by Soma Oj.

It was 2010. We had an ailing President. President Umaru Musa Yar’adua who was snuck out of the country to Germany where he was terminally ill while his closest advisers lied to Nigerians that things were alright.

As an opposition leader, General Muhammadu Buhari, joined joined many other Nigerians to call for the removal of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on account of his incapacity to rule.

On the 9th of March 2010, President Buhari penned a stinging article in a major newspaper where he demanded that the Federal Executive Council declare President Yar’adua incapacitated and make moves to impeach him.

“Political expediency won’t remedy this kind of problem because if the Executive Council of the Federation had acted in accordance with the constitution, by invoking the necessary sections to declare the President incapacitated, we would not have found ourselves in this present situation.”

“As you can see, adopting extra-constitutional measures have not addressed the problem. If it had, we would not have been subjected to the raging debates and controversy going on. So, we must go back to the constitution.”

“The Executive Council of the Federation must do the right thing because once we start moving away from the constitution, then we are inviting anarchy.” 

It’s 2017 and we have only had an active President Muhammadu Buhari for less than a month of the 4 that have already passed this year.

On the 19th of January, the President took off to London on a “vacation” during which he was to see his doctors for routine check ups. Despite the apprehension of a lot of Nigerians who were concerned about the state of his health, the staffers in the Presidency continued to assure the country that President Buhari was “hale and hearty”. Only for him to finally come back home in March after and indefinite extension of the vacation to say that he’d “never been as sick as he was” in those 50 days even when he was in the military.

President Buhari, though presumably in the country, has not shown any signs of improvement in his health. In fact, recent photos of the President have increased the concerns about his health status. For weeks now, the President has only attended juma’at prayers in Aso Rock.

Should the President not take his own advice and resign? Or maybe recommend himself for impeachment on account of of his incapacity.