‘Nigerians Don’t Want Buhari Dead But Lai Mohammed, Adesina Are Talking Nonsense’ – Adebanjo

Chief Ayo Adebanjo, a Chieftain of a Pan Yoruba Social-Cultural Organisation, , Afenifere, has disclosed in an interview with the PUNCH that the insincerity of Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed and President Muhammadu Buhari’s media aides has not done much to dispel rumours about the President’s health status. Read excerpts below; What is your reaction to the President’s indefinite postponement of his return to Nigeria? I wish him well and pray for his quick recovery. Do you think the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, and Femi Adesina are saying the truth about the President’s health status? I was listening to Lai Mohammed last night. He said the President is hale and hearty. Using the phrase “hale and hearty” for the President who went to the UK on a 10-day leave and had to extend it, shows something is not right. First, Nigerians were told that Buhari was going on vacation and that he would do checkup. At the end of the 10 days, we were told his doctor asked him to wait to obtain the result of some medical tests, and he comes out again to tell us he is hale and hearty. From their evidence, both Lai Mohammed and the Femi Adesina are talking nonsense. One said the President is sick. Mohammed said he is hale and hearty. Yet when the time came for him to resume, he didn’t. Are you saying they are lying? We should ask: does one do medical tests for somebody who is hale and hearty? That is their language. I am only criticising them based on the evidence they provided. They (Mohammed and Adesina) are inconsistent, incoherent and they do not show sincerity (in their communication of the president’s health status). I am not a fool. Nigerians are not fools. They are being economical with the truth. Adesina and Mohammed are talking balderdash. They are taking us for a ride. My own experience is that when somebody is sick and you can’t say what is wrong with him, doctors would ask such a fellow to do a series of test. And yet you tell us the man is hale and hearty. Nobody wants Buhari dead but they are not telling us the truth. Human beings can fall sick, which is natural. What is wrong in saying this man has an ailment? It is now left for people to pray for speedy recovery. Yet, our hopes were raised that there is nothing wrong with the man and yet he cannot resume. They forget that all of us have a stake in his health. They are insulting our intelligence. Some have been clamouring for a law to stop public office-holders from seeking medical treatment abroad. Is this reasonable? A law like that may infringe on individual’s rights. We can only say if any public office- holder wants medical treatment abroad, it should not be at the expense of the country. If a public office-holder feels that the medical service he desires cannot be obtained here, he can go abroad but not at public’s expense. What is the difference between the secrecy surrounding the late Umar Yar’Adua’s health and that of President Buhari? Have any lessons been learnt? The present President wrote to the National Assembly that he was travelling abroad on vacation. He also handed over to the Vice- President. So, there is really no problem about that since he followed the constitutional provision. But in the case of Yar’Adua, the late president didn’t write to the National Assembly and he did not hand over to the vice-president.