Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari will return to the country Saturday
after more than three months
in London for medical treatment, his office
announced, while giving no details on what exactly has been ailing him.
Buhari will address the nation in a broadcast Monday morning, the statement from the office of the presidency said.
The government of Africa's most populous nation has never said what kind
of medical treatment the 74-year-old leader has been receiving. He also
spent seven weeks in London for treatment earlier this this year and
said he had never been so sick in his life. He also spoke of receiving
blood transfusions.
Saturday's statement merely called it a "health challenge."
Buhari's long absences have led some to call for his replacement and for
the military to remind its personnel to remain loyal. In recent weeks,
his office has been releasing photos of officials meeting with the
rail-thin but smiling president in the hope of reassuring people back
home.
Nigeria's ongoing challenges include the deadly Boko Haram insurgency, a
weak economy and one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, with
millions malnourished in the northeast.
With Buhari away, Nigeria
has been led by acting president and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who
met with the president in London in mid-July and announced that Buhari
would return to Nigeria "very shortly."
Observers have feared that political unrest could erupt in Nigeria, particularly in the predominantly Muslim north, should Buhari not finish his term in office. The previous president was a Christian from the south, as is Osinbajo.
When former President Musa Yar'Adua was ill abroad for months before
coming home to die in 2009, northerners blocked his southern Vice
President Goodluck Jonathan from assuming power, creating a months-long political paralysis.
Jonathan was eventually confirmed, but his subsequent successful run for
election angered many Muslims, breaking an unwritten agreement that
power rotate between northerners and southerners.
Buhari's four-year term ends in 2019