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+--- Thread: President Muhammadu Buhari Has Cancer – Sahara Reporters (/showthread.php?tid=2730)
President Muhammadu Buhari Has Cancer – Sahara Reporters - Mhiz Rebecca - 08-07-2017
90 Days Later: Details Of The Difficult New
Struggle To Bring Buhari Back To Nigeria
Despite recent high-profile visits to ailing
President Muhammadu Buhari in the United
Kingdom, where for close to 90 days he has
been undergoing treatment for a grave
illness, SaharaReporters has learned that the
Nigerian president is not as healthy as has
been portrayed by members of his inner
circle. Mr. Buhari’s illness remains officially
shrouded in secrecy, but sources close to his
inmost associates had long told this website
that the president was beset by cancer.
In recent weeks, the cabal around Mr. Buhari
has used a flurry of well-orchestrated visits to
the ailing president by political personages to
sell a narrative of “miraculous recovery.” But
such rosy impressions are belied by a palpable
deterioration in President Buhari’s health,
according to accounts offered by a few sources
knowledgeable about the Nigerian leader’s
condition.
President Buhari abruptly left Nigeria for the
UK on May 7, 2017, arriving at Luton airport in
London. He immediately proceeded to a
London hospital where treatment had been set
up prior to his arrival, said one of our sources.
According to that source, Mr. Buhari’s initial
treatment was so grueling that it left him
devastated and weak, with severe difficulty
speaking and eating.
For weeks after his arrival in the UK, no
political figure in Abuja heard from Mr.
Buhari either in person or via phone calls. In
fact, for some time his aides with direct access
to him were reduced to just two, while the
remainder of the retinue that traveled with
him was left in hotels in London, kept in the
dark about his health condition.
The prolonged period during which Mr. Buhari
was incommunicado fueled rumors that he
was completely incapacitated. Some members
of the cabal around him, as well as his wife,
traveled to London in search of the president,
but mostly came back empty-handed.
The spell was somewhat broken in late June
when Mr. Buhari’s aides released an audio
recording of his Sallah greetings to Muslims
celebrating Eid-el-Fitr. The president’s
message, spoken in a weary voice in Hausa,
immediately drew criticism from Nigerians
who pointed to the fact that the message
seemed to ignore the significant portion of
non-Hausa speaking Muslims in Nigeria.
Mr. Buhari’s sign of life in his Sallah message
seemed to energize members of his cabal to
start envisioning a future past his presidency.
In Saudi Arabia, a major player among the
cabal, Isa Funtua, met with numerous political
players, including Senate President Bukola
Saraki, whom he designated as the arrowhead
of a post-Buhari power arrangement.
A source familiar with that meeting disclosed
that Mr. Funtua proposed that, even if Buhari
were in a vegetative state, acting President
Yemi Osinbajo should be barred from
becoming the substantive president. His fear
was that an Osinbajo presidency would alter
the power equation for members of the cabal
who believe that power should remain in the
north for eight years. Mr. Funtua reportedly
reminded the audience in Saudi Arabia that the
last time an apparently “soft” southerner,
Goodluck Jonathan, was given power, he used
state resources “to marginalize the north.”
He described Mr. Osinbajo as politically
“stronger” and “wiser” than Mr. Jonathan,
especially because of his godfather, former
Governor Ahmed Bola Tinubu, whom he
suggested should be completely neutralized
because he was too ambitious and politically
strategic.
In a slight deviation from the Funtua plan, the
other half of the cabal led by the Chief of Staff,
Abba Kyari, was devising another agenda. The
Kyari group would be open to extracting a
resignation letter from Mr. Buhari and accept
Mr. Osinbajo’s assumption of full presidential
powers if the current acting President would
agree to pick Attorney General and Minister of
Justice, Abubakar Malami, as his Vice
President.
However, a snag to the plan was that Mr.
Malami and Mr. Osinbajo have pretty much
parted ways. Acting President Osinbajo has
been directly coordinating justice-related
matters, even convening meetings related to
the national prosecution committee behind Mr.
Malami’s back.
While the cabal’s jostling was going on, Mrs.
Buhari traveled to London to see her ailing
husband. A diplomat source said the First Lady
rented an apartment in London away from the
“Abuja House” residence where her husband
stays.
SaharaReporters learnt that three or four days
after her arrival in
London, Mrs. Buhari was told to join her
husband for dinner. The meeting turned out
heartwarming as Mr. Buhari reportedly
managed to speak and to sit to eat with her.
After subsequently spending more time with
her husband, Mrs. Buhari told other family
members that he was making “a miraculous
recovery.” She then wrote Facebook updates
warning the “jackals and hyenas” based in
Abuja that the “King of the Animal Kingdom”
would soon return and send them packing.
