By Hadiza Abdulkadir
The death of Nigeria’s former President Muhammadu Buhari in a London hospital has once again spotlighted the country’s long-standing crisis in healthcare delivery, especially among its elite.
Buhari, 82, died on Saturday, July 13, after a prolonged illness reportedly linked to leukaemia. Despite leading Africa’s most populous nation and the continent’s largest economy, he died not on Nigerian soil, but under foreign care.
His passing mirrors a now-familiar pattern among Nigeria’s political class: fleeing abroad for treatment, even for routine ailments, only to eventually die in foreign hospitals. Buhari, who frequently sought medical attention in the United Kingdom during his presidency, had once campaigned on the promise of reducing medical tourism. Instead, he became one of its most prominent symbols.
Public reaction has been swift and critical. Muhammad Shakir Balogun, a resident advisor with the Nigeria Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program (NFELTP), condemned the trend in a widely shared Facebook post. Drawing comparisons with African icons like Nelson Mandela and Jerry Rawlings—both of whom received treatment and died in their home countries—Balogun wrote:
“They were not flown to London, Paris, or Amsterdam. They were attended to in their own countries by their own doctors… What of Nigeria, the giant of Africa? Even those who campaigned on the moral pedestal of not going abroad for treatment turned out to be the worst offenders ever.”
He called on current President Bola Tinubu to “break the despicable and shameless tradition” by ensuring at least one world-class hospital exists within Nigeria—“even if it’s a military hospital.”
Yet, President Tinubu himself has also faced criticism for continuing the same tradition. Since assuming office in May 2023, he has reportedly travelled to Paris multiple times for medical checkups, reinforcing the perception that Nigerian leaders lack confidence in the very healthcare system they oversee.
Critics argue that the reliance on foreign healthcare is not just a failure of policy but a profound betrayal of public trust. Nigeria’s public hospitals suffer from underfunding, dilapidated infrastructure, and a mass exodus of medical professionals, many of whom now work in the very countries to which Nigerian leaders turn in times of illness.
With Buhari’s burial scheduled for today in his hometown of Daura, Katsina State, attention is turning not just to the legacy of his leadership, but to the urgent need for healthcare reform at home, so that future presidents may live, heal, and if necessary, die on Nigerian soil.