Tuesday, 19th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

Buhari must reveal his health status – Soyinka

By Tonye Bakare with agency report
27 March 2017   |   10:44 am
Nigeria's president Muhammadu Buhari must reveal the true state of his health to his people, said Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka in Paris on Sunday.

Nigerian President Mohammadu Buhari addresses members of his cabinet upon his arrival at the presidency in Abuja, on March 10, 2017. President Muhammadu Buhari arrived back in Nigeria on March 10, 2017 after nearly two months in London receiving treatment for an undisclosed ailment. / AFP PHOTO / Sunday AGHAEZE

Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari must reveal the true state of his health to his people, Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka said in Paris on Sunday.

Buhari spent nearly two months in Britain on medical leave. After he returned to the country, the 74-year old president acknowledged that he was terribly and that he received blood transfusions in London.

But he never really mentioned specifically what ailed him. Soyinka said that was not good enough and emphasised the need for the president and other Nigerian public office holders, to be honest with their health status.

“He’s ill, there’s no question, and I wish for heaven’s sake that people in public positions would just be honest,” Soyinka said.

“Illness is part of our existence. Buhari owes it to the nation and I don’t know why he and his advisors are being so coy about it.”

In January, the Nobel-winning author gave his tacit backing to Buhari’s quest to reposition country’s fortune, noting that he was not surprised that the president’s actions have made him less popular among the people.

According to him, “Nigeria was sinking” when Buhari took over power, a situation which made cleaning the “mess” of past regimes a difficult task.

“There’s nothing surprising to me about his losing popularity, it should be expected,” said Soyinka, who was a fierce critic of Buhari’s earlier term as head of state after taking power in a coup in 1983.

“People wanted change, that word was not just a slogan, it was a promise,” Soyinka told AFP in Johannesburg in January.

“Fulfilling political promises when you take over the reins of power and you have to clean up a lot of mess, it’s not easy.”

2 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    Yes! I support the motion. Meanwhile, MMM has tied up my life savings. Twinkas have refused to pay me for weeks now and several whatsapp platforms has succeeded in draining the little I had left. In fact, if not for http://www.la-vault.com/ref-thelma25 I was already on my way to bankruptcy. Ponzi Schemes sha….. You win some, you loose the rest. Anyway, I’ve recovered my money through La Vault. On La Vault, you gain 10k for every 5k you donate or use 500k and gain 1m. It’s the most reliable one now so lets flex it like there’s no tomorrow!

  • Author’s gravatar

    Yes, Buhari needs to reveal his ailment to Nigerians! This is because, positively, it may be the only way, and time to enlighten Nigerians about the disease. It high time we became more open.