Is it right for the President of Nigeria to be junketing to London for medical treatment without telling the citizenry the cost or the ailment? President Muhammadu Buhari is off again for yet another round of medical treatment or check-up, the fifth since he took office.
Unlike his previous medical sojourn, the president transmitted letters to the National Assembly notifying it of his absence on medical ground. This time around, he simply went on awol. Suddenly, we are being told that the president does not need to transmit a letter to the Senate and the House of Representatives before embarking on such a trip.
“Mr. President does not need to transmit a letter, he is on duty, but gone for medical attention,” said Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang. Also, the presidency is telling us no timeframe on the president’s return even though we are initially told it was a 4-day medical trip. The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, disclosed during a telephone interview on Channels Television programme. He said, “When you talk of guarantee, man cannot guarantee. Nobody can guarantee anything.” This in reference to the president’s return.
On the disclosure of the nature of the president ailment, Mr. Adesina said: “The fact that a man is a president does not remove his right and privileges to privacy. So, unless Mr. President comes out voluntarily and willingly to tell the country that ‘this is what I have suffered from, this is what I have been treated for,’ even the medical doctor does not have the right to say it.
“It is in the hippocratic oath that the medical doctors take. They cannot disclose the ailment of the patient without the permission of that patient.”
The big question is if Nigeria could afford to have a sick president at the junction. The nation is facing many clear and present dangers, to add an ailing president might be a recipe for disaster. I know anyone can be sick- whether young or old- and it’s not a crime to seek medical attention. The peculiarities of our nation taking into account it’s ethno-religious based politics, skewed federalism, fraudulent implementation and interpretation of the constitution and the concentration of power on the presidency, makes the office of the president far too important in the scheme of things.
Yes, doctors are bound by hippocratic oath not to disclose the ailment or medical history of their patients, the president can exercise greater transparency by telling Nigerians and indeed what he is suffering from. As a man seeking re-election, we need to know if he’s fit for the mental and physical rigours of the office of the president.
We love our president and we wish him well, the charade by his media team to continue to hoodwink us should stop. We want an open and transparent presidency, giving to saying the truth even when it hurts than trying to turn it on its head.
The President should use the London medical trip to spur him to revamp the medical system in the country. He campaigned against medical tourism but he himself has become the ‘numbero uno’ medical tourist in the land. When his son was injured in an auto-bike accident, he was flown to Germany for treatment while ordinary Nigerians are dying of malaria and other treatable diseases.
We cannot afford to have him away for too long, we are a precipice where his leadership is absolutely vital. The Nigerian ship is in turbulent waters, we need our captain to take us safely ashore. To say things are falling apart is akin to a record on a repeat mode.
