Femi Adesina, former Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, stated that the late president might have died years ago had he depended solely on Nigeria’s healthcare system. Speaking in an interview with Channels Television ahead of Buhari’s burial in Daura, Katsina State, Adesina revealed that Buhari always received medical treatment in London, even before assuming office in 2015.
Adesina defended Buhari’s decision to seek medical care abroad as a matter of survival rather than showmanship. He explained that if Buhari had insisted on having his medicals done in Nigeria merely as a demonstration, he could have died due to the lack of necessary expertise in the country. Adesina emphasized that staying alive was crucial for Buhari to enact meaningful change in Nigeria, saying, “You have to be alive first to get certain things changed or corrected in your country.”
Addressing critics of Buhari’s frequent medical trips abroad, Adesina argued they failed to understand that a leader needs to be alive to effect change, adding, “Those who believably talk of going abroad, going abroad they don’t know that a man needs to be alive first before he can effect a change.”
Buhari passed away at age 82 on Sunday, July 13, 2025, at a London clinic, where he had been receiving treatment. His burial is scheduled for his hometown of Daura, Katsina State.