Nigeria’s President Buhari Heads to UK for More Medical Treatments

President Muhammadu Buhari has announced that he will travel to the United Kingdom to see his doctor, reigniting speculations about the state of his health and ability to rule Africa’s biggest economy.

Buhari, 75, spent four months in London last year receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness. Since then, he has faced repeated questions about the real state of his health.

Those questions have become louder since he announced last month that he would be standing for re-election early next year, subject to receiving his party’s nomination.

“I will be traveling to the United Kingdom and will  be away for four days; back in Abuja on Saturday, May 12,” Buhari said on Twitter Monday.

It will be the fourth time Buhari will seek medical treatment in the UK. His spokesman said Buhari saw his doctor last week in London on his way back from Washington where he had met with the US President Donald Trump at the White House.

“In the course of the technical stop-over for aircraft maintenance in London on his way back from Washington last week, the President had a meeting with his doctor,” his aide Garba Shehu said in a statement.

Buhari’s medical trips abroad has sparked intense debate among Nigerians on social media. Many argued that funds spent on medical bills abroad could be used to develop the country’s health care system which is in dire straits.

In 2010, former President Umaru Yar’Adua was absent for three months as he received treatment in Saudi Arabia for inflammation of tissue around the heart. He died a few months after his return.