Former presidential spokesperson Femi Adesina has defended the late President Muhammadu Buhari’s regular medical trips to London.

He said that getting the right medical care was more important than what people thought.

Speaking in an interview on Channels Television, Adesina explained that Buhari had been seeing doctors in the UK even before becoming president.

He said the president trusted these doctors and continued seeing them during his time in office.

“He always went to London for medical check-ups, even before he became president,” Adesina said. “It wasn’t something he started because of the presidency.”

Adesina added that making Buhari use Nigerian hospitals just to make a point could have cost him his life.

“You need to be alive first before you can fix things in your country,” he said. “If he had insisted on getting treatment in Nigeria just to prove a point, he might have died earlier, because the medical care he needed may not have been available here.”

President Buhari died recently in a London hospital after a short illness. His death has brought up old debates about his legacy, especially the fact that he often promised reforms but relied heavily on foreign hospitals.

Buhari was often criticized for spending long periods abroad for treatment while the healthcare system in Nigeria struggled. Many groups and politicians said this showed the government was ignoring local health problems.

But Adesina defended Buhari’s actions. “People talk easily about travelling abroad for treatment, but they forget that staying alive comes first,” he said.

During his time as president, Buhari reportedly spent over 235 days outside the country for medical reasons. It was one of the most controversial parts of his presidency.