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Every election has a story. So is every person who offers himself to a high public office such as the presidency. It’s not for nothing. The presidency is by far, the most coveted and toughest job anyone can give his brain. The enormous responsibilities placed on the shoulders of a President are so huge and tasking that he should have a sound mind, good character, vision, extraordinary capacity for hard work, selflessly, and passionately devoted, serving the public. His health status should not be a matter of public conjectures. That’s why the counsel, ‘if you can’t stand the heat, don’t get close to the kitchen ’ has become very instructive. It is also because, to paraphrase Gerald R. Ford (36th U.S. President), the presidency is not a prize to be won, but a duty to be done.
The office is not an entitlement. It’s a trust on behalf of the people. It means using great power for great purposes for the country and its citizens. As a result of this burden on the occupant of the office, the question is: do voters actually care about the health status of the presidential candidates? The answer is emphatically yes! That is why physicians and neuroscientists who may not necessarily be medical doctors but who focus on the brain and its impact on behaviour and cognitive function, often speak candidly about the need to have candidates who are contesting for the highest office the land to be in the best possible health condition.
They also speak about what happens when a sick person becomes the leader of his nation. To ignore this may pose incalculable harm not only in the ability of the President to govern, but could also hamper the country from moving in the right direction. The consequences are dire. That’s why we need to heed the wisdom of brilliant tutors, which says, “Never let the same snake bite you twice”. This is an advice that has served some democracies well. But, time and again, Nigeria has failed to heed this warning. The result has been telling, not once, but twice. It could happen the third time because, since the present democratic dispensation, the failure of candidates who later became Presidents to disclose their health status had come back to haunt us. Let’s take two cases. Until he died in office on May 5, 2010, President Umaru Yar’Adua was hampered by chronic illnesses, one of which was diagnosed as pericarditis (a serious skin infection) that he never disclosed. His handlers said his health status was his private affair. Yar’Adua was perhaps a decent man, but it goes beyond being a moral, decent man to function effectively in the presidency.
As it became clear later, his ill- health impeded his effectiveness. He couldn’t seize the opportunity that time and circumstance afforded him with grace to shape his presidency and give Nigeria a new direction and a sense of purpose. Any sane person should offer empathy for the late President. But his illness was a kill-joy. That was essentially why he was a failure, a sort of “waka just pass” President. That was why he didn’t know when to invoke the prestige of the presidency and when to hold it in reserve. Until his eventual death, others, we were told, took decisions on his behalf. That Nigeria is not measuring up on the leadership scale, was partly the outcome of that error of not disclosing the exact health status of Yar’adua before he became president. From hindsight, Obasanjo who foisted him on Nigeria deceived us. President Muhammadu Buhari followed the same sad trajectory of non-disclosure of his medical history. As of August 2021, late President Buhari spent more than 200 days in the United Kingdom on medical treatment. The underwhelming performance of his administration has a lot to do with lack of mental alertness. Agreed anybody can be sick, but it matters to have a healthy President. The office is where the most profound decisions are made. Have we learnt anything and forgotten everything? History could be repeating itself for those who don’t learn from the lessons of history. For sometime now, the health status of President Tinubu has been a major talking point. Since he became president over 3 years ago, he has been in and out of the country on medical grounds. But handlers are playing poppycock with it. Just on Sunday, August 30, he traveled to the UK for a 3-week ‘annual vacation’. But his opponents say it is a cover-up to attend to serious health issues. His frequent trips abroad arnd is fuelling concerns about his health and his preparedness for the task ahead. It’s unfortunate that everything about Tinubu’s health is opaque and top secret.
That’s dangerous. It’s all clever spin to deceive the Nigerian public. In my view, it’s not a good campaign strategy. Neither is it a good sign for the APC. The African Editor of The Economist Magazine, Jonathan Rosenthal said that much 4 years ago. Last week, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress and former vice president Atiku Abubakar raised fresh alarm over the health status of President Tinubu. He claimed that Tinubu is 90 years old and in poor health as he prepares to seek re-election in the 2027 general election. Atiku said he has evidence to prove his claims. He made the claims in two separate interviews in Hausa and English languages with the British Broadcasting Service(BBC) released last Friday. “We have a president who is 90 years old, and who is sick, and I am healthy and strong. So, why wouldn’t I make my services available for my fellow countrymen”. When told by the interviewer that Tinubu is not yet 90 years old, Atiku said, “well, I have evidence that he is, and I will present it in court”. It’s part of Atiku’s sustained offensive against Tinubu since the campaign period started on August 19. He has portrayed president Tinubu, as lacking in leadership, and no grasp of what Nigeria is, and what it ought to be.
