THE
world’s cruelest tricks may be the ones presidents play with their
health. A late 19th century United States president Grover Cleveland had
a reputation for good breeding and integrity though these attributes
could not help much when the country he led was in depression and
workers were frequently on strike. There was more trouble. While
brushing his teeth one morning, Mr Cleveland felt a lump on the roof of
his mouth. He summoned his physician and together they assembled a full
medical team, complete with a dentist and
In the dead of night Mr Cleveland and
company stole away on a private yacht on which a cancerous growth was
removed from his mouth. The American public knew nothing of the
condition that afflicted their leader, nor of the operation that he
underwent to cure it. All they were told was that President Cleveland
was out fishing. The truth of what happened on that boat did not surface
until at least one and a half decades later, according to one account.
A few decades later, as 1919 was drawing
to a close, another US president Woodrow Wilson suffered a very bad
stroke. His poor health was not a secret. What the American people did
not know, or were not told, was how bad Mr Wilson’s health was. This was
deliberate. Only the president’s wife Edith, his chief of staff, and
personal doctor had access to him. Those privileged three brought the
issues of state to the ailing commander-inchief.
In fact, Mrs Wilson was reported to have
claimed credit for running the country as her husband battled for his
life. “I don’t know what you men make such a fuss about,” she was quoted
saying, indignantly. “I had no trouble running the country when Woody
was ill.” France’s president Francois Mitterrand broke his transparency
promise as soon as he made it. Coming to power in 1981 promising an open
presidency, he told his physician on the first day in office that his
prostate cancer had spread to his bones. He followed with a caution: “We
must reveal nothing.
These are state secrets.” The Yar’Adua
episode is too fresh and unfortunate to bear repeating here, but no one
has forgotten how sad the manipulations were. There was a mortal man,
though president he was, battling with his life, and all his minders
could come up with was a web of lies spun by a selfserving cabal who had
no interest of the nation whatsoever. One day, they said, the
president’s health had so improved that he recognised his mother. On
another occasion, the president was seen leaping up the stairs leading
to the presidential library.
On yet another occasion, the president
could run the country wherever he was, thanks to the magic of modern
technology. It was so sad, so cheap, so unnecessary. President Muhammadu
Buhari did not put us through that sort of agony as he flew to London
on January 19 on a 10-day holiday to treat himself. Unlike President
Cleveland, President Buhari did not disappear under the cover of night
without a clue as to where he was headed or what he would be doing
there. He did not flout any law either. Before his departure, the
president wrote to the National Assembly, as required by law, notifying
the lawmakers of his trip.
He also informed the parliamentarians
that his deputy, Professor Yemi Osinbajo would act in his stead. That is
commendable. The president is in fact quite consistently transparent
with information on his health. Early last June he put out the word that
his ear was aching badly and needed attention overseas. The federal
lawmakers were duly informed and Prof Osinbajo seamlessly stepped into
the number one office. Leaders in older and advanced democracies have
kept the fact and details of their indispositions to their chests or, at
best, shared them only with a handful of inner caucus persons. So why
did President Buhari’s health generate so much interest, especially of
the negative sort? Two things are to blame. One, the things his critics,
political rivals and sworn enemies did with what they heard or did not
hear.
Some said he had died, a piece of rumour
that would be sweet music to the ears of longstanding attackers of the
president, a few who misguidedly ventured to say he would die in office,
if elected. Where the death information came from is hard to see; why
they did not verify it is even harder to fathom. Even when such public
figures as Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun, Senate President Bukola
Saraki and House Speaker Yakubu Dogara visited President Buhari in
London, with photographs to show, some cooed: they are all old pictures.
There is a second group, beyond the one
to whom President Buhari can do nothing right, who also complicated the
health information of the number one citizen: his media team. We have
heard from them, and some others, what amounted to no information, if
not outright misinformation. At some point it was said there was nothing
to worry about the president’s health and that he was fit as a fiddle.
At some other point, under pressure from
reporters, it was said only the president could say whether he was fit
or not. When is he returning to the country? Soon, they said. Such
evasiveness means no information, and no information breeds rumours, all
of which is unhealthy for a nation battling a raft of other challenges.
Besides, frailty is part of mortality, irrespective of the height of
office. If the health status of leaders of the developed world is such
state secret, as Mitterrand put it, Nigeria should point the way forward
by cutting out such unnecessary tricks.
Credit: http://thenationonlineng.net
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