Chief Bisi Akande, chieftain of the All Progressives Congress and erstwhile interim National Chairman of the party has said he is greatly disturbed and saddened by the health of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Akande who claimed there are two challenges facing Nigeria today mentioned the President’s health and the lack of cohesion between the National Assembly and the Presidency as veritable threats to the stability of the country. Of the two challenges, he said, the most critical is the health of the President which he described as a development beyond his control and which Nigerians did not prepare for.

Chief Akande who urged Nigerians to pray fervently for the recovery of President Buhari said “the health of the leader is intricately intertwined with the health of the nation. It is more so in a delicately fragile union of nations called Nigeria.”

Akande made the assertions in a public statement he released on Monday. The former National Chairman of the APC said he knew the President was seriously ill when he did not show up at the wedding of his own grandson in Kaduna last Saturday. The following is part of the text of the statement:

“The health of the leader is intricately intertwined with the health of the nation. It is more so in a delicately fragile union of nations called Nigeria. I did not see President Buhari at the wedding of his adopted son in Kaduna, last Saturday. I was sad and I wept.

“When last we met at the wedding of his daughter in Abuja, last December, I complained to him that I was not happy about his stressful looks. His reply connoted some allusions to circumstances where an honest man fighting corruption is surrounded mostly by unpatriotic greedy ruling class. He felt painfully frustrated.

“He assured me he would soon be going on vacation. I then knew that corruption has effectively been fighting back. And I prayed for Nigeria. That was why Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and I rushed to meet him in London in February this year when he was sick and could not return as scheduled from his vacation. The rest is history but we must appreciate that his poor health is already taking a toll on the health of Nigeria as a polity.

“There are two challenges facing the country today. The first and most critical is the health of the President which, unfortunately, is a development beyond his control and for which we did not prepare. The second is the disorder and lack of cohesion between the National Assembly and the Presidency.

“Certain Nigerian leaders, having been blindfolded by corruption, assume the possibility of using money in manipulating the national security agencies to intimidate, suppress and hold down certain ethnic nationalities or playing one ethnic nationality against the other with a view to undermining the constitution and perversely upturning the rule of law.

“To avoid the ugly consequences of letting President Buhari’s ailments throw Nigeria into confusion, I am urging all Nigerians to begin to pray for his divine healing and perfect recovery.

“Let me warn today that those who wish to harvest political gains out of the health of the President are mistaken. This is not Nigeria of 1993. We are in a new national and global era of constitutionality and order. We hope Nigerians have enough patience to learn from history.

“My greatest fear, however, is that the country should not be allowed to slide into anarchy and disorder of a monumental proportion.”