When I dropped my pen penultimate Friday, I did not envisage that another statement would come from President Muhammadu Buhari’s handlers, warning Nigerians not to expect to see the President anytime soon. I had actually thought that the article would be one of the last on the President’s health and absence from his seat before his much-expected return. Unfortunately, the developments in the Nigerian political scene, in addition to behind-the-curtain accusations and counter-accusations regarding loyalists or traitors in the present circumstance have coated the political and economic uncertainty under the current administration in thicker colours, and opened up the need for a reappraisal of the situation.
Sadly, not even the President’s curiously celebrated ‘surprise’ call to his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adeshina, has been able to remove the cloak of doubt around Buhari’s absence, especially given the length of the quoted conversation and the media hype concerning an event as normal as a president’s phone call to his official mouthpiece.
Like I said in the previous piece, it is not the first time Nigerians would be confronted with a stituation like this, where they are at the mercy of conflicting, often fabricated reports on their President’s wellbeing. But we must be careful not to insult the intelligence of millions of smart Nigerians with a “President on Vacation” drama that has lately taken different unnecessary ill-advised twists.
First, any layman in political matters should know that once a phone call to the president of a country by a state governor, for instance, is being publicised with particular emphasis on the move for combined intensive prayers across all religious centres for the said president, it spells nothing other than “a bad situation”.
President Buhari started this vacation saga on a commendable note of handing over power to the VicePresident. Media handlers and genuine or overnight loyalists should, however, not unwittingly damage what is left of an already stressed goodwill.
Right now, tempers are high and families financially stressed. Forget about the cosmetics of a hurried reviewed forex regime, after almost 19 months of cluelessness. There are palpable signs across critical sectors, which suggest that the conflict between Nigeria’s fiscal and monetary policies may soon push the dollar far north if the right foundation to sustain its modest gain in strength against major currencies is not entrenched.
This is aside from indications that living conditions, as indicated by Nigeria’s Human Development Index, will continue to be very poor, owing largely to the lack of capable hands to drive the right policies in these unusual times.
Should this be a period to continously distract Nigerians with a simple issue as the health of the President and the true wellbeing of the nation?
Some critical files, according to impeccable sources, cannot, as I write, be touched unless the vicepresident wants to hand over the sledgehammer to opportunists, known in the inner circle as ‘image breakers’.
These involve sensitive but imperative changes that must be made urgently to see Nigeria through these hard times within the lifetime of this administration.
Yet, the All Progressives Congress has continued to rub pepper on Nigerians’ bad economic injury by insisting, without deep reflection, that the absence of our duly elected President, is not in anyway affecting governance.
In Nigeria, one thing that has kept us in the backseat on the global economic stage is our penchant for colouring clear constitutional or economic events with religious or cultural sentiments that eventually make otherwise manageable situations chaotic.
This is exactly what is playing out currently as regards the President’s medical vacation. Nigeria adopted a constitution that is modelled after the Constitution of the United States. But we have not been able to move close to them in terms of the maturity of our democratic system, mainly as a result of greed, abuse of power and disregard for the common good on the part of successive elected leaders.
The 25th amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1967, irons out many issues surrounding presidential succession and incapacity. Students of history are aware that since the passage of the 25th amendment as it relates to the issue of an acting president in the US, a vice-president had acted as President about three times, and in all these cases, the self-declared incapacity method was used, voluntarily, while the President had to be under anesthesia.
On July 13, 1985, former US President Ronald Reagan handed over power to his Vice, George Bush, for eight hours. As short as the period of power transfer was, the citizens were given the details of the situation. An official statement was released stating that the President underwent a major abdominal surgery for the removal of a polyp in his large intestine.
Shortly before this surgery, Reagan had sent a five-paragraph letter to the President pro tem of the Senate and the Speaker of the House, transferring presidential powers to Bush. He signed another letter reclaiming his authority eight hours later, after being declared very fit by doctors.
Bush, when he became US president, also had to transfer power to his deputy, Dick Cheney, twice, in 2002 and 2007, for a period of about two and half hours in almost identical circumstances. He underwent sedation for a colonoscopy on June 29, 2002, making Cheney the commander-in-chief for two hours and 15 minutes. That test reportedly found no signs of cancer but indicated that Bush would need another test in five years (2007). How more transparent can governance be?
Nigerian leaders should take a cue from such political events and stop treating ailments like taboo. President Buhari has been out of Aso Rock, in London, for almost two months, and all we hear from those who should know better is: “our president is well and alive” or “I spoke to the president today.” In this day and age?
As Nigerians, we have the right to be given the true picture of why the president’s stay in London is being indefinitely prolonged. Even if we have to intensify our prayers as many have said, we need to know the exact prayer point.
As it is now, if there is no clear indication of how long a president can stay away from his seat in the constitution, there must be a way to temporarily transfer ‘absolute’ powers to Osinbajo without anyone reading meanings to or questioning his actions on the most sensitive matters, assumed to be the exclusive preserve of Mr. President.
It is a good thing that the National Working Committee of the APC has decided to meet with the 24 state Governors, under the umbrella of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, to deliberate, among others, on the continued absence of the President.
It is, however, the hope of patriotic Nigerians that this and other such meetings will produce solutions, and not sentiments, in the overall interest of this strained economy. The lingering thick air of speculations must be cleared, urgently, to avoid further economic calamities that could arise as a result of associated uncertainties.
