Buhari's Medical Trip: Osinbajo is Acting President

With President Mu­hammadu Buhari formally writing to the National Assembly on his 10-day trip to London to get medical treatment for his ear infection, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has assumed office as Acting President.

This is in line with the tra­dition that once the President informs the National Assembly of his absence from office, the Vice President steps in in act­ing capacity.

It is in this regard that the Vice President received in au­dience at the State House on Monday a delegation of the Eu­ropean Union (EU).

Shortly before he flew out of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja yesterday morning, Bu­hari told newsmen that the law­makers had been formally in­formed of his impending long absence from the country.

He also confirmed that he was going to get his ear prob­lem attended to despite the in­sistence of his media aide, Mr. Femi Adesina, shortly after­wards that the President was not ill.

Responding to reporters’ questions, Buhari said: “I have already told Nigerians that I am going for 10 days to get my ear checked. The National Assem­bly knows, they have been for­mally informed.”

Asked to comment on the anxiety that his sickness could cause in the polity, Buhari sim­ply replied: “Is there anybody that doesn’t fall sick?”

However, Adesina said that the President was not ill and that using such description would not be right in the cur­rent situation.

According to him, Buha­ri was only going for a 10-day rest abroad although it would provide an opportunity for the President to seek foreign spe­cialist medicare for an ear prob­lem which had been treated by Nigerian doctors for some time.

Adesina stressed that the President had not been inca­pacitated from carrying out his official duties and that rath­er than working themselves up, Nigerians should pray for Bu­hari as matters of life and death are in God’s hands.

His words: “The buzz go­ing round town is that the President is ill, but ‘ill’ will be a misnomer; it should not be the right word to use.

“The President is going for a 10-day rest and during that pe­riod he will see specialists who will look at his ear because he has been treating the ear locally.

“Nigerian physicians have looked at it and now they have said ‘you are going to UK, now that you will be there let spe­cialists look at the ear’.

“They have treated it lo­cally, so it is not a question of whether the President is ill. If he is ill, it presupposes that there are certain things that he cannot do.

“Till the very last minute that he was travelling, the Pres­ident performed the duties and functions of his office. So, ill­ness is not the issue, but as a hu­man being, yes he can rest.

“He has been President for one full year. You know that in February he took a five-day leave; he is taking another 10 days now and that means 15 days of his leave in one year.

“You and I take more than that, so it is natural that the President as a human being is taking 10 days’ rest, but he is not ill. We need to underscore that.

“Rather than going into frenzy I will urge Nigerians to just show goodwill and patriot­ism, they should pray for him and wish him well.

“Things about health, life and death are in the hand of God, but I believe that all is well with our President and God will take care of him and the coun­try,” Adesina said.