Also, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, Mr. Peter Obi has always called for a sound character and health of those who aspire to govern the country. He didn’t start that now. It may be recalled that during his countrywide presidential campaign in October 2022, Obi told stakeholders at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, his Alma mater: “don’t handover a sick country to a sick man.We don’t want those who can’t stand up for 30 minutes”. Obi reiterated why the health of every presidential candidate matters during the start of his 2027 presidential campaign, August 19,in his Onitsha residence. “No presidential candidate”, he said , should hide behind the high walls of power or rely on proxies and surrogates during the campaigns”. Truly, Nigerians deserve to hear directly from those seeking their mandate and subject their records, credentials and policy proposals to public scrutiny. The 2027 presidential campaign should not be reduced to Paul Biya’s Cameroon, where an infirmed president hides under the fortified walls of power. That’s not democracy.
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The point Atiku and Obi are making is this: If President Tinubu is ready, healthy and strong to lead the country for another four years, he should lead from the front, not from the rear. That’s what it means to be the Commander-in-Chief. Smart leaders don’t dodge campaigning. They should be proud to be in it, in full swing, defending policies and answering questions that agitate the minds of Nigerians. And there are legions of such vexed questions. During the 2022/2023 campaign, Tinubu skipped the NBA conference invitation which Atiku and Obi attended. He also didn’t show up at the NACCIMA event that held in Lagos. He also failed to honour the invitation to attend the ICAN conference in Abuja that year, neither did he send a representative.
But this is the reality. Nigerians should be curious about the health of anyone who has offered himself for leadership position. This is the case in the United States and elsewhere. It has served them well. Any suspicion of illness or frailty should be subjected to intense public scrutiny. For example, the U.S. presidency has a checkered history with truth and disclosure when it comes to infirmity and maladies.Time is far gone when candidates are not required by law to disclose their medical history. Full disclosure will help assuage any concerns voters might have that could impede the ability of a candidate to fulfill his ability and responsibilities as Commander-in-Chief, should he be elected President. Therefore, concealing one’s health status should no longer be tolerated.
It’s important to recall two incidents in the U.S in the early 1990s that played a key role in causing the media and the general public to pay close attention to the health of presidential candidates. First was the case of Senator Paul Tsongas, of Massachusetts. He had a stomach cancer. He had previously survived a bout with non-hodgkin’s Lymphoma in the mid 1980s. He contested the Democratic primaries which Bill Clinton won. He died in 1997. In 1996, Clinton and Bob Dole, the Republican candidate released their medical records and letters from their physicians. Dole went a step further by asking his personal physician to make himself available for interviews with the media. George W.Bush, Al Gore, John Kerry, John McCain and Barack Obama, all did the same. McCain was 72 at the time in 2008. He previously had skin cancer, but he allowed reporters to peruse 1,200 pages of his medical history. Obama also released a letter from his personal physician and the result of an annual physical examination in 2014. The doctor’s report said: “All clinical data indicate that the President (Obama) is currently very healthy and that he will remain so for the duration of his presidency”. That’s how it should be.
Can President Tinubu do same requesting his physicians in the UK or Nigeria to make his medical record available? Same applies to Atiku, Obi, and the other presidential candidates?
However, being young is not a proof that a candidate is healthy. President John F. Kennedy despite his young age of 43 when he became President, had Addison’s disease, a hyper-pigmentation of the skin, which was concealed from the public. Put together, one Umaaruis not saying that if a presidential candidate has an illness that it should be a disqualifying factor, provided that illness can be effectively cured. The point here is to avoid the horrible experience that we had with Umaru Yar’adua and Muhammadu Buhari. The task ahead is so much that Nigerians cannot afford to see their president again spend weeks or months in foreign country receiving medical treatment at public expense.
