Femi Adesina: I want to believe Buhari will return on Saturday

Femi Adesina, spokesman of President Muhammadu Buhari, says his principal’s trip to London is “just for a review” of his health.

In a statement issued on Monday night, Garba Shehu, also a presidential spokesman, said the trip is at the instance of the president’s doctor.

“The doctor requested the president to return for a meeting (after an initial one) which he agreed to do. President Buhari will return on Saturday, May 12th,” he had said.

The development had generated reactions from many Nigerians, especially as a similar 10-day medical vacation of the president in 2017 later metamorphosed into 152-day vacation.

But speaking on a Channels TV programme on Tuesday, Adesina said there was no cause to worry over Buhari’s health condition.

He, however, did not disclose the state of the president’s health, saying it is a private information.

“That (Buhari’s health condition) is something private and personal,” he told the programme anchor.

“The fact that a man is a president does not remove his right and privileges to privacy. So, unless Mr President comes out voluntarily and willingly to tell the country that ‘this is what I have suffered from, this is what I have been treated for’…even the medical doctor does not have the right to say it.

“It is in the hippocratic oath that the medical doctors take. They cannot disclose the ailment of the patient without the permission of that patient.”

He added that the president is “up and about and doing his duties” and that “what he is going for is a review.”

“We all need that from time to time. There is nobody that is 100% healthy. He is just going for a review. I want to believe that he will come back on Saturday as planned,” he said.