No Nigerian leader spent more time in hospital abroad than President Muhammadu Buhari’s approximately 232 days. It took him only two years in office to beat the record set by one of his predecessors and Katsina kinsman, the late Umar Yar’Adua, who spent 109 days on medical trips abroad in his 32-month stay in office.
Public analysts have criticised the outgoing president’s medical tourism, blaming him for “championing the distrust in Nigeria’s health sector”, especially by the elite class.
“The president as the symbol of the nation has consistently breached the oath of allegiance and the people’s trust in him by his distrust in the health facilities at home. And that is very unfair for a leader who was elected by the people to provide the very best care in health and other sectors of national development,” said Lekan Oladapo, Project Director for Lygel Youth and Leadership Initiative, a non-governmental organisation.
