Tinubu, Akande visit Buhari

 We spoke with him – Saraki, Dogara

By Taiye Odewale
Abuja

Two notable chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Chief Bisi Akande, yesterday visited President Muhammadu Buhari in London, United Kingdom.
Blueprint gathered that the president received the APC leaders at the Abuja House in London, debunking claims that Buhari was sick and incapacitated.
There has been rumour that President Buhari was dead, although this has been refuted by his media aides.

In a related development, Senate President Bukola Saraki and his House of Representatives counterpart, Speaker Yakubu Dogara, yesterday, said they spoke with President Buhari, and attested to his sound state of health. Confirming this via his twitter handle, Saraki said he spoke with him on Wednesday night and “can rightly inform them that the President is hale and hearty.”
According to him, the conversation he had with the President confirmed that he was in good spirits as he cracked a joke with him about his attitude of working very late into the night.
“I am happy to have communicated with the president,” he said.

The tweet said: “Happy to have spoken with @NGRPresident @MBuhari tonight. He was in good spirit and joked about my working late into the night, as usual. – @Bukolasaraki on twitter, Wednesday, February 8, 2017, 11.35pm.”
Also, Hon. Dogara on Wednesday night received a call from Mr. President around 9.00 pm, during which the duo discussed for about five minutes on some topical national issues.

Although the President and the Speaker discussed many national issues, much of the time was devoted on how the Executive and the Legislature can work together to ensure food security for Nigerians.
When contacted, the Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs to the Speaker, Mr. Turaki Hassan, confirmed that the two leaders spoke.
“As the Rt. Hon. Speaker twitter via his official twitter handle @YakubDogara, Mr. President called him at around 9.00 pm Wednesday evening and they spoke for about five minutes. They discussed some national issues including ways of ensuring food security for Nigerians.
Their comments only corroborated that by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, who, on Monday disclosed that the president was hale and hearty.

Osinbajo, had, while answering questions from newsmen on the health status of Buhari in Abuja, said he spoke with him and he was hale and hearty.
During the session with newsmen, Osinbajo denied insinuations that he was under pressure to resign as a result of the president’s health status, adding that Buhari was concerned about the current budget process and ongoing moves on economic recovery when he spoke with him.
He, however, declined to declare the health status of the president, saying it was his (Buhari) own exclusive preserve to declare his health status.

Osinbajo said: “I am under no pressure to resign. I was voted for by the people of this nation. I am absolutely not under any pressure whatsoever. The truth is that there has been no pressure from any source asking me to resign
“The President is hale and hearty. I spoke to the President just this afternoon (Monday) and we had a long conversation. He was interested in knowing about the budget process and how far we have gone and the meeting today with the private sector and the economic recovery growth plan and I informed him about the protest march and feedback about what people are saying about the economy. He is in good shape.

“Just like he said in his letter to the National Assembly, he needs to go for a cycle of tests and once he sees the test results and gets medical advice, we expect him very soon.
“I think that the health status of Mr. President is an issue that only Mr. President would discuss at the appropriate time. Again he is running test and all of that, before you will be able to determine your health status, you must be able to say this is my health status, do the test my doctors have advised me to do and will wait for the outcome of the tests and know my status.”