By Idowu Togun

Today, former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari reportedly died in London the city where many Nigerian leaders retreat to when sickness or death comes knocking. This isn’t just another tragic headline 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, history repeats itself:

They never built hospitals for us,
Yet they run abroad to die in peace.

Why is London the preferred place to die?
Why do leaders who ruled for years still avoid the very system they were elected to fix?

The answer is clear and deeply troubling:

They never trusted the healthcare system they governed.
They never intended to suffer the consequences of their own failures.
They saw healthcare not as a public right, but as a private privilege.

So they flee to clean hospitals, advanced machines, and competent doctors.
To systems built by nations that respect their citizens and invest in life.

And what becomes of Nigeria?
A cemetery.

A place where the poor die:

  • In underfunded hospitals with no power.

  • On broken roads riddled with potholes.

  • In maternity wards with no oxygen or skilled hands.

  • In silence with no justice, no attention, and no outrage.

Nigeria has become the graveyard 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 chose to die in comfort, on foreign soil  funded by our stolen wealth.

A Legacy of Escape, Not Leadership

From Yar’Adua to Buhari and now others battling illness abroad the pattern remains:

  • Rule Nigeria.

  • Drain its resources.

  • Neglect its hospitals.

  • Flee to foreign care when death draws near.

They governed this country, but didn’t trust it with their final breath.

If the hospitals they ignored couldn’t serve them in life or death, what legacy did they truly leave behind?

What If?

What if even one of these leaders had the vision to build a world-class hospital in each region?

What if instead of private jets and foreign mansions they had invested in just one excellent medical center per zone?

  • Thousands would still be alive.

  • Millions wouldn’t sell their land to seek help abroad.

  • Even they wouldn’t have had to run.

One hospital per region could have ended this cycle of medical exile.
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 glorify those who never trusted the nation they governed.

So 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 need be, die with dignity among their people.

We need:

  • Vision, not escape.

  • Hospitals that serve all, not just jets for the privileged.

  • Leadership that builds legacies of life not monuments of shame.

Until then, London will remain the chosen place to die.
And Nigeria will tragically remain the place where the poor are buried…
… and the powerful never belonged.

God bless our nation.