As someone who has been in that corridor recently, I do not share the view of those who insist that President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent 50-day medical vacation was mismanaged by his handlers, up to this point. I said this much during a recent interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today with Seun Okinbaloye.

In the face of the people’s rising and insatiable expectations, it is often an uphill task to balance so many considerations in a country that is so divided on all fronts. The duty of the President’s handlers is to prevent such unnecessary news that could destabilize the polity, or create a national security crisis.

The President occupies the most important office in a democracy such as ours because the people look up to that office and its occupier for strength, inspiration and confidence. When a President suddenly takes ill, the implications for politics, power play and national security are far-reaching. I have already dealt with the manner in which this is so, in an earlier article online, titled “From London to Abuja in 50 days: Buhari’s return”.

What is the general complaint? It is this: that the nature and the seriousness of whatever ails the President is deliberately shielded from the public. This has resulted in a lot of speculations, and anxiety. A Professor of Medicine, Femi Williams, became so concerned he began to diagnose the President’s ailment by just looking at commonplace photographs. His latest contribution is that looking at the President since he arrived, he seems to be suffering from anaemia.

I don’t know what branch of medicine allows professional doctors to do diagnosis based on ordinary photographs, but Professor Williams’ interest in the matter reflects the manner in which the general populace is curious about the health of the President. This can also be traced to the President Umaru Yar’Adua experience, who died long after the Presidency had kept the people in the dark and refused to respect Constitutional obligations – the outcome of which was a national crisis.

The people have the right to be inquisitive, but one of the things I learnt as Presidential Spokesperson interfacing with our country’s security agencies and agents (that is another complex and professional territory) is that there is a sharp line between the right to know and the need to know. As someone who needed information, I always insisted on the right to know, but the intelligence community on many occasions drew the blankets, and spoke about the need to know. Their argument as I understand it is that if the people are allowed to know everything then the state would be jeopardized, and national security subverted, but the grey boundary is this: whose security is more important in the long run, the people’s security or the security of power?

It would seem that if President Buhari’s handlers have committed any sin, it is that they were more concerned about the security of power and office. But I argued on Channels TV that this is nothing unusual, and has been the case in other jurisdictions in Europe and the United States. The most celebrated example is that of President Grover Cleveland of the United States, a case study on Presidential illness and the politics of power that is well reported in a book tilted “The President is A Sick Man” by Matthew Algeo. Cleveland, the 22nd and the 24th President of the United States, was one of the most popular politicians of his time. He was an orator who knew how to get the crowds excited. When he returned to power for a second time in 1893, he was regarded as a messiah of sorts.

He boasted about getting America out of recession, the first recession in American history, and setting the economy on a good path. He also boasted about dealing with corruption. He would fight corruption and run a transparent government! The people cheered. But then one morning, Cleveland discovered a swelling on the roof of his mouth. It got worse. It was diagnosed as cancer. He had just taken over power. Everyone looked up to him to do the magic. It was politically inexpedient to tell the public that Cleveland was down with cancer. But the cancer was benign. But the public could not even be so informed.

Cancer was a plague in those days as it is now. To undergo surgery, Cleveland’s handlers sold a dummy to the public that he was going on a vacation cruise, on a friend’s yacht for six days. A team of surgeons was put together and they performed the miracle of removing Cleveland’s cancer in 90 minutes while the yacht cruised on high seas. So important was power and Presidential appearance that they had to ensure the President’s trademark moustache was not tampered with in any way.

The President returned. Nobody knew what actually happened while he was on a cruise. He wasn’t seen in public for 4 weeks. But as in Nigeria, people talk, human beings are human beings, so the story leaked and one journalist E. J. Edwards leaked the story. The White House descended on him. He was dismissed as a writer of “fake news,” and a “disgrace to American journalism.” The truth came out about 12 years later, long after Cleveland was no longer President.

