Three medical doctors today
arrived in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, to attend to the ailing President
Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, SaharaReporters has learned.
The doctors, all British and
Caucasian, are two males and one female, according to our highly placed source
at the Presidency.
Mr. Buhari, who has not made
any public appearance in two weeks, is described as greatly emaciated,
according to two sources knowledgeable about his condition. Despite statements
by the government a few days that the president had “resumed work,” Mr. Buhari
remains holed up in his official residence.
Apprehension within the
Presidential Villa about the president’s condition was heightened yesterday as
the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, was seen moving a lot of
documents out of the villa. Our sources said it was unclear why Mr. Kyari made
the move to take away documents to an unknown location.
A Presidency source told
SaharaReporters that the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has set up a “safe
house” in Abuja where Mr. Buhari is being treated by a relay of mostly foreign
doctors.
Even though President Buhari
and his aides have refused to divulge the nature of his ailment,
SaharaReporters learned several months ago that the Nigerian leader is ravaged
by Crohn’s Disease, an intestinal disorder. He is also known to have prostate
issues as well as age-related disorders, including early-stage dementia. Mr.
Buhari’s official age is listed as 74, but he is widely believed to be much
older.
One of our sources disclosed
that Mr. Buhari was slated to leave Nigeria on May 10 for another medical trip
to Britain. However, the arrival today of a new set of medical doctors to
attend to him might be a further attempt by a cabal of some of his closest
associates to frustrate his departure from Nigeria. Members of the cabal
controlling events around the President include the Director General of the
Directorate of State Security (DSS), Lawal Daura, Mr. Buhari’s powerful nephew,
Mamman Daura, his Personal Secretary, Tunde “Idiagbon” Sabiu, a businessman,
Isa Funtua, Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, and Babagana Kingibe, a former
Secretary to the Government who was the running mate to Moshood Kashimawo
Abiola, the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.
Some members of the Buhari
administration accuse the cabal of opposing Mr. Buhari’s foreign medical trip
for fear that his absence would cost them political influence.
SaharaReporters learned that
no “advance team” of aides has yet left Nigeria to prepare for Mr. Buhari’s
arrival in London, another sign that members of the president’s inner circle,
who pull the strings in his administration, continue to oppose such a trip.
In an apparent attempt to
reduce pressure on themselves, the cabal last week allowed Mr. Buhari’s wife,
Aisha, to have access to funds to cater for her husband. They also persuaded
her to draft a series of tweets asserting that the president’s health was not
as bad as perceived. However, our sources described Aisha Buhari and other
family members as frustrated and sober over Mr. Buhari’s slow pace of
recuperation.
In addition, the cabal around
the president arranged for Mr. Buhari to make phone calls to a number of
persons, including businessman Aliko Dangote and some political aides and
friends. However, sources close to some of the recipients of the phone calls
said the calls did not last more than 30 seconds each.
On Monday, Attorney General
Abubakar Malami and the Group Managing Director of Nigeria’s National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC), Baru Maikanti, claimed they held extensive meetings with
Mr. Buhari to discuss a range of issues. However, no videos or photographs were
produced of the ostensible meetings. Twenty-four hours after Mr. Malami claimed
he had met the president, Mr. Buhari failed to attend the weekly Federal
Executive Council (FEC) meeting, the fourth consecutive time he was absent at
the gathering where a number of policy initiatives are discussed. Vice
President Yemi Osinbajo, who presided at the meeting, apologized for Mr.
Buhari’s absence, telling ministers that the president could not make it to the
meeting because his doctors had advised him to “rest.”
There is growing concern in
Nigeria that the secretiveness around Mr. Buhari’s condition, as dictated by
the powerful cabal around the president, was reminiscent of the political
manipulations orchestrated by a cabal around former President Umaru Yar’Adua
who died on May 5, 2010. Whilst Mr. Yar’Adua lay comatose in a Saudi hospital,
then First Lady Turai Yar’Adua led a coalition of associates who insisted that
the gravely ill ruler was ably running Nigeria’s affairs remotely from his hospital
bed.
Many Nigerians now fear that
the cabal around Mr. Buhari could plunge Nigeria into crisis by making
questionable decisions in the name of a president who may not even be consulted
on the decisions.
One analyst stated that Mr.
Buhari’s elusiveness and “rule from a remote location” was also eerily similar
to the case of former Governor Danbaba Suntai of Taraba State. Mr. Suntai, who
sustained critical physical and mental injuries when an aircraft he was
piloting crashed, spent a long period in German and US hospitals. Despite Mr.
Suntai’s extensive brain damage, a cabal led by General Theophilus Danjuma
(rtd) kept him in office for a long time, claiming that he was fit enough to
run Taraba State from abroad and later from secret locations even though he’d
become incapacitated by the air
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