BADLY NEEDED! PROOF OF GOOD HEALTH FOR ALL NIGERIAN PRESIDENTIAL CONTESTANTS

During the week, many Nigerians were shocked by the bombshell and traumatizing allegation by the nation's official drug agency that the much-celebrated police super cop, DSP Abba Kyari, is in reality not the crime burster he was hailed to be but a common criminal and an illicit drug pusher riding rough shod over Nigerian laws and milking the cocaine trade for cash. The development has made me and many other Nigerians numb and raises many-many questions about how things have fallen apart with the security and crime fighting system in our country. 

While Nigerians were still trying to deal with the Abba Kyari calamity, a satanic video went virile on social media in which the Jagaban Borgu, the Asiwaju of Lagos, the bullion van political fixer and the nation's most publicized presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was said to have publicly urinated on his trousers during a visit to the palace of the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona. I do not know if the story attached to the widely circulating video is true or made up by mischief makers or those who will go to any length to make sure that our dear Asiwaju does not become the Emperor of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

If the story is true, no one should laugh at the former governor of Lagos or ridicule him. Anyone can be sick and anyone can die. Besides, Bola Tinubu is at the age when millions of men have prostate, bladder or urinary challenges. That is nothing to be ashamed of.   

The true health status of the Jagaban however can no longer be his personal secret if he truly wants to be an elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. What applies to Tinubu applies to every other presidential candidate, young or old. Nigerians have a right to know.

With the bevy of problems confronting our nation today, Nigerians deserve a president who is not just mentally alert but physically fit. He almost has to be superman to deal with our many problems. It will be sacrilege, after our repeated experience, for our country to be led by any man or woman who constantly needs to travel to see a doctor every other month. The cost to our nation has been huge.

How many people remember how Nigerians were taken for a ride before the April 21, 2007 presidential elections? There was serious speculation across the country that the PDP candidate, Umaru Musa Yar' Adua, was in poor health and not fit for the presidency. The propaganda machine of then President Olusegun Obasanjo, the main sponsor of the Yar' Adua for president project, went on over-drive. We were assured that nothing was wrong with the soft-spoken former governor of Katsina State who went on to be elected and sworn in on May 29, 2007 to succeed Obasanjo.

Not long after, things fell apart. President Yar' Adua was twice flown to Germany for emergency medical treatment. That did not do the trick as thing got worse.  On November, 23, 2009, Yar' Adua had to be flown to a hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where he spent many months fighting Pericarditis.

This left Nigeria in a huge constitutional crisis, as the President did not transmit power to his Vice President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan before departing the country as required under section 145 of the 1999 Constitution. Goodluck Jonathan refused to perform the functions of the President insisting that he had not been given such powers. In effect, for several months, Nigeria had no leader and the country drifted dangerously while political jobbers and a Yar' Adua cabal enjoyed the confusion.

It took the famous "Doctrine of Necessity" by the National Assembly led by David Mark to formally make Goodluck Jonathan Acting President on January 9 201O. A very sick Yar' Adua was quickly smuggled back into the country at dead of night on February 24, 2010 by those who were unhappy with Jonathan holding the power of the presidency. Our terminally ill President was never seen in public again. Sadly, he died at Aso Rock two and half months later on 5^th May 2010 at the age of 58 and Jonathan became President.

We have had a similar situation with our current leader, President Muhammad Buhari, also from Katsina State, who was sworn in as President on May 29, 2015. He took his first medical vacation only eight months after coming to office. He spent six days in London between February 5 and 10 in 2016. He embarked on his next medical trip on June 6, 2016. He was away in England for close to two weeks as he sought treatment for an ear infection. On and on, the President has travelled for medical treatment that most people have lost count.

 

A conservative estimate shows that nearly one year of the President Buhari's seven-year tenure so far has been spent in London on medical trips. Several times, it has been speculated that our President has passed on. No one who truly loves Nigeria can say that this is ok. With the array of issues that daily seek the President's attention, it is not rocket science to see how the hopelessness that has afflicted Nigerians has been exacerbated by this situation.

 

INEC has set down a number of conditions for interested candidates which include age, educational qualification, tax clearance, etc. Nothing is said about the health status of our potential leader. Considering the price Nigerians have paid in recent years, that ought to change. We have a right to know what the medical condition is of anyone who seeks to lead us. Please, this is not an age issue. After all President Yar' Adua died in office at a considerably young age of 58.

The law may need to be amended to statutorily address this concern. Until then, the candidates themselves should convince us that they are mentally and physically fit for the job. The health status of every candidate is on the ballot.  

See you next week.