Doctors divided over Buhari’s health status

The absence of President Muhammadu Buhari, at the Juma’at prayer Friday afternoon, including the last three Federal Executive Council (FEC) meetings has sparked off another round of speculations about the state of his health.

Some online media even went ahead to allude that the president might have suffered a relapse.

One of them claimed that two helicopters were spotted flying out of Aso Rock Presidential Villa penultimate weekend.

Though the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had immediately come out few weeks back, when insinuations began to fly around has to debunk the claim of ill-health, the rumour mill continued to grind more and more salacious rumours, relating to the president’s health.

This would not be the first time though such insinuations would be made.

Medical leave

When on January 19, President Buhari left for the United Kingdom on a medical leave that was supposed to last 10 days,  handing over to Yemi Osinbajo, his deputy, as president in acting capacity, many Nigerians were sympathetic and in fact showed understanding, that the president needs to take care of his health issues so that he could function maximally as the nation’s leader.

However, when the 10-day medical leave began to extend to several weeks more, rumours began to fly over the actual date of his return, deepening suspicions that his health was far worse than officials were publicly admitting.

Back then Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said Buhari’s “holiday” had been extended on doctors’ recommendations for further test and rest.

Finally,  on March 9, the president returned to wild jubilations in some parts of the country and to the relief of Nigerians.

“I deliberately came back towards the weekend, so that the Vice President (Yemi Osinbajo) will continue and I will continue to rest. All I will need is to do further follow ups within some weeks,” Buhari was quoted to have said.

However, several weeks passed and Buhari is yet to return to the UK for ‘’follow ups’’. Thus the notion of having to return for a follow-up medical check and his inability to do so could have fuelled the fresh round of rumour after his absence at the FEC meetings and at Jumaat prayer on Friday.

Sunday Tribune spoke with some medical doctors on the raging anxiety over the president’s health and how his case should be handled medically.

Some medical doctors who spoke with Sunday Tribune called on the Presidency and the personal physician of President Buhari to allow a team of experts in the relevant field to review the health condition of the president, rather than flying him abroad without proper check.

They equally said it would be unprofessional to advise the president on his state of heath without such examination or if he is really sick and needed further treatment.

Doctor Adewunmi Alayaki, a former General Secretary of the NMA, said it was an aberration to fly the President abroad without proper review of his health, adding that if necessary and required, experts should rather be flown in from abroad to come down and review him.

He also stated that if need be, the equipment should be flown in as well for proper check, which according to him will equally help Nigerian doctors to learn from the process.

“My opinion as a former general secretary of the NMA is that we should allow team of doctors in the country to review him. If there is the need for experts from abroad, let them come and review him here. I think it is an aberration to ignore that and take him abroad.

“We should allow experts in that area to review him  first and if there is the need to invite doctors from abroad after that, then we can invite them. They can bring their equipment here if need be and the people here can also learn from that.”

In his own view, Dr Muhammad Askira, President of the National Association of Resident Doctors, said as a doctor, he could not assume that the president was sick just because he did not attend the FEC meeting  or a mosque last Friday, even when he was in the mosque the previous Friday. The truth is that he was in mosque last week, but not in mosque this week. I have not been in mosque for four consecutive weeks. Does that means I am sick?” he enquired.

According to him, the president has not hidden his state of health from Nigerians as he often notifies the country whenever an issue arises on his state of health.

“He has never hidden from us if he is sick or needs medical attention, and if there is the need for him to travel he will do that. Professionally, it is not wise for us to start to make insinuations.”

Need for caution

President, Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria, Professor Tanimola Akande, stated that whether or not President Buhari can continue to receive care for his health at home without having to travel abroad so frequently is dependent on the nature of his illness.

According to Professor Akande, there are illnesses that one’s doctor gives an appointment to come back and one can recuperate at home and as such need not be in the hospital all the time.

“Whether Buhari should be moved out depends on his health status, the type of illness, and so on,” he said.

Some prominent Nigerians including lately Professor Wole Soyinka have said the nature of the president’s illness be officially disclosed being a public figure, but Akande differed.

“In developed countries, when you tell someone you have cancer, for example, they do not assume it means death. But, the way we handle health information in Nigeria can be dangerous.

“Imagine somebody disclosing that he has cancer; even someone that is not a public figure, the relatives will see the person as dead. Even when they didn’t say anything, they will say he will die in the next six months.

“Meanwhile, that one has cancer does not mean anything. One can still live long with cancer.”

Professor Michael Asuzu, of the Faculty of Public Health, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, in an interview with Sunday Tribune, said, President Buhari is ill, given that he recently took a medical vacation.

He alleged that the president was likely to be suffering from a chronic illness that had been hidden from Nigerians for some time.

His words: “They have treated what they believe should be treated at the tertiary level : they think the condition is now manageable at the secondary health care level  and so they brought him down.

“He is not suffering from a disease that you cure; obviously he is suffering from a chronic illness that they refused to tell us what it is and there is no need be speculating.

“But, it is bad that he couldn’t trust treatment here, so he went to Britain and they treated him to the level that they think they can and treatment is expected to continue here.

“People should have the right to ask in a civil manner that is what operates abroad. Their culture encourages you to speak the truth anytime and anywhere.

“If he comes clean with what is happening, people will be able to give the best counsel and treatment available in Nigeria. We have the medical council, including the whole Nigerian Medical Association and we are under an oath to keep secret his health condition to the level it ought to; we should tell the public. But it is the secret that is unhealthy.”

Similarly, the chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association, Oyo State branch, Dr Mojisola Atalabi-Oladele stated that he would rather be interested in what would make Buhari comfortable and happy.

