by Alexander O. Onukwue

The health condition of President Buhari is known only to a restricted company of individuals.

This group of persons, it can be assumed, includes family, key friends, and carefully selected loyalists in the villa. Some of these may have had to swear to certain conditions of secrecy, not to reveal the status of the President on no account.

Nigeria’s President, Buhari, has been away from his duty post for more than half of the year 2017. It has seemingly not bothered the powers that be, given the manner with which the Vice President has handled the State so far.

However, questions are being asked as to who and who are behind the continued seclusion of the President from the Nigerian people. Voted in 2015 as the first President to defeat a ruling party in Nigeria, Buhari was expected to be the virile vicar of the people who would revitalise the ailing Nigerian state. Alas, it has not proved to be exactly the case after more than two years.

In the present situation, where much clarity is needed at the top to direct the tensions at the bottom spread of the State from North to South, it appears many forces are in competition and cooperation to keep things as unclear as possible. The treatment place of the President – we are not allowed to say he is in a hospital – is being carefully managed by the gatekeepers; their identity is not entirely known. Some reports have alleged that these persons wield greater influence on the management of the President’s health than Mrs Aisha Buhari, the Wife of the President and Nigeria’s First Lady.

The President has been in London, a city taken hostage by an inflictor of unfortunate mortal events, from terrorism to freak fires, leaving dozens of deaths in its wake. If the President of Nigeria has been receiving his treatment at Abuja House, we can exhale in a relaxed fashion, seeing the twitter feeds of the BBC and Sky News have not mentioned any harm coming close to the building and its environs.

However, Nigerians would want to know if their President has been taken hostage already by some other types of inflictors, the ones largely responsible for the afflictions on their country. If he is well, why would they not let him be seen? If he is recovering, why would they not let him be seen so more Nigerians can log in to the #HallelujahChallenge and top up their request lists?

Not many persons are quite thinking of the other possibility at the moment, but if it has happened, what do the gatekeepers plan to inflict before revealing the news?