Boniface Ihiasota
According to a statement by the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, President Muhammadu Buhari will be leaving for a 10 day private trip to the United Kingdom on Thursday.
“Further to the official visit by President Muhammadu Buhari to Lagos on Wednesday where he inaugurated a number of projects executed by the state government, the President is scheduled to depart for Maiduguri, the Borno State capital for another official visit on Thursday.
“He is expected to inaugurate developmental projects especially in the sectors of education, health care and roads.
“At the end of the visit, President Buhari will be proceeding to the United Kingdom on a private visit. He is expected to return to Nigeria on May 5, 2019.”
The Peoples Democratic Party and the Coalition of United Political Parties on Thursday have however kicked against this development on the account that the president is under obligation to disclose his purpose of travel to Nigerians.
The National Chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, who spoke with journalists on Thursday, said it was improper for the President to travel with public funds but fail to “disclose his movements.”
He said it would be wrong for the President to allow Nigerians to be speculating on whether he (the President) was attending to his health or not.
Secondus said, “The President is not travelling as an individual. He is travelling as the President of Nigeria who was elected by Nigerians in 2015 to lead them.
“He is not going to the UK on a commercial airline; but on a presidential jet that is being maintained by taxpayers. Nigerians are going to be responsible for his welfare and the welfare of those who are going with him.
On his part, the Executive Director, United Global Resolve for Peace, Shalom Olaseni, said the President had the constitutional right to leave the country even for more than a week without disclosing his itinerary in as much as proper handing over to the Vice-President was done.
