Buhari returns home after sick leave in UK

President Muhammadu Buhari will return on Saturday from medical leave in Britain where he has been since May 7, a presidential spokesman said.

The presidency has not disclosed the precise nature of the 74-year-old’s ailment, which has led to speculation in Nigerian media and on social media about his illness and whether he will seek a second term by contesting the 2019 election.

Buhari, who took office in May 2015, handed over power to his deputy, Yemi Osinbajo, in his absence to allay concerns of a void at the helm of Africa’s biggest economy.

“President Muhammadu Buhari returns to the country later today, after receiving medical attention in London,” the president’s spokesman Femi Adesina said in a statement on Saturday.

“President Buhari is expected to speak to Nigerians in a broadcast by 7 a.m (0600 GMT) on Monday, August 21,” he said.

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It was his second break for medical leave in Britain this year after a first that began in January and lasted nearly two months.

Buhari 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.

Yemi Osinbajo, who has been running Nigeria since Buhari went to Britain on May 7 has managed to calm tensions in the Niger Delta oil hub and pushed small steps such as a forex trade window to narrow the gap between the official and parallel naira exchange rates.