By Kazeem Ugbodaga
In 28 days time, the tenure of Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari will be over and the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu will take over.
Buhari’s eight years reign as president has been very eventful as he travelled out 53 times for official assignments asides his numerous medical trips. In February and June 2016 Buhari travelled out for medical trips, likewise in May and September 2017. He also made another medical trip to the United Kingdom in April 2021. In May and November 2022, he was in UK again for medical trips.
PM NEWS‘ tracking of Buhari’s official and medical trips outside the country showed that he spent 431 days outside Nigeria, meaning he spent one year and 66 days outside the country.
Official trips
A breakdown of the travels shows the Nigerian president travelled 53 times for official assignments outside the country and spend 206 days outside.
For his medical trips, Buhari reportedly spent 225 days outside the country, specifically in London to attend to his ailing health.
For his official trips, Buhari visited 43 countries, which are Belgium, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Guinea-Bissau, India, Iran, Japan, Liberia, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Netherlands, Russia, Rwanda, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Sudan, Togo, Turkey, Benin, China, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Germany, Jordan, Morocco, Qatar, Chad, Ghana, Kenya, Niger, South Africa, The Gambia, United Arab Emirates, Senegal, United Kingdom, Ethiopia, France, Saudi Arabia and United States.
A breakdown of his official trips shows that he visited 16 countries in 2015 and spent 25 days outside, while in 2016, he visited 16 countries and spent 35 days. Likewise, in 2017, he visited seven countries and spent 13 days. In 2018, Buhari visited 11 countries and spent 36 days outside, while in 2019, he landed in 1o countries and spent 27 days.
In 2020, due to COVID-19, the president only visited two countries and spent six days between January and February. Buhari got to five countries and spent 19 days in 2021, while in 2022, he visited 17 countries and spent 29 days. Between January and April, 2023, Buhari visited five nations and spent 16 days.
Medical Trips
In his medical trip, as captured by the Punch, Buhari spent 225 days in the UK in the last eight years. On February 5, 2016 he spent six days in the UK while on June 6 of the same year, he travelled again and spent 13 days. On January 13, 2017, Buhari travelled out on medical trip again and spent 50 days away.
In May of the same year, the president embarked on his longest medical trip to the UK, spending 104 days.
In May 2018, he spent four days, while in March 2021, Buhari departed for another medical trip and spent 15 days. On March 6, 2022, Buhari spent 12 days in the UK while in November of the same year, he spent 13 days for medical trip.
