Why President Muhammadu Buhari needs our prayers

The constant denials by his media aides and the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed is no more cutting it with Nigerians as they all know now that the man on the driving seat of the nation is down.

When he campaigned for the third time to unseat the government of President Goodluck Jonathan, Nigerians were unanimously behind him as they were tired of the 16 years of the misrule of the Peoples Democratic Party.

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They wanted a change no matter how it came. We all wanted a shift from the usual business of looting, blatant corruption and abuse of office by government officials.

At the polls in 2015, Nigerians made their votes count and the then incumbent was chased out of office. Nigerians wanted a new direction. Nigerians wanted an injection of fresh leadership.

It is also obvious that President Buhari did not know what he was up against. He must have underrated what he was going to meet, the rot that had eaten deep into every fiber of the nation.

The stern-faced, no-nonsense Buhari that swept the polity in 1993 as a Military head of state had given way to a more mature, composed and aged President, no wonder he quickly confessed that he almost ran away when he took the reigns of power and saw that the job was no more as easy as he thought.

The problems in Nigeria is capable of making even young men crumble but for a man in his 70s, it was clear from the beginning that he has bitten more than he could chew but he dug in and tried to give his best.

When he decided to go on a vacation early this year, his minders made all to believe that there was nothing wrong with him and that the now famous medical vacation was just a normal routine and he would be back in a jiffy.

But when he stayed away for over two months, Nigerians became apprehensive with many speculating that their President was either dead or very ill. But trust his people; they continued giving Nigerians couched information, claiming that our President was not only hale and hearty but also very chatty.

Yes, it is his prerogative if the President decides to tell Nigerians whether he is ill or otherwise but when the late President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua was in that same position, Buhari himself who was in the opposition, urged the National Assembly to begin impeachment proceedings on the then president because of his illness.

"The only solution to the present political uncertainty in the country is for the National Assembly to set the machinery in motion for the impeachment of ailing President Umaru Musa Yar 'Adua," Buhari had said in an interview with the Sun Newspapers on March 10, 2010.

In the same vein, Lai Mohammed who was then the spokesman of the APC had urged the PDP to give Nigerians a daily update on the health status of Yar'Adua. In an interview with The Nation Newspaper on December 21, 2009, Mohammed had said:

"Give Nigerians a daily update on the health of President Umaru Yar’Adua to stem the growing rumours surrounding his state of health."

But now that the tables have turned, Mohammed and other media aides of the President have decided to play the Ostrich by hoarding the health status of the President from Nigerians.

Any mention of his ailment is met with accusations of being against the President or being in the opposition.

A journalist with the Punch Newspapers, Olalekan Adetayo, who had dared to write about the ill status of the President was hounded and chased out of the Aso Rock Villa by an overzealous Chief Security Officer of the President, Bashir Abubakar.

But they keep telling Nigerians to pray for the President without accepting that he is ill. One wonders why they are denying the people the right to know about their President. They are quick to say that as long as the government is still working, the President does not have to be present.

Or is the so-called cabal at work again?

What is the secrecy all about? They should know that apart from being the President of the world's populous black nation, Buhari is, first of all, a human being and can fall ill as well.

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He is someone's father, grandfather, husband, uncle, brother, and cousin. He is not a superhuman and at his age, illnesses are to be expected.

But while they keep denying that nothing is wrong with the President, Nigerians, especially the prayer warriors in our midst should go on their knees and pray for him. Just use a general prayer point since we do not know what is wrong with our beloved President.