A FEW days after President Muhammadu Buhari, who has more than any past president spent 172 days abroad for medical treatment, called on Nigerians to stop traveling abroad for medical treatment, Governor  Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State has been admitted in a London hospital following report of an illness, yet to be disclosed, a statement by his media aide has revealed.

Mukhtar Gidado, Senior Special Assistant (SSA) media to the Governor, said in a statement shared with pressmen in Bauchi on Sunday, that the governor was receiving treatment in the UK.

“I am in hospital in London but we strongly believe that Allah is sufficient for us and He is Able and Capable to give us victory! Cheers, success shall be ours InshaAllah! Cheers to you all,” reads the governor’s message in the statement.

Mohammed’s medical vacation is coming up a few days after President Muhammadu Buhari urged Nigerians to stop traveling abroad for medical treatment.

“Nigerians have suffered so much going abroad for medical treatment. This is not good for us and it must stop because we can’t afford it again,” the president said.

The president’s statement on January 3, at the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State during the inauguration and handover of completed projects to the management of the hospital, drew a lot of criticisms from Nigerians.

Nigerians who reacted to the president’s statement described such a call as hypocrisy, arguing that the president himself has not lived by examples.

In an earlier report, The ICIR revealed that Buhari who first entered office in 2015, has spent a total of 172 days on medical vacation in London, in his four years of in office. The number of days spent abroad by Buhari for medical treatment is also more than any other Nigerian president has ever spent.

More worrying, the details of the exact amount of taxpayers money buried in these secretive medical trips made by President Buhari remain unknown to Nigerians.

However, in 2019 budget, President Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo got an allocation of N1.3 billion for travels, this has gone up by 61 per cent as N3.3 billion was proposed for their trips in the 2020 Appropriation Bill, Daily Trust reports.