Politics Bukola Saraki Speaks: Before Yaradua's Death In 2009 and Buhari's Health In 2017

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The uncertainties of the health status of Nigeria's President, Muhammadu Buhari has made the situation really tense and disturbing, even amid several reports and claims that he is 'hale and hearty' – as reportedly evident in photos too. Among those that have visited President Buhari in UK are Senate President Bukola Saraki, his counterpart at the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, and Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan.

After the visit, Senate President Bukola Saraki assured Nigerians that he was witty and healthy, and there was no cause for alarm.

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According to him, “We were delighted to see that President Buhari is doing well, was cheerful and in good spirits. The president I saw (today) is healthy, witty and himself. The president’s absence and imminent return shows that there is no vacuum in government and our system of democracy is working with all organs of government fulfilling their mandate. And let me use the time tested cliché, there is no cause for alarm!” he said.

It is not the first time Saraki has visited an ailing President. In 2009, when he was the Kwara governor, and Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, he alongside former Bauchi State governor, Isa Yuguda visited late President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua at his sick bed at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where he is being treated for acute pericarditis (an inflammatory condition of the covering of the heart) to wish him quick recovery because of their closeness to the president.

Yuguda is married to the president's daughter, while Saraki, the as the chairman of the Nigerian Governors' Forum (NGF) is a close confidant of Yar'Adua.

After their visit, Governors Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State and Bukola Saraki of Kwara State who visited the President in Saudi Arabia, returned to the country, and declared to their colleagues in the Governors’ Forum that President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who is undergoing treatment in a Saudi Arabian hospital for heart ailment, is responding well to treatment. It was not long after that the President died and power was transferred to the then Vice President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

Before Yaradua's death, the Federal Government then took a swipe at the group of Nigerians which took a controversial but monumental position on the ill-health of President Umaru Yara' Adua by calling on him to resign. However, the government declared that it was a joke taken too far as the President cannot resign under the present circumstance.

What remains baffling is that the comment the Senate President Bukola Saraki made after he visited ailing President Buhari in UK is similar to one he made when he visited late President Umar Yaradua in 2009 – who eventually died in office.

As the true health status of President Buhari remain shrouded in secrecy – similar to Yaradua, who died from a long-standing, 'undisclosed' kidney condition – Nigerians are worried over recurrence of what happened in 2009.

Nigerian Bulletin recall that President Buhari was expected to resume February 6 from his vacation. But, the President wrote to the National Assembly informing the parliament of his desire to extend his leave in order to complete and receive the results of a series of tests recommended by his doctors.

The truth will surface, with time.
 
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