by Odilim Enwegbara..read his piece
If President Muhammadu Buhari’s latest voyage to the United Kingdom is 100 per cent a vacation, as announced by the Presidency, then, there’re no justification for going overseas. As a President, he should be leading by example. Obudu Cattle Ranch or Yankari Game Reserve should be just enough for his vacation. Or, why not Daura, his hometown? The only problem, maybe, is that the office could have easily followed him to any local resting place. But that could be easily managed.
If it is for medical reasons, then Mr. President is encouraging medical tourism, the same medical tourism he had insisted that his government should no longer allow.
The President ought to have by now been able to find good local doctors to be treating him in Nigeria. It is like telling the Nigerian Medical Association and Nigerian hospitals that they are all not good enough to treat him.
Having said that, please don’t forget that the President could be afraid of his medical records being leaked to the public should he be treated locally. So, it’s understandable why he chooses to go to the UK.
All in all, President Buhari, we should all agree, is not an extravagant leader like his predecessors. And for someone who loves his country, he is fully aware of the state of the economy and the mood of the people that he wouldn’t want to be seen as an indifferent leader.
- Odilim Enwegbara, Abuja
