Nigeria's acting president briefly meets ailing Buhari in London

Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was in London on Tuesday, spending an hour at the country’s High Commission where President Muhammadu Buhari has spent much of the past two months on medical leave.

A Reuters reporter saw Osinbajo arrive at Abuja House, the Nigerian High Commission, or embassy, in London, late on Tuesday. He left an hour later without comment.

Buhari left Abuja on May 7 and handed over power to his deputy, to allay concerns of a void at the top of Africa’s biggest economy. [nL8N1I912M]

“Osinbajo meeting with President Buhari in London today, and returning to Abuja immediately afterwards,” the vice president’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, said in a Twitter message posted earlier on Tuesday. No details were given.

Officials have not disclosed details of Buhari’s illness, which has caused fierce speculation in Nigerian media and on social media about his ailment and whether he will seek a second term in the 2019 election.

A thin-looking Buhari, 74, was last seen in Nigeria on state television welcoming a group of 82 girls released by Islamist militant group Boko Haram, hours before he flew to Britain.

It is the ailing president’s second break in Britain this year. The first began in January and lasted nearly two months.

Reuters