Unnerved by unfounded speculations about President Buhari’s death during his medical vacation abroad, his aides back in Nigeria anxiously migrated from the honest admission of his trip being designed for rest and medical check-up to the fairly fictional story of the president embarking purely on vacation. The problem, it seems, are two-fold. First, the president served notice of a 10-day vacation beginning from January 23 and lasting, apparently minus weekends, till February 6. However, the president flew out on January 19, days before the vacation date indicated in his letter to the Senate. That seemingly harmless breach sent signals about the president’s lack of wellness and urgent need for medical help. It was also clear he and his aides should have been more open about his medical condition.
Second, some critics have suggested that he has had enough time since he assumed office in 2015 to equip one hospital or two to make medical tourism needless for him and other public officials. They are right. His foreign medical trips remain a constant vote of no confidence in Nigeria’s healthcare facilities. And even if the excuse is that he needed to rest, the critics also suggest that in the spirit of these frugal times, he could have done it within his country’s borders. Again, they are right. The president has a responsibility to modernise healthcare and tourism facilities in Nigeria. But the truth is that given the president’s apparent intense medical needs, he sees these suggestions as luxuries he cannot contemplate. It is in moments such as when desperate medical anxieties confront a man that leaders see the futility of making policies excluding public officials from seeking the best medical help money can buy anywhere in the world.
Credit: Idowu Akinlotan