The President’s health

There are a lot of things ordinary folks like me don’t understand. I guess that’s understandable because that is what makes me ordinary. I do not, for instance, understand what all the fuss is about the present medical condition of the President. A President of a country like Nigeria suffers from ordinary pericarditis and there are calls all over the place for him to resign. How preposterous! If all those who fall ill in office were to resign how many people would be on their jobs today? How many of us have not had one form of ailment or the other in the last twelve months? All these pot-bellied “big men” with 200/140 BP, how many of them have resigned from their jobs?

Those who cite the Constitutional provision for a President – or Vice President - vacating his office do not appear to have read the Constitution properly. The Constitution requires the President to vacate his office in the event of a permanent inability (emphasis mine) to carry on the functions of his office. Is pericarditis a form of permanent disability? When IBB had radiculopathy, who asked him to resign?

My problem, however, with the President is that he prefers to be flown to all sorts of places even when he gets a minor headache thus creating room for all sorts of rumours and speculation about his health. When next Mr. President falls ill (no matter the ailment) he should be rushed to the nearest hospital. He should either recover or die there. That way everybody in position of authority in this my country will know that those hospitals (of whatever description) did not drop from heaven. They were put together by serious minded people with tax payers’ money! How many foreign Presidents have been rushed to Nigeria to be treated?

My advise to Nigerians is that Presidents are, after all, human and do fall sick but when they do, they should be rushed to the best facility they have provided and be allowed to either die or recover there. A President who ignores the health of his people does not deserve to survive in another country while Nigerians die in their millions every day due to preventable and curable diseases.

Tata, everybody

Napoleon