Playing hide & seek with the president’s health: A distracting game

I am often pained when we shoot ourselves on the feet. I am at a loss as to why we bungle most things, simple or complex. I find it difficult to understand why every matter must be politicized in this country. It is simply bewildering and I guess that I am not alone in this bewilderment.

Our country is struggling to get out of a crippling recession and I was hoping that should be the focus of all efforts. But we are getting distracted by some kind of game going on over the President and his health status. A few years ago, the country went through similar game that ended in a big and unnecessary embarrassment.

Any human being can fall ill anytime and may recover or may not. Any ordinary citizen can get sick and decide to tell nobody except perhaps his doctor. Any business man can fall ill and decide not to go to work or work from his home or wherever, and it will be nobody’s business.

But when a man in his right senses decides to seek public office, especially that of the president of a nation and gets it, he ceases to be an ordinary citizen. He becomes a public citizen, owned by the people who elected him into office. He no longer has a private life. Everything he does is in public glare. He becomes completely responsible to the people. And therefore he cannot hide anything from the people. And that is why the president is fully maintained by the resources of the people. They clothe him, house him, feed him, provide for his medical needs and equally look after his family. He is protected by the secret service, travels in presidential aircrafts and has the airport shut and the roads closed to other users anytime he is about to travel. He is not allowed to do any other business but to devote his full time to serving the people.

Trouble often starts when the people fulfil their own obligations and the public officer or the president in this case fails to fulfil his. The matter gets bad when the president who is ‘owned’ by the people while his tenure subsists, elects, in some circumstances, to now ‘own’ himself, when he attempts to become a private citizen while at the same time, enjoying all the paraphernalia, perquisites and privileges of office. Matters deteriorate when the presidential handlers begin to treat the president as a superman, when they think it is ‘un-presidential ‘to fall sick. Things begin to get messy when the people are being told lies about the health of the president or when they are told half-truths or when they are completely left in the dark. Then these handlers and spokespersons turn round to blame the people for coming out with their own conclusions since nobody was ready to tell them truth.

When president Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) travelled to the UK earlier in the year, what did the handlers tell Nigerians he was going to do? They said he was taking his annual vacation and that he would take some time to do routine health tests. When the news broke that he was very sick, what were we told by the spokespersons: ‘he was not sick but resting’. When he was unable to return to the country on the promised date, what did they tell Nigerians: “He was waiting for the results of the tests done”. When he failed to meet the second scheduled date of return, they told Nigerians: “His doctors have recommended additional tests and since no one was sure when these tests would be completed, he was postponing his return indefinitely”. Anybody who said the president was sick was called a trouble maker. To prove that the president was ‘ hale & hearty’ he was seen in doctored photographs with some of his VIP visitors and where he was watching Channels television. They regaled us with the telephone calls the president was making to condole bereaved families in Nigeria. Yet they asked us to pray for the president. How do citizens pray for their president who is hale & hearty?

The first time Nigerians were permitted to know that their ‘superhuman ‘president was sick was when the president returned to the country after 50 days in the UK and told bewildered Nigerians that he ‘had never been as sick as he was recently’ adding that he even received blood transfusion. After 50 days of guess work and wild rumours? Just because it is a taboo in Nigeria’s official quarters to tell the simple truth: ‘Our president is sick and he will be going to the UK to get treatment!

Since the president returned, the hide and seek game has been taken to another level. The president fails to attend the weekly FEC meeting which he chairs, then one government official looks Nigerians in the face and tells them: ‘the president is busy attending to other pressing matters’ . Then he fails for the second week and we are told: “he has asked that his files be brought home to him and he would be working from home”. Then he does not show up for the third week in a row and we are now told: “His doctors asked him to take more rest, so that he can recover faster” Recover faster? From what? Nigerians are left to continue to guess and to feed on rumours.

Then they are castigated for guessing by the same government officials who have sworn never to tell the truth to the citizens or who are playing games with the president’s health. Even the president’s wife joins in this game: “My husband’s situation is not as bad as they are making it. Please pray for him”. Well it is not as bad as the trouble makers and those who wish the president evil are making it look, that’s fine, but the  simple question that Nigerians would like to be answered by Mrs President is: ‘how bad is it’? Are Nigerians not entitled to know? What will happen if Nigerians are told the simple truth about PMB’s health status? If it is not that bad, then what exactly should we be praying for? And how can we know that our prayers are being answered?

In the last three months, we have devoted so much useful time and effort talking, guessing, issuing statements, denying or correcting the statements about the president’s health. We have given all kinds of colorations, slants and interpretations to every comment made on this matter. It is already taking on very unfortunate political and ethnic connotations. To me this is unfortunate and typifies what is wrong with this nation, where the citizens are held in contempt by those they pay to serve them. My candid advice is first to decide who should be speaking to us about the president’s health. Femi Adesina or Garba Shehu or Lai Mohammed or Aisha Mohammed or PMB himself. We need a credible and believable voice. Second, whoever that is, should realize that it is the right of Nigerian citizens to know the truth and nothing but the truth about the president’s health. It is not a favour or a privilege. It must also be known that life and death are in the hands of God and neither can be prolonged or shortened by lying, manipulating the truth or sophistry. This hide and seek game must stop forthwith. It has gone on for too long and it has become thoroughly embarrassing.

Mazi Sam I Ohuabunwa OFR