- Adesina said Buhari received treatment in London before 2015 and not only during his time in office.
- He insisted Buhari’s medical trips were for survival, not a show of prestige or disregard for local healthcare.
The former special adviser on media and publicity to ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, Mr Femi Adesina, has said the late president might not have lived this long if he depended solely on Nigeria’s health system.
Adesina made the statement during an interview with Channels Television ahead of Buhari’s burial in Daura, Katsina State.
He said the former president had always received medical treatment in London, even before he assumed office in 2015.
“Like I said, he always had his medicals in London, even when he was not in office,” Adesina stated.
“So it was not about the time he was president alone.”
He defended Buhari’s decision to seek healthcare abroad, saying it was a matter of survival, not prestige.
“If he had said, ‘I will do my medicals in Nigeria just as a show-off or something,’ he could have long been dead because there may not be the expertise needed in the country,” he said.
Adesina insisted that being alive was the first step to making any impact in the country.
“You have to be alive first to get certain things changed or corrected in your country,” he added.
He also took a swipe at critics who faulted Buhari’s frequent trips abroad for medical reasons.
“Those who believably talk of going abroad, going abroad — they don’t know that a man needs to be alive first before he can effect a change,” he said.
Buhari died on Sunday at the age of 82.
He passed away at a London clinic and will be buried today in his hometown, Daura, in Katsina State.