public, his poor health was an open secret.

    That is similar to the present scenario, if the sole index is controversy over the president’s health; and the right of the public to know, at least going by western democratic paradigms.

    But that is where it stops. Whereas the Yar’Adua presidential court stonewalled in bad faith, just to thwart the lawful hand-over of temporary power to (then) Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, as Acting President, the present case is the exact opposite.

    It would also be recalled that though the Yar’Adua court exploited the lacuna in the original provision, which somewhat left some room for discretion, the nasty experience made the National Assembly to make that provision very explicit. So whereas under the old order, the president or governor could by-pass the Vice President or deputy governor as it was the case in many cases, the president or governor no longer has such luxuries.

    That is the big difference between the Yar’Adua and Buhari cases: in this case, the president has scrupulously followed the law. In the Yar’Adua case, the Presidency didn’t, with Michael Aondoakaa (SAN), President Yar’Adua’s Minister of Justice and Attorney-General   even claiming the president could rule from anywhere, sick or fit, without necessarily handing over to anyone. Of course, in the hubbub of emotion, to make surface comparison, this fine, definitive detail is lost in the bedlam.

    Still, it would have been ideal if everything was laid open in public, and the government levelled with the people. That again, would tally with total openness, which democracy demands. But health is such a delicate matter, to which even the people must show due sensitivity and empathy.

    With the galloping bad faith and ill temper that have taken the Nigerian populace captive of late, it is doubtful if anyone would want to level with such a gloating and virulent public. That is a pity, for it shows a people incapable of the level of refinement they expect from their government. That is a tragic disequilibrium.

    Still, both sides must make deliberate and mutual efforts at more transparency. The government must take the people into confidence. But the people themselves must demonstrate sensitivity in processing and managing such information.

    If both sides can scale this chasm, Nigerian democracy can only be deepened.

  • Osinbajo: no cause for alarm on Buhari’s health

    Osinbajo: no cause for alarm on Buhari’s health

    NLC condemns speculations on President’s health

    Fears over the President’s health were dismissed yesterday.
    Acting President Yemi Osinbajo told Nigerians: there is no cause for alarm.
    President Muhammadu Buhari has written to the Senate for an extension of his 10-day vacation. He is in Britain where doctors have told him to wait for some tests. He was to return at the weekend.
    Also yesterday, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) cautioned against negative remarks on the President’s health. To labour leader Ayuba Wabba, there is no need for any speculation on the President’s health.
    The indefinite extension of the President’s vacation sparked a massive row in some quarters.
    But Osinbajo said he had been in touch with the President. He also insisted that he was not under pressure to resign – as speculated in some unofficial quarters.
    He spoke with State House correspondents after a meeting with the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, at the Presidential Villa.
    Osinbajo said: “The President is hale and hearty, I spoke to the President just this afternoon and we had a warm conversation. He was interested in knowing about the budget process and how far we had gone and the meeting today with the private sector and the economic recovery growth plan and I informed him about the protest march and feedback about what people are saying about the economy. He is in good shape.
    “Just like he said in his letter to the National Assembly, he needs to go for a cycle of tests and once he sees the results and gets medical advice, we expect him very soon.
    “I think that the health status of Mr President is an issue that only Mr President would discuss at the appropriate time. Again, he is running tests and all of that. Before you will be able to determine your health status you must be able to say this is my health status. I have to do the test my doctors have advised me to do and will wait for the outcome of the test and know my status.”
    On whether he was under pressure to resign from office, Osinbajo said: “I am not under any pressure to resign. I was voted for by the people of this nation – myself and Mr President – and so the people of this nation have not asked us to resign.
    ”I am absolutely not under any pressure whatsoever. The truth is that there have been no pressure from any source asking me to resign.”
    The NLC president, at a news conference in Abuja, said on the President’s vacation and the furore it caused: “We are human and people can fall ill. I think it is not an issue to be contested. Once it is about the issue of ill health, that consideration must be given because we can fall ill at any time and so, I think that should be respected.
    “For me, If it is communicated properly, that is what is expected and people should be aware once that is done. There is nothing you can do about sickness. Our position is that if proper communication has been done, it should not be an issue that should degenerate into trying to raise fundamental issues about it.
    “The important thing is for us to continue to pray that our President recovers quickly and returns to pilot the affairs of the country.”

