President Muhammadu Buhari will tomorrow begin a 10-day working holiday in London, the United Kingdom (UK).In a statement yesterday, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said in compliance with Section 145 (1) of the 1999 Constitution, President Buhari had already transmitted a letter to the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives to that effect.
While Buhari is on vacation, the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will act as president.According to Adesina, Buhari will be in London for the holiday.The last time the president was in the UK was in May this year when he had a “technical stopover” in London after an official trip to the United States for a meeting with President Donald Trump.
It is unclear whether the President will again use the 10 days to meet with his doctors in the UK.Buhari had in May 2017 travelled to London for an undisclosed medical follow-up consultation with his doctors in that country.The development had heightened the political atmosphere in Nigeria when his return was shrouded in secrecy. The President has his doctors, whom he has been consulting for years, based in London.
Buhari, in 2017, spent months in the British capital attending to his health.He had, on arrival after one of such medical trips, said he had never been that sick in his life.
Ahead of his planned vacation, President Buhari yesterday took time off to visit his proposed campaign office.The same building located on Herbert Macaulay Way, Central Area, Abuja, had served as his campaign headquarters for the 2015 election.
On the president’s entourage were his Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, and other senior government officials.The delegation was received by Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, who took the president round the newly refurbished structure. Buhari expressed satisfaction with the facelift, and thanked all those who worked to make it happen.
At a different forum, Buhari declared that development is usually the first casualty in an unstable polity, noting that the best route to national development is stability. He made the declaration yesterday while receiving President Adama Barrow of The Gambia at the State House, Abuja.“When a country is not stable, you spend most of your financial resources on security. That is the money that should have gone into education, infrastructure, and generation of employment for the people, particularly youths,” Buhari said.
He congratulated Barrow for stabilising The Gambia after his emergence, following the impasse caused by his immediate predecessor, Yahya Jammeh, who initially refused to vacate office, after losing the presidential election in December, 2016.The Gambian president thanked Buhari for the role Nigeria played in helping his country return to the path of constitutional democracy.
