Buhari begins 10-day working vacation, hands over to Osinbajo

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President Muhammadu Buhari (left), Chief of Defence Staff, Major-General Abayomi Gabriel Olonishakin, Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas and Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar before departure at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja to London on a 10-day vacation…yesterday. PHOTO: PHILIP OJISUA

 President Muhammadu Buhari (left), Chief of Defence Staff, Major-General Abayomi Gabriel Olonishakin, Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas and Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar before departure at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja to London on a 10-day vacation…yesterday. PHOTO: PHILIP OJISUA
President Muhammadu Buhari (left), Chief of Defence Staff, Major-General Abayomi Gabriel Olonishakin, Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas and Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar before departure at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja to London on a 10-day vacation…yesterday. PHOTO: PHILIP OJISUA

‘President to undergo routine medical check up’
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday wrote to the National Assembly that he would be embarking on working vacation from January 23 to February 6, 2017.

The President further said that during the 10-day leave, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo would act as president.

Although the letter, which was read during Senate plenary by Senate President Abubakar Bukola Saraki, did not indicate that the leave was to seek medical attention, presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina had explained that the president would undergo routine medical check up.

Also, at the House of Representatives, Deputy Speaker Sulaimon Yussuff Lasun, read out the president’s correspondence to members.

Meanwhile, the president yesterday declared that there was nothing wrong in his decision to proceed on vacation to the United Kingdom.

Answering questions from newsmen shortly before he departed the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, the president asked rhetorically: “What is wrong with going on vacation? Didn’t I go last year at the same time?

The presidential spokesman, who was among top officials including the Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olonisakin, who escorted Buhari to the airport urged Nigerians not to worry about the president’s vacation to the UK, explained that the president was only going to rest ‎and “also undergo routine medical check-ups.”

“You know that God did the work of creation for six days and on the seventh day he rested. So, if God needed to rest, how much more a human being. So, the president is just going to rest and the statement we have released is straightforward.”

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