The same day, the president’s daughter, Zarah,
took to Twitter to claim that her father was in
great shape.
A few days later, acting President Osinbajo
snuck out of Abuja for a one-on-one meeting
with Mr. Buhari. On his return, he asserted
that Mr. Buhari was in great shape, was
recovering quite fast and would soon be back.
Despite those inflated claims, SaharaReporters
learnt that the cabal was not quite satisfied
with Mr. Osinbajo’s body language as he
relayed the message to Nigerians. Some cabal
insiders alleged that the acting President’s
close aides had leaked information to the
media, especially SaharaReporters, that Mr.
Buhari was far from a picture of great shape.
SaharaReporters learned that Mr. Osinbajo
encountered a highly emaciated and feeble
Buhari who could not speak coherently. It was
no surprise that the acting President did not
bring back with him any audio, video or photo
of the meeting.
On July 23, 2017, a few days after Osibanjo
returned, the cabal arranged a visit by
handpicked party leaders of the All
Progressives Congress (APC). Led by Odigie
Oyegun, the visiting party included some
governors and ministers. The meeting
managed to produce a single photo showing
Buhari sitting at the edge of the table, but
without partaking in the feast.
The single photo perhaps caused greater harm
than was anticipated.
Almost immediately, an announcement was
made that seven governors of the APC as well
as others handpicked from the People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) were to visit Mr.
Buhari in London on July 26, 2017. Led by
Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, the
governors gushed about Mr. Buhari’s recovery.
They also claimed that their meeting with him
lasted almost an hour and that the president
discussed issues of national importance, a ploy
to give the impression that he was closely
monitoring events at home.
A bunch of photographs showed Mr. Buhari
smiling. Even so, no single video or audio was
presented to Nigerians from all the visits. Nor
could any of the visitors tell when Mr. Buhari
would return home.
Saharareporters also learnt former President
Olusegun Obasanjo also visited Buhari in
London in the company of former Osun state,
Gov. Olagunsoye Oyinlola, although Obasanjo is
yet to make a public pronouncement on the
trip.
Several sources told SaharaReporters that the
highly publicized visits were designed to
create the appearance that Mr. Buhari was
regaining his health and was prepared to
resume in office.
Yet, our sources revealed that Mr. Buhari’s
ability to receive visitors was no indication of
improved health, but came after his
completion of a course of treatment that lasted
three months. According to the source, since
the completion of that course of treatment, Mr.
Buhari occasionally enjoys momentary relief.
“He can see people and sit for a little bit of
time, but that does not mean he is healed as his
doctors are yet to conclude that he is free of
the disease afflicting him,” one of the sources
said. They added that the President had not
regained his health and had lost so much
weight that he is “padded” just before his
meetings with governors and politicians.
According to the source, members of the cabal
around Mr. Buhari were once again pressuring
him to return to Nigeria, his frail health
notwithstanding. Should the cabal win out
again, they would simply use the president’s
presence as a ruse to manipulate policies and
politics to serve their individual interests.
The president’s doctors appear to have a
different agenda. One of our sources stated
there was no plan by Mr. Buhari’s doctors to
let him travel to Nigeria in the near future.
“They [doctors] have asked that Mr. President
should stay in the UK for another period of
monitoring and round of treatment that could
last weeks if not months.”
SaharaReporters had revealed that the cabal
behind Mr. Buhari was considering claiming
that the president was embarking on his
vacation after close to three months of
treatment during this particular trip. Prior to
the current medical trip, President Buhari had
spent close to 50 days in London between
December and February.
One of our sources, briefed by one of the
governors who recently saw Mr. Buhari,
revealed that the ailing president “is only okay
a few hours some days. And it takes a lot of
work to prepare him for meeting people.”
Another source drew attention to Mr. Buhari’s
look during his recent meeting with the
Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby,
adding that the president seemed a shadow of
his former self.
One source said Mrs. Buhari had earlier been
told her husband would be able to return with
her to Nigeria last Wednesday, only to find out
he was in no shape for the trip. She quietly left
London alone and appeared in Imo State last
Thursday for an event.
Placed in a desperate situation, the cabal has
claimed that Mr. Buhari was waiting to regain
some weight before returning to resume work.
But after two previous occasions when the
president was hurriedly flown into Nigeria,
only to return to the UK for urgent care, there
appears to be a sobering sense among some
members of the cabal that their incessant
game may be losing its efficacy. According to
one source, “The only people who can give a
trustworthy update on President Buhari’s real
health status are his doctors, not politicians.”