The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity,
\nMalam Garba Shehu, has dismissed an article by a Nigerian historian,\u00a0 Max
\nSiollun, entitled “The Gentleman’s Agreement that Could Break Apart
\nNigeria,” published in the\u00a0 United States-based Foreign Policy magazine.
\nThe piece speculates that Nigeria faces imminent political and
\nconstitutional crisis on account of President Buhari\u2019s absence to attend
\nto his health in London.<\/p>\n
Reacting to what he called “needlessly sensational and exaggerated
\nspeculations by conspiracy theorists”, the Presidential aide explained
\nthat it is misleading to compare President Buhari\u2019s case to that of the
\nlate President Umaru Musa Yar\u2019Adua, adding that the circumstances are
\ncompletely different.<\/p>\n
According to Shehu, unlike President Yar\u2019Adua, President Buhari has duly
\ncomplied with the constitutional requirements by formally notifying the
\nNational Assembly of his intention to go for medical treatment\u00a0 and
\nhanding over to Professor Yemi Osinbajo as Acting President.<\/p>\n
Malam Shehu\u00a0 added that, “While Yar\u2019Adua was too severely ill to transmit
\na letter formally to the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of
\nRepresentatives, President Buhari is not in such medical state, and
\ntherefore, the country is not currently facing any complications on
\naccount of his absence.”<\/p>\n
The media aide\u00a0 noted that under President Yar\u2019Adua, there was uncertainty
\nabout the role of the Vice President because the late President was not in
\na position to formally transfer power to his deputy, which necessitated
\nthe resort to the doctrine of necessity to enable Dr. Goodluck Jonathan
\nact in his absence.<\/p>\n
Malam Shehu explained that, currently, none of these circumstances prevail
\nin Nigeria on account of President Buhari\u2019s absence for medical treatment.<\/p>\n
According to him, having transferred power formally to Vice-President Yemi
\nOsinbajo, President Muhammadu Buhari did not leave\u00a0 Nigeria with any power
\nvacuum, adding, therefore, that any suggestions of uncertainty or
\nconstitutional crisis are imaginary and exaggerated.<\/p>\n
He explained that with the Acting President Professor Osinbajo already
\nrunning the affairs of the country in the absence of President Buhari,
\npeople should stop creating artificial fears of crisis or uncertainty,
\nnoting that governance has not ground to a halt because President Buhari
\nhas duly complied with the constitution.<\/p>\n
Malam Shehu appealed to conspiracy theorists not to pollute the polity by
\nneedlessly seeking to create an atmosphere of fear, uncertainty and
\nsuspicions in the country.<\/p>\n
The Media aide said\u00a0 that the President publicly admitted he was sick and
\ntaking treatment and that he never pretended about his health condition
\nwith that open admission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, has dismissed an article by a Nigerian historian,\u00a0 Max Siollun, entitled “The Gentleman’s Agreement that Could…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n