Africa’s Sick Presidents & the Non-Disclosure of Their Health Status

With more than seven months gone in 2017, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has spent the better part of the year holed up in a London hospital treating an undisclosed illness far away from the 180 million Nigerian citizens that elected him to lead them out the worst economic crisis to hit the country in decades.

Mr. Buhari’s continued absence has fueled a leadership crisis that has threatened to boil over on several occasions amid calls for him to take the high road and hand in his resignation if he can no longer cope with the physical and mental rigor of leading Africa’s most populous country.

But 74-year-old Mr. Buhari is hardly the only African president who has had his productivity and ability to govern seriously limited by reoccurring health problems.

Here, Face2Face Africa takes a look at five other African heads of government who have made the news in recent times because of their health challenges and the secrecy shrouding it.