Aso Rock finally opens up on Buhari’s health status.
After weeks of lying about President Buhari’s health status, Aso Rock finally tells the truth.
On May 26, a credible Aso Rock source informed Newsroom Buhari’s health was failing. We put the question to the Presidency and saw Buhari’s media aide swiftly ‘debunk’ the claim.
On May 22, the president announced he was cancelling his May 23 visit to Lagos due to a ‘busy’ schedule. It was reported he aborted the trip because he had a ear infection. The Presidency denied this.
On June 4, we reported the president, who has cancelled three functions that would have taken him outside Abuja in recent time, was hospitalised at the State House Clinic.
Newsroom reported Buhari, who clocked 73 last December, would be flown abroad if his health worsened.
That same day, Buhari’s media aide Femi Adesina told the media anyone reporting Buhari was sick is lying. Adesina said his boss ‘is a fit as fiddle’.
Twenty four hours later, Adesina admitted Buhari wasn’t so fit.
‘President Muhammadu Buhari will take 10 days off and travel to London on Monday June 6th to rest,’ Adesina said on Sunday night.
‘During the holiday, he will see an E.N.T. specialist for a persistent ear infection. The President was examined by his Personal Physician and an E.N.T Specialist in Abuja and was treated.
‘Both Nigerian doctors recommended further evaluation purely as a precaution,’ he said.
The president, reports say, has a disease that makes him unable to hear properly. The condition, known as Ménière’s disease, also affects Buhari’s balance — meaning he could fall while trying to walk.
Ménière’s disease is a disorder of the inner ear that usually affects both hearing and balance. It is characterised by episodes of vertigo and by fluctuating or permanent tinnitus and hearing loss. The condition affects people differently. It can range in intensity from being a mild annoyance to a disabling disease.
Vertigo is when a person feels as if they or the objects around them are moving when they are not.
Aso Rock, however, didn’t confirm the seriousness of Buhari’s ‘ear infection.’
The source who spoke to Newsroom earlier suggested Buhari’s condition was beyond ‘an ear infection’ for which Aso Rock says he’s flying to London.
The source said:
‘Right from Day One he’s not been feeling too well. He’s just managing himself. There is this cough that keeps coming. When he treats it, the cough goes and then comes back. When he talks he starts to cough. So he just excuses himself and tells others to continue.’
Buhari is reported to also be complaining of having pains.
It’s Buhari’s failing health that apparently kept him from visiting Lagos, and showing up at the historic flag-off of Ogoniland clean-up.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo represented Buhari on both occasions.
The VP will also stand in for Buhari at the 48th Ordinary Summit of Head of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) holding this weekend in Dakar, Senegal, Aso Rock said in a statement on Friday.
Buhari’s health reportedly got disturbing just before the aborted Lagos trip. Yet the president was able to meet dignitaries inside Aso Rock. He even had a closed-door meeting with former president Goodluck Jonathan.
The Presidency had been quick to point to these meetings to debunk reports of Buhari’s ill health.
No such meeting will hold for the next 10 days as Aso Rock confirms the president is ill.
This post first appeared on NEWSROOM.
