When President Buhari returned from his almost 2-month medical vacation in London, the Minister for Information, Lai Mohammed, famously told Nigerians that the president’s health care costs were a matter of national security. That was enough to get Nigerians to drop the issue. Besides, the president was healthy, healthy enough to resume the full functions of his office. The people were excited. But the excitement quickly died down when the president disappeared again. He started skipping Federal Executive Council meetings and even missed Jumu’ah prayers last week. Lai Mohammed swooped in and reassured Nigerians that the president would now take a privilege most Nigerians could only dream of; he would work from home. Amidst all the propaganda and verbal acrobatics, Nigerians still don’t know exactly how much the president’s medical bills are costing the country.
Whatever the president is being treated for is not known to the public, but we do know that it is serious enough for him to have rushed off to the UK barely two days after the Nigerian Air Force accidentally bombed an IDP camp in Rann. Buhari would then continue his treatment, or rest as the administration calls it, in London for two months and it is safe to assume that it is the same medical condition that has kept him from performing his duties for the past few weeks since he returned. Medical challenges with this level of consequence are generally not cheap to treat. More so, when you are the president of a country like Nigeria, one will assume you are being treated by the best physicians from the best hospitals in the world, which means the bill will be bigger than they would at the Abuja General Hospital. Ironically, it is in places like the Abuja General Hospital that the president in his campaigns, said he would be treated.
Throughout Buhari’s medical leave, we do not know if or for how long he was in a hospital room. We do know from various visits by Nigerian government officials, he spent a lot of time at the Abuja House in London, Nigeria’s official residence for the president. It is not outrageous to assume that the Nigerian High Commission in the Britain may have been footing some of the bills, including feeding the president, his entourage and his visitors. Recently, the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, admitted at Covenant Christian Centre’s The Platform that governments in times past have spent as much as 15,000 naira per head on food. Former Anambra state governor, Peter Obi, also expressed similar views on the same stage in 2016, so one can see why there may be cause for concern.
Then there is the issue of estacode, the travel allowance for Nigerian public officials. Throughout Buhari’s stay in London, the Senate President Bukola Saraki, the Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara and Ogun state governor, Ibikunle Amosun are all alleged to have visited him at different times. Nigerian history has shown that public officials of such calibre rarely ever travel alone. So, let’s assume they didn’t and even though it appears the visits were short, the exact duration and the amount spent on meals for the visiting officials and their entourage are not known to the public. Factor all these, in addition to air ticket prices or in some cases cost of aviation fuel, it’s easy to see that each of these trips would have easily amounted to millions of naira. To the president’s credit, he did try to prevent a larger number of public officials from making similar trips.
President Buhari is in the country, for now at least. Unfortunately, it appears that all is still not well with his health and while I do wish the president the best of health, the presidency owes Nigerians the truth. Even if the amount of money spent on his health is now less than what was spent in London, Nigerians are still entitled to know how much of our taxpayers’ money and dwindling income is used to treat our ailing president.
