Amid the leadership crisis rocking the ruling All Progressives Congress, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.); and Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni, met in London on Wednesday.
The President also warned Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State; his Kaduna State counterpart, Nasir el-Rufai; and other APC governors to desist from attacking Buni, the Chairman of Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Committee, according to presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina.
Buhari spoke in London when he met Buni and Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu.
He said, “The Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Committee should accordingly be allowed to proceed with all necessary preparations to hold the convention as planned- unfailingly on 26th March, 2022.”
Buhari, Buni and Adamu are all on medical vacation abroad.
While Buni travelled overseas for medical checkup on February 28, 2022, Buhari, on March 6, 2022, travelled to the United Kingdom on a two-week “routine medical check-up” after attending the United Nations Environmental Programme in Nairobi, Kenya from March 1 to March 4, 2022.
This is not the first of his many UK medical trips. According to reports, as of the end of 2021, Buhari had spent a total of over 200 days on medical leave in the UK since his regime began.
Despite his incessant trips, the Federal Ministry of Health has consumed over N2.3tn from 2016 to date, while the State House Medical Centre has received over N6.2bn, according to the respective appropriation acts available on the website of the Budget Office of the Federation.
This is as perpetual industrial actions, lack of modern equipment, failure of government to pay doctors’ salaries, amongst others, mar Nigeria’s health sector.
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