Today, former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari reportedly died in London — the same city where many Nigerian leaders choose to flee when sickness or death comes calling. It’s not just a tragic event — it’s a symbolic indictment of decades of failed leadership.
General Abdulsalami Abubakar, another former Head of State, is also reportedly critically ill in London.
Once again, as we’ve seen so many times before, the story is repeating itself:
They never built hospitals for us, yet they run abroad to die in peace.
Why is London their favourite place to die?
Why do our leaders, after spending decades in power, still refuse to place their lives in the hands of the system they were elected to fix?
The answer is sobering:
They never trusted the healthcare system they oversaw.
They never planned to be part of the suffering they allowed.
They never saw healthcare as a public right ,only as a personal privilege.
They escape to London to clean hospitals, advanced machines, and competent doctors , all built by nations who respected their people enough to invest in life.
And what is Nigeria to them?
A cemetery.
A place where the masses die:
In underfunded hospitals without power.
On roads riddled with potholes and accidents.
In maternity wards without oxygen or skilled hands.
In silence, without justice or attention.
Nigeria has become the cemetery of the common man,
While London remains the hospice of the elite.
They ruled us, but never lived with us. They buried us here, but died elsewhere , in comfort, on our stolen wealth.
A Legacy of Escape , Not Leadership
From Yar’Adua to Buhari, and now others who are ill or aging, the story is the same:
Rule Nigeria.
Drain its wealth.
Neglect its hospitals.
Then fly to foreign soil when death approaches.
They governed Nigeria , but refused to trust it with their final breath.
If the hospitals you refused to build couldn’t serve you in life or in death, then what legacy did you truly leave behind?
What If…?
What if even one of these leaders — just one — had the vision to build a world-class hospital in each region?
What if, instead of buying private jets and building overseas mansions, they invested in one excellent medical centre per zone?
Thousands would still be alive.
Millions wouldn’t need to sell their land to afford foreign hospitals.
Even they wouldn’t have to run.
One hospital per region could have ended this cycle of medical exile.
But instead, they left the nation bleeding and fled when it was their turn to suffer.
The Real Tragedy
We export our sick leaders.
We import our solutions.
We bury our poor in silence.
And we praise those who never trusted the land they governed.
We must ask:
Is this leadership — or betrayal?
Enough Is Enough
We don’t need leaders who flee to die.
We need leaders who live and if necessary die with dignity among their people.
We need:
Vision, not escape.
Hospitals that save everyone not just jets that save the powerful.
Leadership that builds legacies of life, not monuments of shame.
Until then, London will remain the chosen place to die.
And Nigeria tragically will remain the place where the poor are buried and the powerful never belonged.
