Despite recent high-profile visits to ailing President Muhammadu Buhari
in the United Kingdom, where for close to 90 days he has been undergoing
treatment for a grave illness.
SaharaReporters has learned that the Nigerian president is not as
healthy as has been portrayed by members of his inner circle. Mr.
Buhari’s illness remains officially shrouded in secrecy, but sources
close to his inmost associates had long told this website that the
president was beset by cancer.
In recent weeks, the cabal around Mr. Buhari has used a flurry of
well-orchestrated visits to the ailing president by political personages
to sell a narrative of “miraculous recovery.” But such rosy impressions
are belied by a palpable deterioration in President Buhari’s health,
according to accounts offered by a few sources knowledgeable about the
Nigerian leader’s condition.
President Buhari abruptly left Nigeria for the UK on May 7, 2017,
arriving at Luton airport in London. He immediately proceeded to a
London hospital where treatment had been set up prior to his arrival,
said one of our sources. According to that source, Mr. Buhari’s initial
treatment was so grueling that it left him devastated and weak, with
severe difficulty speaking and eating.
For weeks after his arrival in the UK, no political figure in Abuja
heard from Mr. Buhari either in person or via phone calls. In fact, for
some time his aides with direct access to him were reduced to just two,
while the remainder of the retinue that traveled with him was left in
hotels in London, kept in the dark about his health condition.
The prolonged period during which Mr. Buhari was incommunicado fueled
rumors that he was completely incapacitated. Some members of the cabal
around him, as well as his wife, traveled to London in search of the
president, but mostly came back empty-handed.
The spell was somewhat broken in late June when Mr. Buhari’s aides
released an audio recording of his Sallah greetings to Muslims
celebrating Eid-el-Fitr. The president’s message, spoken in a weary
voice in Hausa, immediately drew criticism from Nigerians who pointed to
the fact that the message seemed to ignore the significant portion of
non-Hausa speaking Muslims in Nigeria.
Mr. Buhari’s sign of life in his Sallah message seemed to energize
members of his cabal to start envisioning a future past his presidency.
In Saudi Arabia, a major player among the cabal, Isa Funtua, met with
numerous political players, including Senate President Bukola Saraki,
whom he designated as the arrowhead of a post-Buhari power arrangement.
A source familiar with that meeting disclosed that Mr. Funtua proposed
that, even if Buhari were in a vegetative state, acting President Yemi
Osinbajo should be barred from becoming the substantive president. His
fear was that an Osinbajo presidency would alter the power equation for
members of the cabal who believe that power should remain in the north
for eight years. Mr. Funtua reportedly reminded the audience in Saudi
Arabia that the last time an apparently “soft” southerner, Goodluck
Jonathan, was given power, he used state resources “to marginalize the
north.”
He described Mr. Osinbajo as politically “stronger” and “wiser” than Mr.
Jonathan, especially because of his godfather, former Governor Ahmed
Bola Tinubu, whom he suggested should be completely neutralized because
he was too ambitious and politically strategic.
In a slight deviation from the Funtua plan, the other half of the cabal
led by the Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, was devising another agenda. The
Kyari group would be open to extracting a resignation letter from Mr.
Buhari and accept Mr. Osinbajo’s assumption of full presidential powers
if the current acting President would agree to pick Attorney General and
Minister of
Justice, Abubakar Malami, as his Vice President.
However, a snag to the plan was that Mr. Malami and Mr. Osinbajo have
pretty much parted ways. Acting President Osinbajo has been directly
coordinating justice-related matters, even convening meetings related to
the national prosecution committee behind Mr. Malami’s back.
While the cabal’s jostling was going on, Mrs. Buhari traveled to London
to see her ailing husband. A diplomat source said the First Lady rented
an apartment in London away from the “Abuja House” residence where her
husband stays.
SaharaReporters learnt that three or four days after her arrival in
London, Mrs. Buhari was told to join her husband for dinner. The meeting
turned out heartwarming as Mr. Buhari reportedly managed to speak and
to sit to eat with her. After subsequently spending more time with her
husband, Mrs. Buhari told other family members that he was making “a
miraculous recovery.” She then wrote Facebook updates warning the
“jackals and hyenas” based in Abuja that the “King of the Animal
Kingdom” would soon return and send them packing.
The same day, the president’s daughter, Zarah, took to Twitter to claim that her father was in great shape.