According to her: “As president of the country, he went abroad for medical vacation. Nobody is asking him not to do so. I am sure whatever he is doing is his decision. Nigerians cannot decide for him. He has the final say.

“He is entitled to the best; the best that he knows is good for him.  He knows what he wants.  If he says take me abroad today, they will get an air ambulance to take him. If he wants doctors to be flown into Nigeria, it will be done. So, the best that can make him comfortable and happy is what we should wish and give to him,” Atalabi-Oladele said.

There is need for rest

For Dr Chukwuemeka Odoziobodo, making comments on a patient he has not seen or diagnosed could be problematic.

He however said that: “Based on media reports, I will advise him to take a long rest to revitalise himself. There are pressures associated with governance, and presidency job is no tea party.

“Effective governance relates to consistent management, cohesive policies, guidance, processes and decision-rights for a given area of responsibility, and proper oversight and accountability. Therefore, he is at liberty to go to the UK for comprehensive treatment.”

Dr Okeke Maduabuchi, an Enugu-based physician, said: “President Muhammadu Buhari, needs rest and proper medical attention. No man is indispensable. With or without him, Nigeria goes on. I will advise him to take good care of himself instead of going down due to stress and pressures from work.

“Luckily for the president, he has a good deputy in the person of Professor Yemi Osinbajo, who can hold fort for him. Nigerians should give President Buhari a chance to meet his personal physicians in the UK as life has no duplicate.

In his own reaction, a Belgium-trained physician, Dr Victor Adeyefa, told Sunday Tribune that he was not surprised that Nigerians have not been told of the true condition of President Buhari’s state of health, saying “it would be safe to say that it could be cancer.

“The recurring situation only points to cancer because treatment for most forms of cancer requires that the patient visits the hospital regularly.

“We all know that the president said he had a lot of transfusion, which is necessary, but he has to do this several times until the cancer is removed. Apart from treatment, he also has to go for therapy on a regular basis, which could be once in a month, two, three or six months, depending on the level of success of the last treatment. So, if he is going back, which I don’t know, it could be assumed that he’s going for treatment or therapy,” he said.

Asked why the president did not have faith in the ability of the Nigerian medical institutions and medical experts to handle his medical issues, Dr Adeyefa said: “it’s not only the president that does not trust in Nigerian medical centers, but all rich Nigerians, especially when they are faced with major or life-threatening illnesses.

“Many rich Nigerians don’t trust the home-based doctors again because they know that these ones work with obsolete equipment. They don’t trust that our doctors could keep them safe with outdated equipment that we have in most of our hospitals.

“The surprising thing about the trips abroad is that these people still get treated mostly by Nigerian doctors overseas. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, during his first term, said he stopped over in Kuwait from Japan during a trip and needed to visit a hospital. He was shocked to find that Nigerians were the majority of the doctors there. He joked that the Kuwaiti hospitals would be shut down if Nigerian doctors there went on strike and patients would die aplenty.

“That only tells you that outside of the country where sophisticated equipment are available, Nigerians perform wonders. We are among the best in USA, UK, South Africa. Anywhere in the world, Nigerian doctors always stand out, but we are not respected at home,” he told Sunday Tribune.

For Dr Wale Omole, he would not blame President Buhari for seeking medical treatment abroad because the equipment available could not handle some of the ailments people are battling with.

“President Buhari recently received treatment in London, not because he didn’t have confidence in Nigerian medical experts but because he knows too well that functional equipment are lacking in all our teaching hospitals for experts to work with.

“One could view President Buhari’s treatment abroad as a big slap on the face of the Nigerian medical experts and a big shame to Africa. But no, I cannot blame the man because it would be a big risk for him to be treated in Nigeria under these highlighted conditions,” he said.

Another physician, Dr Bolaji Ajeigbe, while speaking on Buhari’s visit abroad for medical attention said the President would continue to travel abroad due to availability of better equipment that could handle any health challenges.

According to him,”I don’t believe Nigerian doctors are not competent. The President should equip the Abuja National hospital and other national hospitals with state-of-the-art equipment that will improve the health of citizens and assure them that their country is working.”

On whether the president should resign to take care of his health, Ajeigbe said the President is in the best position to know if his health could no longer sustain the job at hand.

“I can’t tell you the President should resign or otherwise, he and his doctors should know better. I wish him well and I pray he recovers very fast.”

Chief Medical Director, The Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, Dr Richard Adebayo is of the opinion that the president’s fundamental right to privacy as a Nigerian should be upheld at this stage as he deserves the right not to disclose this medical condition.

“We should always remember that the president is one of us and deserve to uphold his fundamental rights. It may be true that he is our president and that whatever happens to him should concern us, as a public figure, but the fact remains that he is also entitled to his own rights, even though he is a public figure. “He is an adult and as a human being he has a right to divulge his medical status and make preferences as to where, when and how to get treatment. I think it is his own right to make that decision. “And I would not know whether he is critical or not since I don’t have his health record. I don’t know how serious it is so I can say it is critical because I don’t have any information about his health and do not want to base my opinion on speculations.

He, however, called on Nigerians to seek divine intervention as regards the president’s health.

“I think what we need is to pray for him to enjoy good state of health and the Nigerian system should also fare well under him. Left to me, I don’t think we should interfere with his decision to seek treatment abroad or not.”

Agreeing with Dr Adebayo, Dr Matthew Andrew, a public health physician said: “The only thing we can do is to pray for the president. His medical status will be confidential because of the implication. No doctor would want to reveal his patient’s status.”