Former World Bank President, Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili, on Tuesday called for full disclosure on the state of mental and physical health of President Muhammadu Buhari, following the killing of 43 farmers in Borno State.
News Central reports that the farmers were tied and their throats slit by members of the Boko Haram insurgents on November 2 at Koshobe community in Borno State.
Ezekwesili, in a statement by her Publicist and Spokesperson, Mr. Ozioma Ubabukoh, said she’s making the call following the recurrent failure of Buhari’s administration to provide a credible response to the spate of massacres in the country.
She said the frequency with which citizens were killed, without any form of prevention by the security establishment, which the President supervises as Commander-in-Chief, nor any prosecution and judicial consequences against perpetrators of heinous murders, raises questions on whether he was still able to discharge the powers and duties of his office.
Ezekwesili said Buhari’s failure to decisively tackle the persistent killing of Nigerians had further emboldened pre-judicial and terrorist activities within the Nigerian territory, thereby necessitating her call.
The former World Bank Vice President said citizens should collectively demand for a credible independent medical panel to investigate and disclose the state of the President’s physical and mental health to Nigerians in order to determine his fitness to continue in office.
“I think that at this stage and depth of fragility of the Nigeria state, privacy has to yield ground to our right-to-know as citizens, the state of health of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“The state of affairs in the country is dangerous enough for citizens while the President appears incapable of providing effective leadership necessary to secure, stabilise the country and protect lives.”
“We really must assess the physical or mental capability of the President to carry on the duties of his office,” Ezekwesili said.
According to the 2019 Presidential candidate, the conditions of Nigeria “have become too grave for us all to sit still and watch a train wreck in the making.”
She added, “citizens can collectively push for an independent panel to help us make the critical medical determination of the state of mind and body of our President.
“As an extremely concerned citizen, I hereby demand for a #MedicalPanelOnBuhari since we obviously cannot trust the State House physician to provide us accurate information. It is a reasonable demand now for citizens to have full disclosure on the state of health of Buhari and I hope that more people from all regions of the country will speak up.”
Boko Haram militants slaughtered 22 farmers working on their irrigation fields near Maiduguri in two separate attacks on October 12 and 25, .
The latest beheading of about 43 (110 according to figures from United Nations) farmers/fishermen on November 28 occurred barely 48 hours after the Sultan of Sokoto, Mohammed Sa’ad Abubakar III, raised the alarm that the North had been taken over by bandits who kill and maim at will.