The Presidency has declared that it cannot guarantee that President Muhammadu Buhari will return from his current four-day medical trip to London on Saturday as scheduled.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, declared this on Tuesday during a telephone interview on Channels Television Breakfast Programme, Sunrise Daily.

Asked if it is guaranteed that Buhari's stay in London will not exceed four days, Adesina responded: “When you talk of guarantee, man cannot guarantee. Nobody can guarantee anything.”

But he expressed hope that the president would "be back in the country on Saturday by the grace of God. On Monday and Tuesday, he will visit Jigawa State.”

Responding to a question on what warranted the president's current medical trip, Adesina said only Buhari could reveal the details of his health condition as it is private and personal.

Adesina, however, said there was no cause for alarm over the president's health, noting that he only went to London for checkup.

Adesina stated: “That is something private and personal. The fact that a man is a president does not remove his right and privileges to privacy.

"So, unless Mr President comes out voluntarily and willingly to tell the country that ‘this is what I have suffered from, this is what I have been treated for’…even the medical doctor does not have the right to say it.

“It is in the Hippocratic oath that the medical doctors take. They cannot disclose the ailment of the patient without the permission of that patient.

“There is no cause for alarm because he (President Buhari) is up and about and doing his duties. What he is going for is a review. We all need that from time to time. There is nobody that is 100 percent healthy. He is just going for a review. I want to believe that he will come back on Saturday as planned.”

•Text (excluding headline) courtesy of Daily Trust.

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