Buhari speaks to Conde: grateful for prayers, accepts A.U. anti-corruption job

Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, who is currently on medical leave in the United Kingdom, has spoken to his Guinean counterpart, Alpha Conde, the presidency has confirmed.

Buhari is said to have thanked Conde for asking for nationwide prayers to be said for him by Guineans. Conde, last week, asked mosques across the country to pray for Buhari’s recovery.

‘Your excellency will be pleased to hear that I am making good progress, and soon as doctors advise, I shall return to my duties and continue serving the Nigerian people who elected me and are daily praying for me,’ Buhari told Conde.

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Buhari also took the opportunity to confirm to Conde – the current President of the African Union (A.U.) that he had accepted nomination of a continental post as leader of the ’2018 AU Theme on the Fight Against Corruption.’

President MBuhari has also accepted his nomination, by African leaders, as leader of the "2018 AU Theme on the Fight Against Corruption." pic.twitter.com/Oxsni7jsnr

— Presidency Nigeria (NGRPresident) July 25, 2017

The Nigerian only released a photo of Buhari meeting with a number of state governors at his residence in London. It was the first photo in over two months since he left Abuja for the second time this year.

Buhari, a former military ruler who took office in May 2015, handed over to his deputy, Yemi Osinbajo, to allay concerns about a possible power vacuum in his absence.

With the economy in recession, Nigerian authorities are also fighting an Islamist insurgency in the northeast and trying to maintain a fragile ceasefire by militants whose attacks in the Niger Delta last year cut oil production by more than a third.

The refusal of officials to disclose details of Buhari’s illness has triggered fierce speculation in Nigeria’s media and on social media over the last few months about whether he will seek a second term in the 2019 election.