“I can assure you all that this is the real me,” he said.
“I’m still going strong!”
Buhari, who turns 76 this month, has been dogged by
questions about his health since spending more than five months in the U.K.
being treated for an undisclosed illness last year. He faces re-election in
February amid growing divisions within his own party and a challenge from Atiku
Abubakar, a 72-year-old businessman and former vice president who’s promising
an economic revival for Africa’s biggest oil producer.
Conspiracy Theory
A separatist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra, or
IPOB, has taken advantage of Buhari’s health issues to peddle a conspiracy
theory that he died in London and was replaced by a look-alike from Sudan named
Jubril. Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the group campaigning for an independent
Biafra in the country’s southeast, was arrested and charged with treason by
Buhari’s government in 2016.
Atiku Abubakar
But while free on bail, Kanu’s residence was raided by the
military in an operation that left several people dead. Kanu escaped the
country and reappeared in Israel in October, according to his lawyer. He’s
since been broadcasting his claims about Buhari’s alleged double via Facebook,
helping to feed a social media frenzy back home.
“When I was away on medical vacation last year, a lot of
people hoped I was dead," Buhari said in his Facebook video on Sunday. He
said his vice president had been contacted at the time by people assuming he
was moving into the president’s job and offering their services as deputy.
Buhari’s challenger for the presidency, Abubakar, has sought
to take advantage of the incumbent’s seeming aloofness. He’s challenged Buhari
to a televised debate and beat him in responding to attacks by Islamist
insurgents, offering scholarships to the children of killed soldiers before the
government extended official condolences.
Tight Race
Analysts have mixed views on which way the Nigerian
electorate will lean. If a free and fair election were held now, New York-based
risk adviser Teneo projects that the challenger Abubakar would win 57 percent
of the vote to Buhari’s 42 percent, with about 1 percent going to other
candidates. But the situation could change to the favor of either candidate,
Teneo Vice President Malte Liewerscheidt said in an emailed note to clients.
Eurasia Group, on the contrary, sees a Buhari victory with
55 percent of the vote against Abubakar’s 45 percent, citing the incumbent’s
relative trustworthiness when compared to Abubakar.
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation, with almost 200
million inhabitants, and vying with South Africa to be the continent’s largest
economy. Buhari has made himself more visible in the run-up to February’s
election, with recent appearances in Maiduguri, where the government has been
fighting Boko Haram Islamist militants, as well as in Poland and Paris.
But while free on bail, Kanu’s residence was raided by the
military in an operation that left several people dead. Kanu escaped the
country and reappeared in Israel in October, according to his lawyer. He’s
since been broadcasting his claims about Buhari’s alleged double via Facebook,
helping to feed a social media frenzy back home.
“When I was away on medical vacation last year, a lot of
people hoped I was dead," Buhari said in his Facebook video on Sunday. He
said his vice president had been contacted at the time by people assuming he
was moving into the president’s job and offering their services as deputy.
Buhari’s challenger for the presidency, Abubakar, has sought
to take advantage of the incumbent’s seeming aloofness. He’s challenged Buhari
to a televised debate and beat him in responding to attacks by Islamist
insurgents, offering scholarships to the children of killed soldiers before the
government extended official condolences.
Tight Race
Analysts have mixed views on which way the Nigerian
electorate will lean. If a free and fair election were held now, New York-based
risk adviser Teneo projects that the challenger Abubakar would win 57 percent
of the vote to Buhari’s 42 percent, with about 1 percent going to other
candidates. But the situation could change to the favor of either candidate,
Teneo Vice President Malte Liewerscheidt said in an emailed note to clients.
Eurasia Group, on the contrary, sees a Buhari victory with
55 percent of the vote against Abubakar’s 45 percent, citing the incumbent’s
relative trustworthiness when compared to Abubakar.
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation, with almost 200
million inhabitants, and vying with South Africa to be the continent’s largest
economy. Buhari has made himself more visible in the run-up to February’s
election, with recent appearances in Maiduguri, where the government has been
fighting Boko Haram Islamist militants, as well as in Poland and Paris.
Comments
Post a Comment