Our Reporter, Abuja
A Nigerian investigative journalist, Fisayo Soyombo, has taken a swipe at former presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, over his recent comments on the death of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, describing them as a stark reflection of Nigeria’s deeply entrenched elitism and disregard for the average citizen’s life.
Adesina, who in a Channels Television interview sought to explain the late President’s preference for foreign hospitals, revealed that Buhari “could have long been dead” if he had relied on Nigerian hospitals for medical treatment.
But Soyombo, who took to his X account said that Adesina’s statement underscores the hopelessness faced by millions of Nigerians who cannot afford to travel abroad for healthcare.
“Underneath Adesina’s admission lies a sobering fact: you and I have little hope of living as long as Buhari did,” the journalist wrote.
“As long as we haven’t held public office—thereby making our medical bills a state responsibility—and as long as we do not have enough dollars or pounds to fund frequent foreign trips, our fate is sealed.”
He argued that Buhari’s decision to spend years in power—both as military ruler and two-term democratic president—without building a single world-class hospital accessible to ordinary Nigerians, reveals a chilling indifference toward citizens’ welfare.
“To Buhari and many like him in public office, the president’s life is superior to every other Nigerian’s. But it should never be so. The sanctity of human life must be equal, regardless of social or political class.”
Addressing criticisms that some Nigerians had shown insufficient sympathy following Buhari’s passing, the renowned investigative journalist said what is being labelled “lack of empathy” is, in fact, “a rejection of the elite’s habitual disregard for the lives of everyday people.”
He said many of those accused of being unfeeling are the same Nigerians who: Watched Buhari urge victims of killer herdsmen to “accommodate your countrymen;” heard him repeatedly trivialize widespread killings by framing them as a “farmer-herder crisis;” saw him shield armed herdsmen while rushing to declare IPOB a terrorist group; remember his infamous threat before the 2015 elections that “the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood” if the polls mirrored those of 2011; and still live with the horror of the 2020 #EndSARS protests, when soldiers opened fire on peaceful demonstrators at the Lekki tollgate under Buhari’s watch.
“These are people who believe in the sanctity of human life, who are haunted by the countless lives lost due to government failure and selective outrage. If that is now being misconstrued as a lack of empathy, so be it,” he declared.
Soyombo further said that true empathy lies in ensuring justice, dignity, and equal treatment for all citizens—not in eulogizing leaders whose legacies are defined by the neglect and suffering of the people they swore to protect.
