As the expected return of President Muhammadu Buhari delays, Nigerian Doctors have challenged the presidency to reveal the true health status of the country’s leader.
The Doctors, who spoke in reaction to Buhari’ request for further stay in London for medical tests and results, stressed that non-disclosure of the president’s ailment was generating confusion, suspicion and distrust among Nigerians.
Speaking, National President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Prof. Mike Ogirima, called for openness on the issue.
Admitting that nobody was above sickness, Ogirima said transparency on the part of the presidency would lay to rest doubt, “speculation and confusion surrounding the matter”.
“Nigerians deserve to know the nature of the sickness afflicting their president,” he told New Telegraph.
Also reacting, National President, National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Dr. John Onyebueze said keeping Buhari’s ailment secret, had already created suspicion in the mind of the public.
His words: “In a family where a father or mother is sick and the circumstance surrounding the illness is hidden from the children, this creates suspicion and mutual distrust.
“As a nation and country, we don’t need this distrust. The nature of the president’s ailment should be disclosed. Nigerians praying for Buhari should know the exact nature of his illness to enable them channel their prayers properly.
“As individuals, as Nigerians and as patriotic citizens of this country, we empathise with President Buhari and his family over the health challenges facing him.
“We should rally round and pray for the quick recovery of the President, rather than make a jest of the situation. He needs our support, our prayers and everything we can do as citizens to support him.”
Onyebueze admitted that ‘this does not take away the fact that we should not constructively criticise the government for improvement and the betterment of the country’.
“If the health sector has been given all the necessary and adequate attention it deserves, Nigerians seeking medical attention would not be travelling overseas for this purpose. This includes President Buhari.”
Meanwhile, a prominent chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kaduna State, Yusuf Ali, has declared that those wishing death for Buhari are powerful persons eyeing his seat in 2019.