  • Buhari’s health: Govt to punish rumour mongers

    Buhari’s health: Govt to punish rumour mongers

    The Federal Government is investigating sources of “subversive messages” on President Muhammadu Buhari’s health.

    Purveyors of such messages will face “the full wrath of the law”, the government said yesterday.

    For the second time in one week, the social media was yesterday awash with rumours on the President’s state of health, creating the impression of an orchestration of the issue.

    Last week, a photograph of the President watching television in a sitting room in London was made available by the Presidency, after it denied that the President had passed on.

    On Tuesday, factional chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Senator Ahmed Makarfi accused some All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders, who, he said, are interested in contesting certain positions in 2019, of being behind the rumour.

    But Minister of Information Lai Mohammed yesterday urged Nigerians to disregard such messages being circulated via text messaging and the social media on the President’s health which he said were being orchestrated by those who felt threatened by the emerging order. He urged Nigerians “not to panic”.

    He said there was “no iota of truth in the messages being circulated on the health of the President, who is hale and hearty, and the purported emergency meetings of the governors in Abuja or anywhere.”

    He said the naysayers had also “resorted to the use of ethnicity and religion as tools to divide Nigerians, overheat the polity and cause panic among the citizenry.”

    He said in addition, those behind the messages were “using fake news and disinformation to distort government activities.”

    Mohammed said in a statement: “While opposition and criticism are all part of democracy, the crafting and circulation of subversive materials and scare-mongering are not, hence the full wrath of the law will be brought to bear on those who are bent on subverting the state.

    ‘’The source/sources of the fabricated messages are already being investigated and the authors should prepare to face the consequences of their actions.

    ‘’The emerging trend of resorting to destabilisation and scare-mongering is not unexpected, considering this government’s clampdown on the corrupt elements in the society, the plugging of all financial leaks which has derailed the gravy train of the looters of public treasury and the enthronement of probity and transparency in the polity.

    ‘’While we will neither stifle press freedom nor abridge the citizens’ right to express themselves freely, whether through criticism or protests, the security agencies will neither allow any resort to violence nor a willful subversion of the state for whatever reason.”

    The minister also told reporters after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting the the rumour on the President’s health is a “silly thing”.

    He said there were more pertinent issues to discuss in the country than indulging in irrelevances.

    He said: “I don’t want to lend my voice to a very silly thing. I will not join this debate. I think there are more serious issues of state to discuss than this issue.

    “It’s only in this part of the world that you wake up in the morning and you say the president of the country is dead. I will not join that kind of debate at all.”

    President Buhari left Nigeria for the United Kingdom last Thursday on vacation. He is also billed to undergo medical check-up while on the trip.

    The Presidency also yesterday denied insinuation that Acting President Yemi Osinbajo was being pressured to resign.

    A statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs, Mr. Femi Ojudu, said it was not true that Osinbajo was being held hostage by some governors who were said to have demanded his resignation from office.

    According to the statement titled “State of the Nation,” Ojudu said Osinbajo was at his desk in his office and performing his routine functions, having earlier presided over a meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

    The claim, he said was ridiculous. Ojudu urged the people to desist from carrying fake news.

    He said: “I have read many ridiculous stories saying the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo is being held hostage by some governors who are trying to compel him to resign.

    “I have equally received several calls regarding this. The story is simply  not true. It is a fabrication. Don’t be a purveyor of fake news .

    “The Vice President is behind his desk carrying out his task. The Federal Executive Council presided over by him has just ended and he has been busy receiving visitors and holding meetings.”

    Senate President Bukola Saraki also caution rumour mongers against dragging him into the matter.

    In a statement, he said: “My attention has been drawn to a speculation on some online media about supposed meeting of some governors who held Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to ransom and sought for Senate President Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki to take over the Presidency.

    “My first initial reaction was to ignore this empty rumour but after being inundated with calls from across the country and abroad, it became necessary for me to make clarifications from our own end.

    “It is a good thing that the Presidency had dismissed the speculation and showed that there is no substance to it. However, i feel it should be known that those behind this baseless, empty and unintelligent mischief are those who do not love this country.

    “Such suggestions as contained in the speculation can only bring ill-will, disunity and crisis to the country and i therefore advise the sponsors to desist immediately. More importantly, these trouble makers should refrain from linking Senator Saraki’s name to their evil plot.”