Nigeria's
President Muhammadu Buhari has kept a low profile since his grand return from
sick leave on Saturday.
Buhari disembarked his plane in Abuja on Saturday
to a military salute and was cheered by hundreds of people who lined the
streets as his motorcade drove to the presidential villa.
But the president, known locally as the Lion of
Africa, is again working from home and missing weekly cabinet meetings, as he
did during his previous, two-month, stay in Nigeria between absences for
treatment for an undisclosed ailment in Britain.
The refusal to disclose details of Buhari's illness
has caused speculation about whether the 74-year-old is well enough to run
Africa's most populous country and biggest economy.
In a televised address on Monday, Buhari looked
thin but sounded stronger than at his last broadcast in June. He walked unaided
off the plane when he arrived on Saturday, though at a slow pace, holding rails
on either side of him.
He had reduced his working day to a few hours after
returning to Nigeria from his first stint of medical leave on March 10,
diplomats and government sources said at the time.
Although Buhari wrote to lawmakers on Monday to
confirm his return from another three months of medical leave and resumption of
duties, Wednesday's cabinet meeting was canceled without explanation.
"The president is fine, that's why he is
back," a presidency spokesman told Reuters, declining to comment on why
Nigeria's leader was working from home.
Instead of chairing the cabinet meeting, the first
since his return, Buhari received Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who assumed the
leader's duties during his time away.
Osinbajo presented the findings of corruption
investigations into two of Buhari's top officials: Secretary to the Government
of the Federation Babachir Lawal, Nigeria's most senior civil servant, and
Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency Ayo Oke.
"The President has to look at the report,
study it and then make his own decisions based on that report," Osinbajo
said.
Buhari has positioned himself as an anti-corruption
crusader since his election in 2015, but in the more than two years since his
inauguration, his administration has yet to dismiss, let alone convict, any
major figures for graft.
On Tuesday, the heads of the armed forces briefed
Buhari on security updates, the chief of defense said.
In his speech on Monday, Buhari raised concerns
about an increase in attacks by Islamist insurgency Boko Haram in the
northeast, ethnically-fuelled clashes through the interior and calls to
violence over separatism in the southeast.
News
Source: - Reuters | August 23, 2017.
Photo Source: - Sahara Reporters | August 21, 2017.
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