There is no cause for alarm over President Muhammadu Buhari’s health and recovery, the Presidency said yesterday.
The Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu,
gave the assurance in a reaction to speculations on the President’s
health.
He said Buhari’s absence at the Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council
(FEC) was a last-minute decision; otherwise, the cabinet and the public
might have been alerted in advance.
Shehu said in a statement: “As eager as he is to be up and about, the
President’s doctors have advised on his taking things slowly, as he
fully recovers from the long period of treatment in the United Kingdom
some weeks ago.
“President Buhari himself, on his return to the country, made
Nigerians aware of the state of his health while he was in London.
Full
recovery is sometimes a slow process, requiring periods of rest and
relaxation, as th
Minister for Information, Lai Mohammed, intimated in
his press briefing after the FEC meeting on Wednesday.
“Despite his lack of visibility, Nigerians should be rest assured
that President Buhari has not abdicated his role as Commander-in-Chief
of the Nigeria Armed Forces.
“He receives daily briefings on the activities of government, and
confers regularly with his Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo.
“His private residence, where he has been spending the majority of his time recently, has a fully equipped office.
“God is the giver of life and health. We are grateful that He has
seen our President through the worst period of his convalescence in
London.
We are thankful that the President has passed a number of
benchmarks already. We pray that God continues to see him through this
period of recuperation.”
The chairman of the Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP), Senator Ahmed Makarfi, urged the President to hand over
power to Vice President Yemi Osibanjo pending his full recovery from his
undisclosed illness.
But, the Presidency said there was no cause for alarm.
Makarfi, who made the call in an interview with our correspondents in
Abuja on Thursday, said “if President Buhari is not fit enough to
remain in office, it’s better to tell the Nigerian people and allow the
Vice President to continue as Acting President and return to work after
full recovery”.
Makarfi said: “My take is that if the President is not fully fit to
stay in office, it is better that he tell Nigerians, so that the vice
president will continue to be Acting President, exercising the powers of
acting president.
“Then you run away from this kind of situation when we allow time for
the President to fully recover and assume his mantle of leadership.
Me,
as PDP person, as a human being, I will never wish any human being
ill-will even if I disagree with you politically.
“So, it does not matter that it is APC that is the person that is
sick. My prayer is that he is fit to serve his term. As a politician, I
equally want him to finish his term.
So, when some people begin to
insinuate things, of what interest would it be to PDP should the
President be unable to finish his term.
“We don’t wish him ill luck, we want him to be well, we want him to
be fit enough to be on seat when in 2019, we go for election and defeat
the APC.
“For a number of reasons, the PDP wishes the President well, for
stability of this country, political stability and the fact that we want
to defeat a sitting President.
We don’t want any confusion politically
in this country. It is not good for anybody and as a human being, I
never wish anybody ill-will irrespective of political differences”.
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