Editor’s note: President Muhammadu
Buhari returned to Nigeria on Friday,
March 10 after spending 51 days in
London on an extended medical
vacation.
In this opinion by Umar Sa’ad Hassan,
he argues that President Buhari would
be better off resigning and allowing
Professor Yemi Osinbajo continue with
the leadership of the county.
The return of President Buhari
President Muhammadu Buhari
announced soon after returning from
a medical leave lasting a month and
19 days that Acting President Yemi
Osinbajo was going to continue in
that capacity as he still needed to
‘rest’. I totally understand the need
for that as a lot of us already knew
he was battling something serious for
the Presidency to keep the nature of
his ailment under wraps. If it were a
medical condition not worth losing
any sleep over, I trust Femi Adesina
to have disclosed it to us in a bid to
allay fears, dispel mischief and
assure us we weren’t sold damaged
goods. But what we kept getting
instead were updates on test results
and who was visiting. Mr Lai
Mohammed as the publicity
secretary of the Action Congress in
2009 demanded that the then
Minister of Information updated
Nigerians daily on the state of
President Yar’Adua’s health. It is
ironic that in consonance with the
hypocrisy we have now grown
accustomed to, he didn’t do so when
Buhari was away.
READ ALSO: Jubilation in Buhari's
hometown, Daura, after his return
Soon after the President arrived 10
hours late to an APC Presidential
campaign rally in Delta state, reports
surfaced complete with a medical
report on how the President was
been treated for acute prostrate
gland cancer at the Ahmadu Bello
University Teaching Hospital, Zaria in
Kaduna state. Nobody took them
serious and we all waved them off as
one of the PDP’s numerous antics at
fighting off its most potent opposition
ever. It felt a desperate move at a
most desperate time but in the
present circumstance, those reports
deserve a lot more attention than
they got then. Governor Ayo Fayose
and others that warned us to choose
life over death and not vote a man
that could die in office now seem
special recipients of messages from
above.
What we have to work with suggests
we have a 74-year-old President who
suffers from an ailment grave
enough for his doctors to refuse to
release him before his test results
are out and also grave enough to be
kept secret from everyone.
Is Buhari still the same person we
think he is?
If Buhari is half the man almost
everyone thought he was, he would
have tendered his resignation and
gone on to cater full time to his
health. If not for anything but for his
love for this great nation. The Buhari
sold to Nigerians was one who
believed we deserved the best from
our leaders and one who was modest,
contented and didn’t deem the
Presidency a do-or-die affair.
A lot of those who clapped back at
Governor Fayose back then actually
vouched for his integrity by claiming
the Buhari they knew wouldn’t spend
an extra day in office if his age or
health would constitute a hindrance
to the effective discharge of his
duties. That doesn’t seem to be the
case.
In the end he is no different from the
other politicians out there who would
cling onto power at all costs. He is no
more honourable than your average
Nigerian politician who would rather
die on the sick bed in his office than
relinquish power. I saw a recent
photo of the ex-Taraba state
governor on a wheel chair and I
wondered if Tarabans were actually
waiting for the man to get well and
resume in office.
Buhari’s man of integrity toga only
makes it difficult to rationalize his
reluctance to step down. He cannot
claim to worry about what would
become the fate of Nigerians if he
does so as the acting President has
proved more than equal to the task
with the yeoman’s job he has done so
far. Virtually every poll I saw online
ended with the majority wanting
Osinbajo to continue in a substantive
capacity. The Ag. President’s surprise
visit to the Murtala Mohammed
International airport Lagos to inspect
facilities gave a lot of us an insight
into what it felt like to have a vibrant
leader on the good side of age.
And talking about age, the President
himself has admitted it would limit
his capabilities in honouring his bond
with the people. Add that to his
health state and you have a man who
is guaranteed to serve us at a
minimal capacity. This ought to have
been the clincher if indeed he has sat
down to consider towing the path of
honour.
The theory that the profligacy of the
PDP is responsible for all of our
current problems has been
disproved by none other than his
Vice-President who needed just the
amount of time the President was
away to pay strategic visits to the
Niger-Delta to meet the right people
and pull the right strings in a more
diplomatic approach a lot of us
feared a ‘hard man’ like PMB wasn’t
capable of adopting to ensure none of
our oil installations were bombed
ever since. He pursued rigorous
enforcement of the CBN policy on
foreign exchange and thanks to that
its A lot of us remember even
without this new policy, he was able
to help the naira claw back 14 points
during President Buhari’s first
medical leave.
The President’s performance quite
sincerely has been below par and it
would be better to leave and have
Nigerians attribute it to whatever
reason his honourable act propels
them towards, most likely illness than
to give them less than they deserve.
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