President Muhammadu Buhari will embark on another whirlwind of global travel beginning with trips to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Nairobi, Kenya before the end of January.
Starting from February, President Buhari is scheduled to visit Paris, London, Qatar and Saudi Arabia for official visits. Some of the trips are also related to conferences.
Mr. Buhari’s trip to Saudi Arabia comes on the heels of the Nigerian Army’s massacre of Shiite Muslims and the arrest of Shiite leader, Ibrahim El Zakzaky. Whereas the government of Iran condemned the attack on the Shiites, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a regional and sectarian rival to Iran, welcomed it. The majority of Nigerian Muslims are Sunnis, the sect recognized by Saudi Arabia.
A Presidency source told SaharaReporters that some of President Buhari’s aides were concerned about his health, adding that the president’s frequent travels might be taking a toll on his health. According to the source, the president’s personal physician, Dr. Suhayb Sanusi Rafindadi, now stands very close to him during and after public events on foreign and sometimes domestic trips.
SaharaReporters also learned that Mr. Buhari’s chief security officer, Abdulkarim Dauda, travels two days ahead of the president in order to spend two days in hotel rooms where Mr. Buhari is expected to sleep. “It is a precautionary measure,” said the source.