A nation on sick leave

The entire nation is in a frenzy.  It is funny how one events can change a lot of permutations. Nigeria and its leaders indeed beat any sane imagination. We tend to give out ourselves cheaply to leadership manipulation by our reactions, which are often misplaced, emotional ranting.

Are we not sick? We have to face it that we are in trouble, whether President Muhammadu Buhari is ill or not. There are warning signs. Of the 36 governors in the country, only few have not embarked on foreign trips for medical treatment at some point or the other.

Tell me a Nigerian that is not sick— sick from lack of electricity, water, good roads, quality education and improved health care facilities. Then there are the issues of children’s school fees, bills for unavailable utilities, and frustration over inadequacies, all of which result in abnormal blood pressure.

We have sick politicians, a sick followership and a sick nation, but we keep struggling, believing that we won’t die, and that we have a strong resolve. We believe that life cannot end just like that.

While some of us patronize chemists, others leave their fate to herbal concoctions. Many are sick with no choice but death. But another group just refuses to fall ill. Many Nigerians have lost their conscience, they cannot tell us in any Nigerian language what the problem is with our beloved President Buhari, so that we can properly channel our prayers.

Facts are stubborn things. Whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence, as John Adams said. The issue is not that of a recovering president or, as Femi Adesina puts it, a test-waiting president, but a sick society, a sick system, and a people that are sick.

Many great leaders have been physically ill, from Abraham Lincoln to Margaret Thatcher. Bill Clinton was and is still ill. The fact remains that our leaders are sick, and on the president’s ill-health, there is a lot still to be said. We have not heard the last and all this is because we have refused to do the right thing.

Buhari went on a medical vacation, and he is entitled to it. He is human, and he has not claimed otherwise. However, in the process leading up to the vacation, and while the vacation has lasted, those that are responsible for handling the affairs of state have not behaved better than the handlers of President Umaru Yar’Adua. However, I am optimistic the president will return safe and sound. Like Nigeria, he will bounce back.