A few days later, acting President Osinbajo snuck out of Abuja for a
one-on-one meeting with Mr. Buhari. On his return, he asserted that Mr.
Buhari was in great shape, was recovering quite fast and would soon be
back.
Despite those inflated claims, SaharaReporters learnt that the cabal was
not quite satisfied with Mr. Osinbajo’s body language as he relayed the
message to Nigerians. Some cabal insiders alleged that the acting
President’s close aides had leaked information to the media, especially
SaharaReporters, that Mr. Buhari was far from a picture of great shape.
SaharaReporters learned that Mr. Osinbajo encountered a highly emaciated
and feeble Buhari who could not speak coherently. It was no surprise
that the acting President did not bring back with him any audio, video
or photo of the meeting.
On July 23, 2017, a few days after Osibanjo returned, the cabal arranged
a visit by handpicked party leaders of the All Progressives Congress
(APC). Led by Odigie Oyegun, the visiting party included some governors
and ministers. The meeting managed to produce a single photo showing
Buhari sitting at the edge of the table, but without partaking in the
feast.
The single photo perhaps caused greater harm than was anticipated.
Almost immediately, an announcement was made that seven governors of the
APC as well as others handpicked from the People’s Democratic Party
(PDP) were to visit Mr. Buhari in London on July 26, 2017. Led by
Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, the governors gushed about Mr.
Buhari’s recovery. They also claimed that their meeting with him lasted
almost an hour and that the president discussed issues of national
importance, a ploy to give the impression that he was closely monitoring
events at home.
A bunch of photographs showed Mr. Buhari smiling. Even so, no single
video or audio was presented to Nigerians from all the visits. Nor could
any of the visitors tell when Mr. Buhari would return home.
Saharareporters also learnt former President Olusegun Obasanjo also
visited Buhari in London in the company of former Osun state, Gov.
Olagunsoye Oyinlola, although Obasanjo is yet to make a public
pronouncement on the trip.
Several sources told SaharaReporters that the highly publicized visits
were designed to create the appearance that Mr. Buhari was regaining his
health and was prepared to resume in office.
Yet, our sources revealed that Mr. Buhari’s ability to receive visitors
was no indication of improved health, but came after his completion of a
course of treatment that lasted three months. According to the source,
since the completion of that course of treatment, Mr. Buhari
occasionally enjoys momentary relief. “He can see people and sit for a
little bit of time, but that does not mean he is healed as his doctors
are yet to conclude that he is free of the disease afflicting him,” one
of the sources said. They added that the President had not regained his
health and had lost so much weight that he is “padded” just before his
meetings withgovernors and politicians.
According to the source, members of the cabal around Mr. Buhari were
once again pressuring him to return to Nigeria, his frail health
notwithstanding. Should the cabal win out again, they would simply use
the president’s presence as a ruse to manipulate policies and politics
to serve their individual interests.
The president’s doctors appear to have a different agenda. One of our
sources stated there was no plan by Mr. Buhari’s doctors to let him
travel to Nigeria in the near future.
“They [doctors] have asked that Mr. President should stay in the UK for
another period of monitoring and round of treatment that could last
weeks if not months.”
SaharaReporters had revealed that the cabal behind Mr. Buhari was
considering claiming that the president was embarking on his vacation
after close to three months of treatment during this particular trip.
Prior to the current medical trip, President Buhari had spent close to
50 days in London between December and February.
One of our sources, briefed by one of the governors who recently saw Mr.
Buhari, revealed that the ailing president “is only okay a few hours
some days. And it takes a lot of work to prepare him for meeting
people.”
Another source drew attention to Mr. Buhari’s look during his recent
meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, adding that the
president seemed a shadow of his former self.
One source said Mrs. Buhari had earlier been told her husband would be
able to return with her to Nigeria last Wednesday, only to find out he
was in no shape for the trip. She quietly left London alone and appeared
in Imo State last Thursday for an event.
Placed in a desperate situation, the cabal has claimed that Mr. Buhari
was waiting to regain some weight before returning to resume work. But
after two previous occasions when the president was hurriedly flown into
Nigeria, only to return to the UK for urgent care, there appears to be a
sobering sense among some members of the cabal that their incessant
game may be losing its efficacy. According to one source, “The only
people who can give a trustworthy update on President Buhari’s real
health status are his doctors, not politicians.”
