The Senior Special Assistant to the President on media and publicity, Garba Shehu, has said President Muhammadu Buhari began his yearly medical trip to London even before he came into office as Nigeria’s President in 2015.
Shehu said this on Tuesday while addressing reporters at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport’s departure wing, Abuja, just after his principal departed the country for London for a medical check-up.
He said, “The President is looking at the window of opportunity that has opened with the Easter Holiday. It’s a much relaxed period for everyone –Good Friday, Easter Monday, National Holidays. Then, he will use that period for his regular medical check-up.
“This is something he had done for so many years even before he came to office. Every year, he had appointments with his doctors, and he went there to do it. The only anomaly this time around is that COVID prevented this kind of thing from holding in 2020. So, he has lost some time. The last time he was there was one and half years back.”
The President is expected to see a doctor during his stay in the UK and he is due to be back in the country in the second week of April. Buhari is embarking on the medical trip at a time when members of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors have declared their intention to commence a strike on April 1.
Garba also stated that it is unnecessary for President Muhammadu Buhari to transmit power to the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo. He said this when he featured as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
He explained that President Buhari had not contravened the laws of the land by not transmitting power to Professor Osinbajo while away from the country for several days.
“He (Buhari) will continue from wherever he is,” Shehu said when asked if the President had transferred duties to the vice president.
He added, “The law requires that if the President is going to be absent in the country for 21 days and more, then that transmission is warranted. In this particular instance, it is not warranted.”
