Nigeria’s Buhari awaits doctors’ order to return home

By Rafiu Ajakaye

LAGOS, Nigeria (AA) - President Muhammadu Buhari, who has been away in London to treat an undisclosed ailment since May 7, has said he is now fit and only awaiting his doctor’s order to return to his country.

“President Buhari says there is tremendous improvement in his health; indeed, he wishes to return home, ‘but I've learnt to obey my doctor's orders, rather than be the one issuing the orders. Here, the doctor is absolutely in charge’,” according to a statement by his media team which visited him on Saturday.

Accompanied by photographs of Buhari and his media team exchanging banters in London, the statement also quoted Buhari as thanking his country folks and other Africans for praying for his recovery.

The visit by his media team is the fourth such delegation from Nigeria in the last few weeks as tension mounts back home over the health status of the 74-year-old leader. Opposition figures and recently some Christian clerics have called on him to resign if he is too weak to continue in the saddle.

On Monday, a daily sit-out of dozens of activists calling on him to return home or resign began in the capital city Abuja. The government has dismissed the gathering as ill-motivated, insisting that Buhari has violated no law since he handed over power to vice president Yemi Osinbajo.

A counter pro-Buhari rally was also staged during the week, with its organizers alleging that the sit-out was a plot to derail the ailing president's anti-corruption agenda.