Mystery Of The Missing President Fuels Political Intrigue In Nigeria

''High hopes for Muhammadu Buhari’s four-year term have diminished at the midpoint after months spent on medical leave.''

Nigeria’s ailing president has not been seen in two months and has spent over a third of the year so far abroad, with no known plans to return, theguardian.com reports. More than a month since the two-year midpoint of his presidency, Muhammadu Buhari is still in London receiving treatment for a mystery illness that many believe to be cancer.

His aides refused to say what is wrong with him, and on his last trip back to Nigeria, Buhari said only that he had never been so sick, and hinted that he had received a blood transfusion.

The president’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, refused a request from the Guardian this week to comment on Buhari’s whereabouts.

The first lady, Aisha Buhari, reassured Nigerians that her husband was “recuperating fast” in June, on her return from a week-long visit to London, but did not share any pictures of her husband like the ones published after an earlier visit. She left again for London last week.

The 74-year-old president came to power in 2015 promising to fight endemic corruption and Boko Haram, the Islamist group that has rampaged through Nigeria’s north-east. Read more

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