Buhari Spending Personal Money For London Treatment – APC; Nigerians Say Claim Is A Lie

By Akinwale Kasali

The All Progressives Congress, APC, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari does not spend public funds on his trips to a United Kingdom Hospital for his medicals.

The APC said Buhari has been spending his personal money in London. Proof: “It is the same hospital and the same doctors he has been patronising for about 40 years”, according to the Director of Publicity, APC, Bala Ibrahim.

The APC reacted to a part of the Christmas Message delivered by the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, His Lordship, Matthew Kukah, where he noted that Buhari is looking better healthwise than in 2015 when he became President, and wished that millions of Nigerians had same opportunity to take care of their health.

In the message titled: “Let Us Turn A New Leaf”, Bishop Kukah noted, on the President’s several trips to the United Kingdom for medical treatment, and told the President:

‘’I speak for myself and Nigerians when I say, we thank God that He mercifully restored you to good health.

‘’We know that you are healthier now than you were before. We can see it in the spring in your steps, the thousands of miles you have continued to cover as you travel abroad. May God give you more years of good health.

‘’However, I, also, wish that millions of our citizens had a chance to enjoy just a fraction of your own health by a measurable improvement in the quality of health care in our country.”

Stung by Kukah’s reference to Buhari’s good health now,  the APC told Nigerians that Buhari has been spending his personal funds, a claim Nigerians say is fit for the dustbin only.

Bala Ibrahim:  “I hold him (Kukah) in high esteem and respect him because he is a senior brother to a friend.

“Secondly, he is a man of God. But I am sorry to say that sometimes his speeches are ungodly. Ungodly in the sense that he does not seem to be objective at times.

“When we talk about healthcare, if Kukah is insinuating that Buhari has used public office or his position to access better healthcare, I think he has not been fair to him. All the medical attention the President has been getting has been abroad and at no cost to the government. He has been seeing the same set of doctors he was seeing in the last 40 years.

“This is not a new hospital he visits. It is the same facility and doctors he uses for years in London long before he became the military Head of State.

“Buhari has not taken advantage of Nigerian healthcare to the betterment of his own health. Kukah himself knows that very well because we have discussed it in the past.”

However, not a few Nigerians say that Ibrahim’s claim of the President not spending public funds on his trips to the UK makes no sense and only meant to deceive.

They confronted him with a barrage of questions.

For instance, Aliyu, a lawyer asked: ” Does the President pay the security agents and medical officials who travel with him and the Presidential fleet crew members, their estacode and travel allowances from his pocket? Does he pay for their accommodation from his pocket? Does he feed them from his pocket? What about his own accommodation? Does he pay from his pocket?

“Does he fuel the Presidential jet from his pocket? Does he service it from his pocket? Does he pay for the parking lot from his pocket?

“These politicians should know when to shut-up. We are just happy that the President’s health is better than when he came in. But nobody should talk about paying from his pocket. We are no fools.”

President has gone to the UK a number of times over his health. In one such trips, Buhari was away for about six months.