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Aisha Buhari plays down concerns over president’s health

President Muhammadu Buhari's wife has sought to play down fears about her husband's health, as he faces calls to go on extended medical leave.

Aisha Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari’s wife has sought to play down fears about her husband’s health, as he faces calls to go on extended medical leave.

Aisha Buhari said the head of state’s health was “not as bad as it’s being perceived”, without specifying the nature of his illness.

“He continues to carry out his responsibilities during this period,” she wrote on her Twitter account on Tuesday evening.

Buhari, 74, has been under growing pressure to disclose his state of health since he returned from London in early March after nearly two months away.

He missed two out of the last three cabinet meetings in April, was absent from Friday prayers last week and failed to attend his grandson’s wedding on Saturday.

His spokesman said he had undergone “a long period of treatment” in London and needed rest.

On Tuesday, prominent Nigerians and civil society activists advised him to take medical leave.

Nigerian media reported on Wednesday that former president Olusegun Obasanjo met other ex-military rulers Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar to discuss the situation.

The health of Nigeria’s president has been a sensitive issue since the death in office in 2010 of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, which sparked months of political turmoil.

During the 2015 election campaign, Buhari rejected opposition claims that he was seriously ill with prostate cancer and said they were a smear to show him as unfit for office.

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