The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari will be forthright in taking a decision on whether to recontest in 2019.
Adesina also said that President Buhari had not flouted any law by seeking medical treatment outside the country.
The presidential spokesman said Buhari would not hesitate to inform Nigerians about his decision to take another shot at the nation’s number one political office, if there was any need for him to do so, because he had nothing to hide.
Adesina stated these in Abeokuta, Ogun State, while featuring on a radio programme, Podium, on Sweet 107.1FM. He said that being a straight forward person, Buhari would take his decision on the 2019 contest at the appropriate time and would communicate same to all Nigerians without leaving anyone in doubt.
“Knowing our President to be a very straightforward person, if he takes that decision (contesting in 2019), he will communicate it to Nigerians,” Adesina said.
Reacting to the speculated presidential ambitions of the National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Ekiti Governor, Ayodele Fayose, the presidential spokesman said that they had the right to aspire to occupy the highest political office in the land.
“That is why we are in a democracy. He (Tinubu) has a right to desire to be the President. Even you, can’t you be president? Aren’t you qualified?”, Adesina said.
The presidential spokesman, however, said that Buhari had the right to procure treatment in any part of the world he deemed fit. He maintained that there was no extant law forbidding the President from going abroad for treatment, adding that he reserved the right to choose any country of his choice to seek medical attention.
“Even medical doctors themselves go abroad for medical attention. You have to be alive first before you begin to talk about things like that. It is a different thing if one, we have a law against it or if, two, we have all the things we need. People always refer to Fidel Castro of Cuba.
Throughout his illness, he never stepped out of Cuba. But we all know that medical attention in Cuba and the medical doctors themselves are among the best in the world because that country had invested in that sector over the years. The same cannot be said of Nigeria.
“We know how our institutions are in this country. There is no need for any radicalism in that area, that you must get treated at home. What if the facilities at home cannot handle what is happening, what do you do?
We have always said that Mr. President, before he became President, has always had his medical check-up once a year abroad. Those are the doctors that know his medical history. He said he was going for vacation and that during his vacation, I (Buhari) will also do medical checkup.
There is nothing wrong with it,” Adesina said. The presidential spokesman also maintained that the decision to grant the request by some Nigerians that President Buhari should speak to the citizens via video would strictly remain his sole prerogative. “No one can force it down his throat.
If he wants to do it, all well and good. But if he feels this is the way he (buhari) wants to communicate with Nigerians, all well and good. “There are many forms of communication. There is verbal communication, there is non-verbal communication. There is written communication, there is visual communication.
We all know the one the President has been using for now has been written communication, because there have been press releases. There has been verbal communication, because he has also talked with many people including myself,” he said.
Adesina, however, admitted that no date had been fixed for President Buhari’s return to the country. “What the President said was that he needed to rest a little bit more. When the President fixes a date to return, then that date will be communicated”, he said.
