Former presidential spokesperson Femi Adesina has defended the late President Muhammadu Buhari’s consistent medical trips to London, insisting that survival and access to expertise mattered more than public perception.

Speaking on Channels Television, Adesina dismissed long-standing criticisms over Buhari’s reliance on foreign medical care, saying the president had established relationships with his UK doctors long before assuming office and continued with them due to trust and specialised attention.

“He always had his medicals in London, even when he was not in office,” Adesina said. “So it was not about the time he was president alone.”

He argued that forcing the president to use Nigeria’s health system to prove a point could have been fatal.

“You have to be alive first to get certain things changed or corrected in your country,” he said. “If he had said, ‘I will do my medicals in Nigeria just as a show off,’ he could have long been dead, because there may not be the expertise needed in the country.”

Adesina’s remarks come in the wake of Buhari’s death in a London clinic, where he had been receiving care for a brief illness. His death has reignited debate over his legacy, particularly the irony of a president who often spoke of reform, yet remained heavily reliant on foreign hospitals.

Buhari faced recurring criticism for not investing adequately in Nigeria’s health sector while spending long periods abroad for treatment. Civil society groups and political opponents often cited his absences as emblematic of official neglect.

But Adesina defended Buhari’s priorities. “Those who glibly talk of going abroad, they don’t know that a man needs to be alive first before he can effect a change,” he said.

During his presidency, Buhari reportedly spent over 235 days abroad for medical reasons, making the issue one of the most contentious of his tenure.