Hours after President Muhammadu Buhari left Nigeria for the United Kingdom (UK), the presidency has explained why his trip to London is different this time.
A presidential media aide, Garba Shehu, who spoke with journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, March 30, clarified that the president has always had medical appointments abroad even before he assumed office.
Shehu noted that it is only somewhat different this time because he did not make any such travel in 2020 obviously because of the COVID-19 lockdown.
He added that his principal decide to travel at such a time because he needed to take advantage of the Easter holidays.
Shehu said: “The president is looking at the window of opportunity that has opened with the Easter Holiday. It’s a much relaxed period for everyone –Good Friday, Easter Monday, National Holidays. Then, he will use that period for his regular medical check-up.
“This is something he has done for so many years even before he came to office. Every year, he had appointments with his doctors and he went there to do it. The only anomaly this time around is that COVID prevented this kind of thing to hold in 2020…”
The Nigerian leader took-off in one of the jets in the presidential fleet from the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja.
His spokesman, Femi Adesina via a short statement posted on his Facebook page on Monday, March 29, noted that Buhari is due back in the country during the second week of April 2021.
