President Buhari’s Health Concerns Flood Google Trend

Search trends on Google indicate that Nigerians are keen to know about the true state of their President’s health as they flooded the Internet search engine with key search terms relating to the health status of the President.

There have been reports from different quarters that the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari is dead, after he flew to the United Kingdom on a 10-day medical leave.

Although, aides of the President have debunked as rumours the reports, the President himself is yet to address the nation to prove he is alive and kicking.

Millions of Nigerians have resorted to Google search engine in earnest expectation searching for possible live broadcast of the President from his medical vacation spot, but the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, in an interview with CNBC Africa, insisted that Buhari’s trip to London was not on medical ground, stressing that the President is on vacation and nobody can force him to speak if he doesn’t want to.

“When he was travelling last week, the statement we put out was that he was going on vacation and during the vacation, he would do routine medical check-up and nothing has changed from what we pushed out last week.

“If anybody has fed something else into the rumour mill, that is just what it is – rumour. The fact that he is a President, he still has his rights. Compelling him to come out and talk will be infringing on his rights.

“The President will talk if he wishes to. If he doesn’t wish to, nobody will compel him to talk. The truth is that the President is on vacation and he has given a date on which he will return to work,” the President’s aide said.

However, that did not stop the President’s health concerns from trending on Google.

Google’s Communications and Public Affairs Manager, Anglophone West Africa, Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, in a statement in Lagos confirmed that search trends between January 18 and January 25 depict the eagerness of Nigerians to know the true status of the President’s health.

He confirmed that there was agitation on the internet over the week as the rumour broke that the President of Nigeria died in Germany following complications of his health conditions.

He said that presidential spokesmen were quick to dispel this as rumour on social media, in which they denied the news and explained that the president “is well and alive,” and was in London for his routine medical check-ups.

However, Nigerians are saying that this was the reality when the rumours of the death of Nigeria’s former President Musa Yar’Adua first broke, until it was confirmed that the former president had actually died.

Only time will tell as Nigerians now await the President to return to Nigeria alive between Friday 3 and Monday 6 of February 2016.