Where is our president?

It was the worst kept secret in town. I mean the health status of President Muhammadu Buhari, which technically could be said to be the health status of Nigeria as well. Having refrained from penning anything on this issue for a long while because of several reasons, we are now at a point where we must all speak out.

An older friend once told me how people from 50 years and above in Nigeria are at the mercy of God health wise as many hitherto unidentified problems could prop up unannounced. He told me this a year or two after he celebrated his 50th birthday anniversary. So, we have no right to make fun of Buhari’s health as fellow mortals neither should we get so morbid and devilish by wishing another human dead. But when much secrecy surrounds the health of a country’s leader, questions must be asked and answers provided by those who know. Even the ever voluble information minister, Lai Mohammed, ran out of excuses last week when confronted after the executive council meeting over Buhari’s absence, he only said that files would be taken to the president at home. Hopefully, Mr. Mohammed will make truth a closer companion and hold his hands up on issues he has no clue about.

Canny reporting of State House journalists also informed us that the president was absent at Jumat service last Friday, a situation which increased the demand of citizens to know the true state of his health. Earlier that day, Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, had called on the president to disclose his true health status to Nigerians adding that there was no need to hide anything from us. Added to this is the statement from Bisi Akande on May Day affirming what many already suspected, the president’s sickness is taking a toll on Nigeria’s health too. Akande further warned those who might want to make political gains from the president’s health to be careful. He added, “The health of the leader is intricately intertwined with the health of the nation. It is more so in a delicately fragile union of nations called Nigeria. I did not see President Buhari at the wedding of his grandson in Kaduna last Saturday. I was sad and wept.”

Remember that Akande is one of the pillars of the president’s party, APC, he was the chairman of the Action Congress of Nigeria, one of the parties that fused together to form APC, so what else does he know that the country needs to know? How many of the party upper echelons know what is going but are refusing to speak because of party loyalty? Or because of political gains, as Akande alleged in his statement? We remember how Buhari’s spokespersons kept telling us he was well the last time he was away only for the man to come back and told us he has never been sick like he was then in his life. It is also instructive that Akande alluded to that often-repeated mantra of the Buhari administration, “corruption fighting back” because since those on trial for corruption cases cannot have access to Aso Rock, then it must be those who work there that could be fighting back on behalf of corruption.

It is pathetic that our country has to go through this again less than a decade after we suffered something similar. After the president informed us that he will go back to his doctors for further treatment, why has he not been allowed to do just that? For someone who handed over to his vice the other time, who or what prevented him from doing so this time? Naturally, there must be forces jostling for control whenever there is an opportunity as nature abhors a vacuum, but Nigeria’s interests should supersede personal interests. Early this year, when I recommended Olusegun Adeniyi’s book, Power, Politics and Death as a must read for our ministers after the vice president gave them books as Christmas gifts, I could not have imagined we will be at this stage in our political evolution. Just as the suspended secretary to the government asked, “Who is the presidency?” we must ask, “Where is our president?” as we cannot afford a lacuna in governance.

As a husband and father too, his family holds it a duty to see to the health of our president as well, extricating him from the clutches of those who merely see him as a tool for their nefarious politics. Get well, President Buhari.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Fisan Bankale

On Thursday, April 27, I joined others to celebrate a senior journalist, Oluwafisan Bankale, who turned 60 that day. After a Holy Communion service at St. Anne’s Church, Molete, Ibadan, we retired to his house at Idi Isin for the reception. He was the editor of Daily Sketch during the June 12, 1993, political crisis where he gave a good account of himself, as the paper was considered worthy of closure too by the Sani Abacha government. Sadly, he was eased out in controversial circumstances but, in a testament to his generous heart, he harbours no bitterness to the person who engineered the removal. Another lesson from his life is the palpable contentment he exhibits.

An Ijebu man who has made Ibadan his home, I became more acquainted with him serving together on board of the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, ably led by Dayo Aiyetan, a friend. For a profession in dearth of heroes and exemplary practitioners, Mr. Bankale’s life is worth emulating.

Happy Birthday, Oga Fisan.