PRESIDENT BUHAR
President Muhammad Buhari, who left Nigeria 45 days ago
to resume treatment for an undisclosed medical condition believed to be
cancer, has developed speech difficulties, presidency sources said
today.
Previously, Mr. Buhari was also said to be suffering memory lapses.
The latest revelation stems from recent attempts to return the President
to Nigeria by members of a cabal managing his health and using it to
deceive Nigerians.
Several of President Buhari’s aides who traveled with him are
reportedly not in touch with him, reports say, while others were ordered
to return to Nigeria, with nobody having any certainty about the
prospects of Mr. Buhari’s date of return.
During his last trip Saharareporters revealed that his London doctors
rejected the idea of his returning to work. They asked that he
remained in London for four months to see how best they could treat his
illness. Nonetheless, the cabal managing the president brought him back
to enable him to undertake a number of acts including military postings
and appointments that would have been impossible with an acting
President on seat.
At that time, Buhari revealed he had been very ill and had received
blood transfusion, and indicated he would soon return to the UK for
further treatment. During the period he was in Nigeria, he was rarely
seen outside, but managed to attend a few Federal Executive Council
meetings which he left as soon as the photo opportunities were done
with. Two weeks after that return, his condition deteriorated and
doctors had to be flown in from the UK to embark on treatment, but that
phase lasted only for a few weeks.
The president then stopped attending the weekly FEC altogether, but
to maintain the ruse that he was healthy, members of the cabal would
shepherd him to the mosque on Fridays hoping to generate sentiments
within the core Muslim north where a rumor had circulated that the
president had been “poisoned”.
Buhari eventually left for the UK abruptly on the evening of May 7,
shortly after meeting with some Chibok girls who had been released the
previous day by Boko Haram. Although Buhari spoke at the event, his
voice was barely audible, as he had lost a lot of weight, his condition
reportedly complicated by Crohn’s Disease.
When the President was leaving for the airport, he shocked his aides
when he asked if they were going to Sokoto, perhaps one of the first
signs of his deteriorating memory.
It has now been learnt that President Buhari has not spoken to Acting
President Yemi Osinbajo by telephone since his departure. Only last
week, the Acting President was asked to await a phone call from Mr.
Buhari but when a call eventually came in, nothing coherent was heard
from Mr. Buhari, despite the cabal having kept telling people of his
“tremendous” improvement.
The cabal is also reportedly behind the rumors of a possible coup by
some military officers a couple of weeks ago, as well as the recent quit
notice by some Northern youths to the Igbos in that area, which they
figured would make western countries view such an attempt with
understanding if they thought the action would protect Nigeria as an
indivisible entity.
Meanwhile, several top western diplomats including the Ambassadors of
the US and the UK, are scheduled to meet with Acting President Osinbajo
in the coming days. It is unclear if at that meeting the UK will brief
Osinbajo regarding Buhari’s exact condition, but a State Department
official told Saharareporters that they are more concerned about
Nigeria’s indivisibility than the question of Buhari’s health. A source
at the British Embassy told this website they don’t think Buhari could
continue to govern in the condition he is in London.
President Buhari left Nigeria flew into Luton airport on a
Presidential jet with registration number 5N-FGT in the first week of
May. The jet was then flown on a 17-minute ride from Luton to London
Stansted Airport, where it remains parked for over a month.
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