Buhari returns but VP will stay in charge
ABUJA — President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday returned to Nigeria after nearly two months’ medical leave in Britain but said his deputy would remain in charge for several days as he needed more rest.
A Nigerian Air Force jet carrying the 74-year-old landed at the airport in the northern city of Kaduna at about 7:40am. He was then flown by helicopter to Abuja.
In the capital, the head of state, looking gaunt in a billowing black kaftan, stepped off the helicopter and walked across the tarmac to be greeted by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.
He also met security chiefs and senior government officials before being driven away in a black official car to meet ministers and officials of his ruling All Progressives Congress party.
At the meeting, he did not give any indication of what illness he was suffering from but said “I have received, I think, the best of treatment I could receive.
“I couldn’t recall being so sick since I was a young man,” he added, referring to “blood transfusions, going to the laboratories and so on and so forth”. But he said he was “pleased to be back”, although he disclosed that he may need “further follow-up within some weeks”.
Buhari’s return from London was announced on Thursday evening and he said he “came back towards the weekend, so that the vice-president will continue and I will continue to rest”.
The president’s spokesman Femi Adesina later clarified that Buhari would not resume his duties at least over the weekend but would formalise his return to power next week.
Adesina said in a tweet that he will send a letter to the National Assembly on Monday, adding: “That makes his return to work formal, and constitutional.”
Former military ruler Buhari flew to London on January 19, officially on holiday and to have what his office said were “routine medical check-ups” for an undisclosed condition.