Since Minister Lai Mohammed announced yesterday that President Buhari now works from home – he did later say his statement was misconstrued and he only meant the President worked from home yesterday – the internet has been awash with jeers and subliminal messages about the ridiculousness of the situation. Be it for a day or as an indefinite situation.

[Catch up here: Nigerians react to news of President Buhari’s new work from home arrangement]

“Buhari’s govt setting Nigeria years behind, we now debating health, obsessing about why he doesn’t have to work. We are not a serious nation“ said Abang Mercy on Twitter earlier today.

And her words ring very true. Exactly seven years ago, we were at this same point as a nation. President Umaru Musa Yar’adua had snuck out of the country and was hospitalised, near dead, in Germany before sneaking back into the country while the legislators could not decide on whether or not to put his Deputy (Dr Goodluck Jonathan) in his place.

More than one person in the present administration, at the time, was very vocal about their strong opinions on the removal of a President who clearly incapacitated. Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, who was at the time part of the opposition demanded concrete evidence of Yar’adua’s capacity to continue to govern while advising on the need to “move fast to reassure his compatriots that the rumours surrounding his ill health are unfounded”.

Once beaten twice shy

Once the episode had passed with the death of President Yar’adua and his succession by Goodluck Jonathan, the Senate proceeded to amend the Constitution to make room for the transfer of Presidential powers to the Vice President at any point when the President knows he’d be unable to perform the functions of his office.

[The Presidential Blog: Maybe we should just forget about Buhari]

President Buhari has made all efforts to abide by these provisions of the Constitution by not on handing over the powers and responsibilities of his office to Vice President Osinbajo but also writing (as required) to the Senate to inform them of his plans to travel every time he’s gone for his medical check-ups.

However, since his last medical vacation that threw the country into a major fit earlier this year, President Buhari’s condition has only seemed to worsen.

He’s admitted that he had never been so ill as he was in January/February, lost so much weight and now hardly shows up to perform the functions of his office making it difficult to tell if there’s been any improvement to his health.

If anything, the indications are that he’s gotten worse. He only shows up to Friday prayers at the Aso Rock mosque, his official photographer has stopped posting photos of him and his wife has also been represented by a special assistant at occasions in and outside the country.

[The Presidential Blog: Aisha Buhari “resurfaces” through a representative at the UNFPA]

To say that the President now works from home when his house has always been within the same premises as his “work” would have sounded ridiculous even if it was not public knowledge that he was ill.

The added fact of his sickness and the determination of the Presidency to keep the facts of his sickness from the nation is another level of the ridiculousness of the situation.

Nigerians do not need to know the particulars of his illness so that they can pray for him. They deserve to be given the details because they reserve the rights to decide, after having full knowledge of his condition, whether he is fit to continue to rule us.

It is not only selfish of President Buhari to decide for millions of Nigerians that he is fit to be President, it’s ridiculous for him and his advisors to think that the people who elected him to office are trying to breach his privacy by demanding the details of the sickness of a ma who occupies the highest office in the land.

And President or not, Buhari is just a man, another Nigerian bestowed power by millions of others who he now threatens to render powerless with his own “need to take things slowly”.