Buhari Ashamed To Disclose Ailment, Dele Momodu Writes
He stated this in his today’s article with ThisDay…
Fellow Nigerians, let me warn quickly that a new circus has come to town
and there is a theatre of the absurd ongoing in the city of London. The
patrons are very important personalities from Nigeria who have turned
the supposed illness of our dear President Muhammadu Buhari into a stage
play. At the rate these medical tourists are going, Nigeria may be
empty of all its fat cats as they jostle to pay obeisance lest anyone
accuses them of nonchalance and of plotting against the President or
wishing him dead. Yes, we can be that petty in this clime.
When President Buhari suddenly left our shores, several weeks ago, he
did what our late President, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua failed to do
which was to send a simple letter to the National Assembly about his
intention to go on vacation or for medical treatment, or whatever, and
hand over authority to his Vice President, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
At least, it shows President Buhari had learnt a useful lesson from the
experience of his brother and we must praise God for little mercies.
What else could he have done? I think he should have improved on this
uncommon performance by telling Nigerians he’s been battling with some
debilitating ailment for some time which necessitated his having to
travel regularly and sometimes suddenly. For God’s sake, it is not a
crime to fall sick. We all do, in various degrees, from time to time. At
over 70 years on the surface of this earth, no one would expect
President Buhari to be in the most perfect state of health. It is a
miracle that he survived the harrowing vicissitudes of life after he was
thrown into a dungeon in 1985 during the military coup that toppled his
dictatorship. He also had to contest some bloody elections a record
four times before fortune smiled at him. Naturally, all of these events
would have combined to conspire against his health.
So why should he be ashamed of telling the world that his health is
failing and that he would have to attend to it as frequently as
possible? No one needs to consult a doctor or a prophet to know our
President is not very well at this moment and that he deserves our
understanding and prayers. Even if we thought otherwise, his London
visitors have virtually confirmed our worst fears. Aso Rock media gurus
who have been regaling us with tales of how well and fit the President
is should have worked harder on their powerful friends to stay in
Nigeria and wait to flood the airport whenever it pleases God to bring
him back in one piece to Nigeria. Rushing to London to mark register is
absolutely unnecessary and a total waste of scarce resources. The London
visitors have wittingly or inadvertently attracted more attention to
the President’s frailty.
I have taken time to study some of the pictures that have emerged from
the President’s shrine in London and most of them did not do justice to
whatever it is some people are trying to cover up by fire by force. The
pictures have shown clearly why the President cannot just yank himself
off from London and return home pronto as his tedious job demands. It is
very obvious that the President is no longer in London of his own free
volition, even if he ever was at some point. Someone should please beg
the Good Samaritans to allow the President receive his medical treatment
in peace and hopefully recuperate handsomely and adequately. Only his
immediate family should be allowed access to him at this moment. The
visitors actually make it look like they are on an espionage mission to
ascertain the true state of the President’s health in order to plot,
position and manipulate what seems an impending power game, sooner or
later. At the very best of intentions, the visits represent a free photo
opportunity for the new and sudden emergency friends of Buhari.
Where’s the coterie of acolytes who fell over themselves to display
unsolicited affection when the President was sick and flown to Saudi
Arabia? If President Buhari is in perfect condition, as his ubiquitous
media handlers want us to believe, they should allow him enjoy his
vacation and return home when he pleases instead of fighting over the
pages of newspapers and the airwaves singing discordant notes on how he
may arrive today or tomorrow or claiming that his return is delayed by
the uncompleted servicing of the Presidential jet when there is more
than one such jet and, in any case, it is not a crime to charter a
private jet on this one occasion, or beg one of his wealthy party
members or friends to send a comfortable plane to pick him up and return
him home in perfect comfort. I’m sure they would be too happy and proud
to do him that favour. Also, I know it is easier for the NTA to do a
regular live broadcast from London whenever our President misses home to
assure us there is no cause for alarm. The President and his team seem
to forget the importance and pre-eminence of the ordinary Nigerian
citizen in all this debacle. They elected the President. He is
answerable to them. It is to them he needs to turn to in order to allay
their fears about his health and rumoured death. He can do this by even
a one minute video broadcast.
What we are witnessing right now is a negation of what Buhari ever stood
for. Our President was known to be a man of very modest means and
humble existence. His attraction during the campaigns and what made him
readily sellable to majority of Nigerians was the abhorrence of
ostentatious living as well as adherence to a disciplined and Spartan
life. Many observers are wondering what has gone wrong that our
President seems to have become totally oblivious to happenings around
him. Nigerians trusted and still trust President Buhari. He should not
let his supporters lead him astray and betray that trust. He must
continue to show that he knows that he is accountable to the people
first and foremost and the only way to do this is to come clean about
his state of health and when his doctors say he can return, whether now
or later.
This is certainly not the loud change we promised Nigerians two years
ago. There is defalcation, decay and decadence everywhere. Budgets are
still being padded left right and centre. Atrocious sums are apparently
being spent on frivolities while Nigerian workers are gnashing their
teeth everywhere. Our airports remain as hopeless as ever, nearly two
years into the life of this government. We are still dishing out endless
excuses about why provision of adequate electricity supply has remained
rocket science in Nigeria. Government officials continue to run abroad
for medicals in flagrant disobedience of instructions to stay at home.
The voodoo economists have not been able to arrest the freefall of the
naira against the American dollar. The list of woes is ad infinitum.
This is DEFINITELY not what we assured our people when we went on the
blistering attacks against President Goodluck Jonathan and his
carpetbaggers.
We knew the journey won’t be easy but didn’t expect it to be this bad.
There are some basic things that should have been easily fixed in one
year of active governance. We should have put elevators and escalators
in our airports. The jetways at Murtala Muhammed International Airport
Lagos should have been modernised and upgraded. The odoriferous
washrooms and the stench that oozes and welcomes citizens and visitors
to Nigeria should have been permanently sanitised and deodorised. There
is no basis for arguing these facts. Some of those saddled with the task
of helping Buhari achieve his lofty dreams have failed the man and
their country, and even God. I picked on those simple and visible
projects in order to show the hopelessness of our situation despite the
loquacious change we bandied two years ago. If I were to embark on more
important things, I would weep uncontrollably and probably not complete
this piece, especially, as I crisscross many poorer and less endowed
African countries and marvel at their inspiring productivity. It is that
bad! Are we to blame Jonathan again for the miserable states of our
airports and the pitiable conditions of our infrastructure?
The solution is not farfetched as I have preached for many years. A
nation that sacrifices its best brains on the altar of ethnic balancing,
religious sensitivity, greed and avarice, nepotism and jingoism can
never prosper. What we need to do urgently is to reverse the dangerous
drift towards perdition. We all know the solution to our calamitous
problems but are too timid and irrational to take on our challenges. We
are surrounded by seat-warmers and unrepentant gamblers who treat our
dear beloved country like one big casino.
Only God can rescue us, if it is not too late.
No comments