ABUJA, Nigeria — Femi Adesina, former presidential spokesperson, has stated that former President Muhammadu Buhari might not have survived his illness had he depended solely on Nigerian hospitals, stressing that Buhari’s frequent medical trips abroad were a matter of necessity, not luxury.
Adesina made the remarks during Channels Television’s live coverage of Buhari’s burial on Tuesday, July 15, 2025, following the former president’s death on Sunday, July 13, 2025, at a London clinic after a prolonged illness.
Buhari, 82, served as Nigeria’s military head of state from 1983 to 1985 and later as a democratically elected president between 2015 and 2023.
During his time in office, Buhari made several trips to the United Kingdom for medical treatment, drawing sustained criticism over the state of Nigeria’s health infrastructure and the medical tourism trend among top government officials.
One of the most notable instances was in 2017, when the former president spent 103 consecutive days receiving treatment in London.
Cumulatively, he was reported to have spent over 200 days abroad for health reasons during his eight-year presidency.
Commenting on the controversy, Adesina said the criticism failed to take into account the practical realities of Buhari’s medical condition and the inadequacies of the local healthcare system.
“He always had his medicals in London even when he was not in office. It was not about the time he was president alone,” Adesina said.
“He always had it in London. You have to be alive to get certain things changed or corrected in your country.
“If he had said ‘I will do my medicals in Nigeria’ just as a show off or something, he could have long been dead because there may not be the expertise needed in the country.
“But he needed to be alive to be able to lead the country to a point when we will have that expertise.”
Buhari’s reliance on foreign healthcare sparked repeated national debates, with critics citing it as a sign of systemic failure, while supporters often defended it as a personal health matter.
In his lifetime, Buhari pledged to reform Nigeria’s healthcare system, but his administration was frequently accused of underfunding the sector and failing to stem the exodus of skilled medical professionals.
