“What you need to realise is that, if the President had come later than expected, the same you the Press would have allowed all sort of manipulations particularly from those who have always vowed to show 14 photographs of Buhari on life support machine and yet have not been able to present one and you guys kept quiet not telling him to his face to either present those photographs or get blacked out from the publicity you give to him for misleading the country. And you call that exercising democratic rights of expression. So, now that the President has come earlier, don’t be angry by the fact that it hit you by surprise. That is our working President,” a source said in Lagos.
I just went for medical check-up, I am alright. Those were the words of Africa’s number one President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, who, against the expectation of critics, returned to the country Friday night, saying he is good condition.
The President’s aircraft, which took him out to London on Tuesday, touched the ground at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on Friday by 7:00 pm after a three-day medical trip officially expected to last him for four days.
Many Nigerian patriots following the positive developments and activities of the President and his government had looked forward to receiving him back to the country on Saturday after which he was said to embark on scheduled visit to Jigawa State.
Asked by journalists why he arrived on Friday after his schedule of returning on Saturday, the President said his arrival is not earlier than expected.
Nigerian media have been in the eyes of the storm, slammed for their contributions to the “avoidable” controversies the nation has witnessed particularly as regards the Presidents activities.
Many Nigerians, on serious note, had frowned at why the nation’s Press allow public discourse on normal medical follow up that the President has embarked upon and twisted speech of the nation’s number citizen.
But an undaunted Buhari replying journalists wanting to know why he returned Friday and not the Saturday as expected simply said his return “is not earlier than expected. I just went for a further medical check-up and I am alright, thank you,” President Buhari said.
In a tweet announcing his departure, President Buhari on Monday said, “I will be travelling to the United Kingdom tomorrow, to see my doctor, at his request. Will be away for four days; back in Abuja on Saturday, May 12.”
Immediately after his departure, certain television stations in Nigeria made the President’s medical trip an issue and all sorts of controversies began to set in, asides the conjured stories put together by the main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which said Buhari was clearly unwell and unfit to govern.
The PDP had previously claimed he was being treated for prostate cancer, which Buhari said was nothing but fallacy.
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, also criticised President Muhammadu Buhari for embarking on a medical trip to the United Kingdom on Channels Television’s Programme, Sunrise Daily on Thursday that the President and other Nigerians who travel abroad for medical attention are ridiculing the nation.
“These medical trips by the President and the rich in Nigeria expose our country to ridicule because you cannot justify that a little of enormous resources cannot fix a few hospitals to the extent that everybody can be treated in Nigeria,” Falana said.
But in his reaction to what he called the “avoidable” controversy that the media deliberately stoked up over President Buhari’s activities, a Lagos source said the media, “if they are truly working for the interest of their country and not just the interest of money or business”, should appreciate Buhari for being far ahead of them in moving Nigeria forward even as it appears they have collaborated with the anti-Nigeria, corrupt elements that are in tireless battle against the President because of his insistence on changing Nigeria from nation of “Few Owners of Nigeria” to the country “Owned by all Nigerians”.
He said further that, “What you need to realise is that, if the President had come later than expected, the same you the Press would have allowed all sort of manipulations particularly from those who have always vowed to show 14 photographs of Buhari on life support machine and yet have not been able to present one and you guys kept quiet not telling him to his face to either present those photographs or get blacked out from the publicity you give to him for misleading the country. And you call that exercising democratic rights of expression. So, now that the President has come earlier, don’t be angry by the fact that it hit you by surprise. That is our working President”.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, had said the President would return on Saturday but he returned back to the country a day earlier.
Using his official Twitter handle @MBuhari, the President also announced his return to the country.
“President is back in Abuja. He arrived this evening from London,” the presidency wrote on its Twitter account.
Buhari, who last year spent some five months receiving treatment in the British capital, had left on Tuesday to see his doctor.
