President Buhari in London on vacation
President Buhari isn’t actually the first to keep his health
records to himself. But the problem is that whenever there is a vacuum
of information – as in the case of Buhari’s health – pundits,
rumormongers and analysts fill it up.
There is a school of thought that argues that the more information
the public has, the more likely the polity would be heated up. For
instance, if (God forbid) people find out that the president has a
terminal ailment, and cannot function effectively nor even do a second
term, he automatically becomes a lame duck leader. All the politicians
being prosecuted for corruption would just buy time until he leaves.
But in trying to be economical with information, public officers
could make statements that are incongruent with the spirit of democracy.
Take Femi Adesina’s recent statement. He says that nobody can force
the president to speak if he doesn’t want. In his thinking, the
president had already told the country when he would return from his
‘’vacation’’ and that should be enough.
Such kind of statement should have no place in public conversations
in a democracy. To the extent that the president was elected to serve
Nigerians, Nigerians have the right to force him to speak on any issue.
And here’s where the problem is: there is a difference between a
sick leave and mere vacation with some minor medical checkups
in-between.
In the real sense, presidents don’t get ‘’vacations’’. They receive
security briefing and perform the job of commander in chief even while
‘’vacationing’’. In one occasion, President Reagan had to fire some
striking officers while he was vacating in Camp David. Obama took 189
vacation days. Did he handover to his vice during those vacations?
It is only when the president is on a sick leave that he could be
exempted from addressing the nation. And in that case, could transfer
power to the vice-president. In Buhari’s case, he claims to have
transferred power to his vice [which is laudable], not because he had to
undergo a surgery, but because he wants to go on a vacation and
undertake some minor checkups during the vacation.
In the U.S., for example, presidents transfer power to their
vice-presidents by invoking the disability clause. And this clause is
invoked anytime a president undergoes a major surgery and is sedated
during the process.
For instance, in 2002, Bush transferred power to Dick Cheney for
two hours. He returned to office after undertaking colon screening.
In 2007, President Bush transferred power to Dick Cheney when he
had to undertake a routine colonoscopy. The procedure involved giving
the president some anesthesia.
In 1985, President Reagan was the first to transfer power to his
vice for 8 hours after invoking the disability clause when he had a
surgery. He was criticized for not doing so when he went through surgery
after he was shot in 1981.
In all these, Americans applauded their presidents for being open. But some American presidents had not been open.
Take the case of Grover Cleveland. In 1893, Cleveland smuggled a
surgeon onto a friend’s yacht to remove a tumor from his mouth.
Cleveland emerged from his ‘’vacation’’ a week later, and no one knew
what happened.
Cleveland wasn’t alone. In 1919, Woodrow Wilson had serious stroke
while in office but kept it secret. His wife quietly took over ‘running
the country’ till his term ended in 1921.
The question is this: could any president hide serious medical
procedures as former American presidents did in this present world? In
this digital world, it seems unlikely.
Meanwhile, it was reassuring seeing our president in the company of Governmor Amosun and Daisy Danjuma in London.
About the Author:
Ebuka Nwankwo is a Nigerian writer and columnist for TheCable News
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