Political parties raise fresh alarm over Buhari’s health status

President Muhammadu Buhari

The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has raised fresh alarm over the health status of President Muhammadu Buhari.

CUPP said allegations made by his wife that the presidency had been hijacked by some people, Buhari’s refusal to take questions from Nigerian journalists and only having to read from prepared speeches were confirmation that he wasn’t fit to continue in office.

Imo Ugochinyere, CUPP spokesman, in a statement on Sunday, said a country of about 200 million people cannot be living under the situation of being in doubt of the mental stability of the man who holds their mandate to lead and seeking another tenure.

He said: “The international community is also expressing a similar doubt, hence the reactions in the economy and the withdrawal of their businesses from the country.

“It is on these premises that we demand for an independent team of experts in mental health issues to examine President Muhammadu Buhari and indeed all other presidential candidates to ascertain their mental stability before polling day.

“We have also secured the assurances of the opposition coalition consensus Candidate/PDP flagbearer, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to subject himself to any such medical exercise for the general interest of Nigeria.

“CUPP also calls on President Buhari to face the Nigerian media and stop holding them in disdain as they are professionals and are renowned world over for their expertise.

“How could a President not speak to any Nigerian media house or journalist for over three years? How could a President hold his entire country’s media and citizens in such disdain that he speaks to them only through a crowd of spokespersons many of who have questionable characters and mostly dish out fake news to citizens.

“Is it not to hide the mental status of the President that the yet to beidentified two or three people who have hijacked the Presidency according to the wife of the President that the President has been directed not tospeak outside his written speeches?

“Was this directive not also part of the confessions of the wife of the President when she said named persons who were with her who were not going to be happy if she went outside the already prepared speech?

“Nigerians want to know the identities of the persons that write these speeches, their ideologies and their stake in the Nigerian project because many a time the President reads speeches that are not in tune with reality as he did during the presentation of budget 2019 and was rightly booed by lawmakers.” - Daily Post