Nigeria’s president is under no obligation to
disclose his medical condition even if the state is the one paying for his
medical bills, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has said.
Muhammadu
Buhari has spent the larger part of this year in London sparking speculation
about his fitness to govern — and also questions about who was footing the bill.
Claims from
political opponents that he had prostate cancer have been denied but civil
society groups still want to know whether tax-payers’ money was used for the
private treatment.
Buhari’s
information minister suggested the silence was not unusual, just hours after
the president returned to Abuja from another round of check-ups in the British
capital.
“It’s not
strange at all for a sitting president to be ill and it’s not strange either
for the state to take care of his medical bill,” Lai Mohammed told AFP in an
interview, without elaborating.
“I think
there’s so much speculation as to what he’s been treated for.
“I think we
would rather respect his privacy. If Mr President feels like telling the world
his ailment, so be it. I
don’t think he’s under an obligation to tell anyone.”
The government
last week formally proscribed the main separatist group, the Indigenous People
of Biafra (IPOB), after repeated clashes with the security services.
IPOB leader
Nnamdi Kanu is currently on bail pending the resumption of his trial in Abuja
next month on charges of treasonable felony.
Kanu’s
supporters say he has not been seen since the unrest.
Mohammed, who
said the group had been banned because it had “crossed a line” from legal
protest, said he suspected the separatist leader was “in hiding”.
He added:
“He’s not being held by government at all.”
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