Buhari scheduled to travel to UK on Friday for medical check

President Muhammadu Buhari will travel to London, the United Kingdom on Friday, the Presidency has said.

This was contained in a statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, on Thursday, June 24, in Abuja.

According to him, Buhari will be back in the country after the comprehensive checkups during the second week of July.

“President Muhammadu Buhari will proceed to London, the United Kingdom on Friday, June 25, 2021, for a scheduled medical follow-up.

He is due back in the country during the second week of July, 2021,” the statement read.

President Buhari’s scheduled trip to London comes almost three months since he last visited the United Kingdom for the same purpose.

He had travelled to the United Kingdom on March 30 for a routine medical check-up, as indicated in a statement by his media adviser.

The President later returned to the country via the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport on April 15, at the end of the trip which lasted more than two weeks.

Amid speculations that the Nigerian leader may be sick at the time and had to embark on an emergency trip, the presidency stated that there was nothing of such.

“It is a routine medical check-up; the President has undertaken this with a set of doctors that he has retained over many years,” Garba Shehu has stated.

Meanwhile, the Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, Mr Festus Keyamo, has revealed that over 400 thousand Nigerians have received N60,000 as part of the Special Public Works Programme launched in 2021 by the Federal Government.

Keyamo made this disclosure at the weekly Ministerial Media Chat at the Statehouse on Thursday, June 24.

During his press briefing, Keyamo said, “the scheme which is aimed at empowering Nigerians and cushioning the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, has seen 413,630 persons paid N60,000 each.”

According to him, some payments that have bounced back are owing to BVN challenges.

N24.817billion has been distributed to Nigerians so far; adding that an extension might be requested to meet a target of 500 thousand persons; for the first phase of the program, he clarified.

The minister also stressed that the program has been conducted across the 774 local governments; however, he noted that government initiatives of this nature can regrettably be hijacked by political leaders at the state levels; and for this reason, some resistance was encountered.

He asserted that President Muhammadu Buhari has and will continue to ensure transparency in all the Federal Government’s programmes.