Several American Presidents died in office due to ill-health. William Harrison, of pneumonia, Zachary Taylor of cholera, Franklin Delano Roosevelt of heart disease, George Washington served two terms struggling with malaria, smallpox, tuberculosis, dysentery, before finally succumbing to epiglottitis. In 1919, Woodrow Wilson had stroke for the remaining part of his presidency. The left side of his body was paralyzed, he was blind in his left eye, and was bedridden for two years. By 1920, he had lost his memory and mental health. His wife, Edith Wilson took charge and all of that was hidden from the public.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt ran for President in 1932 on a wheelchair, which was conveniently downplayed by the press. By the time he ran for a fourth time in 1944, he had heart disease. Harry Truman, his Vice President didn’t see him for a whole year! Calvin Coolidge was known as the do-nothing President. After the death of his son, Calvin Jnr., he lost interest in the affairs of state and slept for 11 hours a day! In 1955, Dwight Eisenhower had a heart attack, an abdominal operation in 1956, and a stroke in 1957. John F. Kennedy took steroids twice a day to treat Addison’s disease.

Bob Woodward reports in his book, Veil, that after the 1981 assassination attempt, Ronald Reagan was only alert for one hour a day! George W. Bush transferred power to Dick Cheney twice to undergo colonoscopy surgeries. In France, in 1981, Francois Mitterrand, who had promised that he would run “an open Presidency”, suddenly discovered that he had prostate cancer, which had already spread to his bones. He called his doctor aside and told him, this must be treated as “state secret”. He spent the rest of his Presidency battling with prostate cancer.
Far from justifying Presidential illness, the salient point is that Presidents are human beings and their immune systems can also fail, but the politics of managing Presidential illness wherever has always been a matter of optics and power. Every President wants to be loved by his people. No President imagines that he would occupy the highest office in the land and be disliked by the same people who voted him into office. Many Presidents even consider themselves supermen, and even when they are ill, they still want to be loved. Human beings can fall ill at any time, but the lesson of the Yar’Adua experience and now, Buhari’s, whose...

READ MORE: http://ikengachronicles.com/buharis-return-matters-arising-reuben-abati/

No matter the position, Health is the ultimate... Even if I find myself in the corridors of power and I know that I am too weak to rule. I will step down

Naija politicians are designed to die in power instead of resigning for health or any other related issues. Bubu is no exception

People's security or security of Power, which is more important?
That's the question.

Granted Femi Adesina and Lai Mohammed have a commitment to protect the best interest of the president (not the easiest job), hence shielding his health status. It however became imperative in the face of national crisis that they at least painted in not-so-grim details, his health status.
How could they downplay such critical medical operation as an ordinary leave?

They both look so stupid and dishonest now with the President disclosing the true nature of his leave, how he was unconscious and never had such experience in his medical history.

Unlike the cases cited by Reuben Abati, it is now the age of Social Media.
The citizenry is more inquisitive and empowered than ever, lies and half truths only birth speculations which propagandists and sensationalist media easily capitalize on.
The speculations could easily have degenerated to a national crisis where the North were already being fed with insinuations that the president was poisoned.
The president's handlers need to be re-educated to realise when the need to know overlaps with the right to know. To avoid misinforming and misleading the public.

didn't read dat @ op......epp with summary plz

The quest for power among Africa leaders is second to none..

if only African leaders invest 10% of the enthusiasm they use in begging for vote


to actually put n execute plans to make their countries better such a difference it'll make

Cutehector:
No matter the position, Health is the ultimate... Even if I find myself in the corridors of power and I know that I am too weak to rule. I will step down

A man that never accept defeat in 2003, 2007 & 2011 respectively will resign for you after getting what he has been longing for, padi mi, that man will die on that seat instead of resigning. I laugh whenever people talk about him resigning because that man is power intoxicated.

The bastard has spoken

Who am I to comments when some guys that are paid to do so never did
Buhari Media Center Workers
I heard this guy that his moniker starts with S is a Director in the organization. quote me at your own peril

Erudite202:
Who am I to comments when some guys that are paid to do so never did
Buhari Media Center Workers
I heard this guy that his moniker starts with S is a Director in the organization. quote me at your own peril

Sarrki come oh! This one needs your attention or maybe employment in the center!

Cutehector:
No matter the position, Health is the ultimate... Even if I find myself in the corridors of power and I know that I am too weak to rule. I will step down

That is if u get there on Ur own, no party, religion, region etc influenced it

whizzler:
That is if u get there on Ur own, no party, religion, region etc influenced it

even if they did. I will still step down...

chriskosherbal:
The quest for power among Africa leaders is second to none..

Make we hear word. More drama is still unfolding about the US elections.