THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to explain the last-minute cancellation of his scheduled medical trip to London.
PDP in a statement signed by its spokesman Kola Ologbondiyan, said its position is against the backdrop of “increasing international disapprovals to the escalated human right violations, constitutional breaches, clampdown on citizens, suppression of free speech and other excesses by the Buhari administration, for which there have been concerted demands for travel restrictions against officials of the Buhari Presidency.”
Mr Femi Adesina, the President’s Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, in a statement on Friday, said a new date for the trip will be announced in due course.
It was gathered that the sudden postponement of Mr President’s trip to London for a medical check-up may not be unconnected to the current protest rocking his supposed destination, Abuja House in London, United Kingdom.
It was reported that at the wee hours of Friday, some Nigerians in the UK, storm the Nigerian House in London to register their displeasure over the current unrest in the South-Eastern part of the country.
The protesters who converged at the Trafalgar Square in London, moved to the Abuja House ahead of Buhari’s arrival.
In a live video on Friday by the BBC pidgin, a large number of Nigerians were seen at the residence chanting songs in both English and Igbo Language. Some of the protesters were dressed in Igbo attire.
One of the protesters said, ”These are the Igbos, the ones that their youths are being killed.
“The Nigerian Army, police are in South-East killing our youths.
“Our parents have been maimed, our mothers have been raped, kidnapped, the Nigerian government has killed us, we are being marginalised”.
Some Nigerians who took to their social media to express their displeasure on the announced postponement without reason, said, “Buhari was running from shame”.
Reno Omokri, a former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, had also claimed that Buhari postponed his trip due to threats of placing him under house arrest in the UK.”
PDP in its statement, said, “Our party urges President Buhari to use this period to reflect on the suffering of millions of Nigerians who do not have access to foreign medical treatment, but who are dying on daily basis because of his failure to pay attention to our healthcare system, which has become decrepit under his watch.
“In his consideration, Mr. President must also reflect on how he has wrecked our country’s once robust economy that was handed over to him in 2015 by the PDP, to the extent that Nigerians can no longer afford to feed because their purchasing power has become depressingly low while he (Mr. President) recedes further into the luxury and the safety of the Aso Rock Villa at the expense of the well-being of the ordinary citizens.
“It is indeed heartrending that President Buhari appears to think of himself only even as Nigerians pass through these worst forms of hardship occasioned by his own misrule.
“Nigerians are also dismayed that Mr. President has consistently failed to honour his pre-2015 campaign promise not to embark on medical tourism if elected President.
“President Buhari therefore ought to be aware that the only condition in which history will be kind to him, as he has always wished, is if he honours his own words as well as use this period to resolve the impasse between the Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, and his administration, fix our hospitals and confront other challenges facing the health sector in our country.”
