President Muhammadu Buhari, and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo during Federal Executive Council Meeting held at the Council Chamber, State House in Abuja, 22nd March 2017 Photo: NOVO ISIOROPresident Muhammadu Buhari missed a third cabinet meeting on Wednesday, raising more questions about his ability to lead Nigeria, a month after he returned from a 50-day medical vacation in the United Kingdom.
Anxiety has been mounting inside the Presidential palace for weeks as Mr. Buhari’s loyalists grappled with the grim reality that the President may not be there to complete his term in office or seek re-election in 2019.
This week, a State House correspondent from The Punch Newspaper was barred from covering the Villa and only reinstated to his beat after outrage and condemnation.
The reporter was sanctioned for writing an honest report that Aso Rock had become a ghost of itself under the leadership of Mr. Buhari, a retired Major-General who came back to power 30 years after he was overthrown as a military dictator in 1985.
Criticisms have come from all corners, especially from the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), that Mr. Buhari was too weak or sick to lead Nigeria out of its myriad of challenges.
Governor Ayodele Fayose, a virulent critic of Mr. Buhari, and a member of the PDP, has been the most outspoken.
In the past two weeks, he had repeatedly said the President was now showing up at Aso Rock, the Nigerian seat of power, only on Fridays for his Islamic prayers, warning that Nigeria did not elect a part-time, Friday President.
Mr. Buhari has gradually been disappearing from public view even as Nigeria traverses one of its worse financial crises since independence from Britain in 1960.
Several reports in recent days have said Mr. Buhari may be flown back to the UK for his ailment. But for now, the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, seems to be taking charge, a complication that worries those who do not like or trust his Godfather, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who played a major role in bringing Mr. Buhari to power, but seemed to have fallen out with him once the Katsina-born politician assumed office.