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The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has said President Muhammadu Buhari is under no obligation to disclose his medical condition even though he has spent most of the year being treated abroad.
Muhammadu Buhari has spent lengthy periods in London since January, sparking speculation about his fitness to govern — and also questions about who was footing the bill.
The 74-year-old former army general has said only that he required blood transfusions and had never been as sick in his life.
Claims from political opponents that he had prostate cancer have been denied but civil society groups still want to know whether tax-payers’ money was used for the private treatment.
“It’s not strange at all for a sitting president to be ill and it’s not strange either for the state to take care of his medical bill,” Lai Mohammed told AFP in an interview, without elaborating.
“I think there’s so much speculation as to what he’s been treated for.
“I think we would rather respect his privacy. If Mr President feels like telling the world his ailment, so be it. I don’t think he’s under an obligation to tell anyone.”
Buhari’s mystery illness also comes as political parties and potential candidates jockey for position ahead of the next presidential election in 2019.
But Mohammed, who was spokesman for Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) that unseated Goodluck Jonathan at the last vote in 2015, refused to be drawn.
“If he’s going to run that’s left to him but right now, his major preoccupation is delivering on all his electoral promises,” he said.