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From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom, has said President Muhammadu Buhari’s return date was not relevant, stressing that the most important thing was that he is recuperating.
He has also declared that going by what he saw of President Buhari, in London, God has healed him. Udom was among the delegation of seven governors who visited the President on Wednesday.
Other members of the delegation led by the governor of Zamfara State and Chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Abdulaziz Yari, were Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano), Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Kashim Shettima (Borno) and Samuel Ortom (Benue).
The NGF delegation was the second to visit President Buhari after Sunday’s visit by some All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders and governors led by National Chairman John Odigie-Oyegun.
Speaking to State House Correspondents after a closed-door meeting with Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, Udom said contrary to some remarks doubting the genuineness of the pictures from the visit, the pictures were genuine.
He said, “Let me thank God for the life of the President and thank God for Nigerians too. And also appreciate Nigerians who have prayed sincerely and earnestly for Mr. President and I think God has actual answered the prayers of Nigerians. From what you could see from the photographs, you could see that God has actually answered our prayers, so some of us were quite excited to see Mr. President who welcomed us, discussed with us and he was also happy to see us. So what you are seeing both on TV and newspapers are genuine and correct. God has actually healed our President and we thank God for that.”
Asked to disclose what they discussed with Buhari, he replied, “I don’t think when you hold meeting even with your wife and children you will come and make that public. The President is father of the nation and we represent the sub unit of this nation and so it’s not everything that we discussed that we should just come and say. It was a closed-door meeting but rest assured that whatever the President will discuss with the governors will be in the best interest of all the citizens of this country.”
Asked to guess when the president will come based on his observation, he said “I’m not a medical doctor. Let me say something here, even when you have a biological father you love your father, you take interest in his well being. I mean as a father to the nation, in my personal opinion, I don’t think that is the issue now. The issue is that we should thank God that God has answered our prayers, that is where I am coming from. And let me also say, some of us behave as if the president, the governors are superhuman, we are normal human beings, we also have challenges. So let us not think that because we are governors or president we are superhuman. No. We are not God, we are mortals like any of us here. So that should also make us play down on the way we look at certain issues.”
