Femi Adesina, former presidential spokesperson, has said that former President Muhammadu Buhari might have died much earlier had he depended solely on Nigerian hospitals for medical care.
Buhari, who died on Sunday at a London clinic after a prolonged illness, served as Nigeria’s military head of state from 1983 to 1985 and as a democratically elected president from 2015 to 2023.
During his time in office, Buhari regularly traveled to the United Kingdom for medical treatment — a trend that drew public criticism over the country’s worsening healthcare system and the foreign medical tourism of public officials.
For instance, on August 19, 2017, Buhari returned to Nigeria after spending 103 days in London for treatment. During that time, widespread rumours circulated claiming he had passed away abroad.
Over the course of his presidency, Buhari reportedly spent over 200 days in London receiving medical care.
Speaking during Channels Television’s live coverage of Buhari’s burial on Tuesday, Adesina defended Buhari’s reliance on foreign hospitals, saying Nigerian medical institutions lacked the necessary expertise to handle his condition.
“He always had his medicals in London even when he was not in office. It was not about the time he was president alone,” Adesina said.
“He always had it in London. You have to be alive to get certain things changed or corrected in your country.
“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.
“But he needed to be alive to be able to lead the country to a point when we will have that expertise.”