Nigerian president and his successor, president-elect Bola Tinubu are currently out of the country.
While Buhari is in the United Kingdom to see his dentist, Tinubu is visiting an unnamed European country for meetings, according to his media handlers.
Many Nigerians believe the president-elect is on another medical trip, a situation that has occurred severally.
Some are worried that Tinubu will continue from where Buhari stopped, in terms of disappearing from office for months to attend to his health.
Despite his frail look and slurred speeches, Tinubu and his media handlers insist the president-elect is healthy and physically capable of withstanding the rigours of office.
The conversation has returned memories of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who braced the odds and had surgery in Lagos.
Popular TV host Rufai Oseni fired the first salvo when he asked a question on social media:
“If Osinbajo can believe in the Nigerian health care system and do a surgery here, why can’t others do same?”
Prince Mohammed Fahad noted:
“Leaders should also follow what they preached. Osinbajo commissioned Duchess Hospital in 2021 and patronised the same hospital he commissioned in 2022 to have a surgical procedure. Some leaders will commission hospitals and still go on medical tourism.”
Phillip Phen wrote:
“It is for this reason that Professor Osinbajo merits the respect of everyone who loves Nigeria. When he needed surgery, which to all intents was a complex one, he, all the same, approached a hospital here in this country.”
Speaking on his experience after the surgery in November 2022, Osinbajo said:
“The Duchess International Hospital has proved to be world-class, both in the quality of its medical personnel and its management, and it is living up to its mission to reverse medical tourism by delivering the highest standards of care using the most advanced technology and treatments to give the fastest, most convenient access to the best medical expertise available anywhere in the world.”
Speaking on probable reasons why the vice president settled for the hospital, the Chief Executive Officer of Duchess International Hospital, Dr Adetokunbo Shitta-Bey said:
“A combination of affordability and world-class facilities would have been the significant factor that informed the decision of the Vice President to have his surgery performed at the Duchess International Hospital.”