By Baron Ike
Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has hinted that Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari is recovering fast from an undisclosed illness and should be returning to the country soon.
Osinbajo flew into London on Tuesday night, July 11 to see his principal on invitation and to discuss state matters not made known to the public, but the Acting President said he needed to go see him after relying on phone conversations only.
What Osinbajo did not tell foreign reporters, he told Nigerian journalists in Abuja while speaking with them before the start of the week’s Federal Executive Council meeting.
After the meeting in London that lasted for an hour, Osinbajo headed home immediately. He did not talk to waiting reporters at the Nigerian House in the UK who were anxious to know what transpired at the meeting.
Osinbajo told reporters before a weekly cabinet meeting in Abuja: “Of course I’ve been speaking to him on the phone and I thought it would be a good thing to go and see him and generally check up on how he was doing and also to brief him on developments.
“We had a very good conversation on wide-ranging issues and he’s in very good spirits. He’s recuperating very quickly and he’s doing very well.”
He confirmed that the meeting lasted for “well over an hour”, adding: “We are expecting him (back in Nigeria) very shortly.”
Mum best described the disposition of Osinbajo after meeting with Buhari in London on Wednesday, July 12.
The Acting President bluntly refused to talk to any one including Reuters and News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reporters who had waited anxiously at the gate of the Nigerian House in UK.
Before he departure on Tuesday, there were speculations Osinbajo may have been summoned after Buhari’s wife, Aisha, raised concern that those who are supposed to be the president’s inner caucus men are plotting something different.
Aisha, who flew to London earlier this month, on Monday, July 10 posted a cryptic message on her Facebook page in response to Nigerian senator Shehu Musa’s description of Buhari as “the absent Lion King.”
“God has answered the prayers of the weaker Animals. The Hyena’s and the Jackals will soon be sent out of the kingdom,” she wrote. The description was seen by many as a reference to a supposed behind-the-scenes struggle for power and influence in government in Buhari’s absence.
But Buhari has huge confidence in Osinbajo and may have invited him to confide in him on how to go about certain affairs of state, including the current challenges which the leadership of the legislative arm of government is posing to the Executive.
Sources said Osinbajo may have also received briefing from Buhari on the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu.
The long face which Osinbajo wore after he left Buhari left the reporters guessing if all was well with the health of the President.
However, he has doused that by informing State House reporters that Buhari is recovering very fast and will soon return home even though he was silent on Buhari’s medical condition, which is the reason for the growing calls for clarity about his fitness to govern.
Unconfirmed reports from a source said, the acting president has actually been relying on third-party information and purported directives from the president in London.
Another source also added that: “The trip had been planned in the past three weeks but was only known to few people for strategic reasons. The ‘Jackals and Hyenas’ were beaten to it.”
Osinbajo wanted “undiluted information” on Buhari’s health, to brief his boss on decisions he had taken in his absence and get approval for policy, the second source added.