Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari will on Tuesday, March 30, 2021 proceed to London, the United Kingdom, for a routine medical check-up.
This would make it the seventh time Buhari would go on medical trip since he assumed office in May 2015, even as his medical challenges have remained a closely-guarded secret.
In a statement late Monday night, Femi Adesina, special adviser to the president on media and publicity, said Buhari would first meet with security chiefs in the morning before embarking on the journey.
He disclosed that the president is expected back in the country in the second week of April.
The president had earlier on Monday met with the leadership of the National Assembly, but it is not clear whether the issue of his trip to London was discussed.
The National Assembly had during the 2021 budget defence in December last year insisted on an overhaul of the facilities at the State House Medical Centre that serves the first family, in a bid to halt the regular trips abroad.
Despite receiving a total of N13.59bn in five years, the clinic cannot boast of necessary infrastructure to treat the first family.
BusinessDay checks reveal that the president had since he assumed office in May 2015 spent a total of 170 days on such medical trips.
In February 2016, President Buhari spent a total of six days in London on medical vacation, followed by another medical vacation in June of the same year, where he spent 10 days. A statement by the Presidency then had indicated that the president left the country to treat “persistent ear infection”.
On January 19, 2017, the president again proceeded to London for another medical vacation, and on February 5, 2017, he wrote to the National Assembly requesting the lawmakers to extend the period of his trip.
The president finally returned home on March 10, 2017.
President Buhari on May 7, 2017 embarked on another trip to London on health grounds and returned on August 19, 2017, after spending a total of 104 days abroad.
On return, however, he couldn’t start work immediately as, according to a Presidency statement, rats had invaded and damaged cables and furniture in the president’s office, a situation that prompted an overhaul of the office before his resumption. The president had to work from home.
On May 8, 2018, Buhari again proceeded to London for another for medical review.
