Buhari's aides keeping him in London despite him recovering so he can regain weight before returning

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari is yet to return to Nigeria because his minders want him to regain his physical strength and weight so that he does appear emaciated when he resumes office at the presidency.

For nearly three months now, President Buhari has been in the UK recovering from an undisclosed illness but over the last week, there has been a flurry of activity around him, with presidency sources saying he has recovered. Two sets of state governors visited the president in different entourages and they have reported that he is well and will return to Nigeria very shortly.

One of the governors said that President Buhari needed to stay back and be fit enough before returning to the country in order to prevent a recurrence of what happened in March 2017 when he returned from his second medical trip abroad but was unable to resume duties and appear at public functions for weeks. He added that it was important that the president regained his strength in full before returning home.

“The truth is that the president is in a very fit state of mind, his sense of humour is back and the rate of recollection is encouraging with a very keen presence of mind. However, I think the reason he has been asked to stay behind is to observe sufficient rest to be able to regain some more physical strength, away from his present gaunt look.

“You know, the problem is that the last time he was home, he barely attended public functions, including the Federal Executive Council meeting as well as the Friday Ju’mat service, which he had been attending before he stopped showing presence. That created a lot of controversy as members of the public were genuinely worried," the governor added.

Excited about the rate of recovery of the president, the governor said the most elating thing about President Buhari’s health was that he had regained serious recollection with an intense presence of mind, such that he dismissed swirling insinuations about his poor health status. According to the governor, some of the undisclosed reports on the health of the president had claimed that he had begun to suffer memory loss and was difficult to communicate with.

“If you see him now, although he is still very lean and gaunt but sharp and smart, I mean, for his age. However, if he comes back now, he might still be staying back in the house and avoiding public functions and that again will elicit anxiety amongst the Nigerian people, so, he would take sufficient rest and return when he is certified fit to go home by his doctors.

“We could have a situation where they would permanently keep him away from everyone and be dishing out instructions and orders on his behalf and we would be unable to ascertain whether or not those were coming from him. So, I had been worried until I saw him in London, established old discussions with him and he recalled everything to my fascination," the governor added.

He hinted that Professor Osinbajo, would start to carry out some more serious assignments now, albeit on the instructions of the president, adding that attempts by some to unsettle the polity through insinuations on who is in charge would be put to rest with some of the decisions of the presidency in the days ahead. According to the governor, the presidency is one and the same and the ploy by some fifth columnists to create avoidable gulf has already been defeated by the unbreakable chemistry between the president and his deputy.