The Coalition of United Political Parties on Sunday called for mental
health tests for President Muhammadu Buhari; former Vice-President Atiku
Abubakar and all other candidates contesting the 2019 presidential
election.
It said the test should be conducted by an independent team of experts in mental health issues.
The coalition’s demand was contained in a statement by its first national spokesman, Imo Ugochinyere.
Ugochinyere
said the test was necessary in order to ascertain the presidential
candidates’ mental stability before elections, “so that any person who
does not pass the examination should not be allowed to participate in
the election.”
He said the CUPP had secured the assurances of
Atiku, who is contesting the election on the platform of the Peoples
Democratic Party, to subject himself to the medical test in the general
interest of Nigeria.
He urged Buhari to speak more to Nigerians and Nigerian journalists, especially through presidential media chat.
He
added, “CUPP also calls on President Buhari to face the Nigerian media
and stop holding them in disdain as they are professionals and are
renowned world over for their expertise.
“How could a President not speak to any Nigerian media house or journalist for over three years?
“How
could a President hold his entire country’s media and citizens in such
disdain that he speaks to them only through a crowd of spokespersons?
“Nigerians
want to know the identities of the persons that write his speeches,
their ideologies and their stake in the Nigerian project because, many a
time, the President reads speeches that are not in tune with reality,
as he did during the presentation of budget 2019 and was rightly booed
by lawmakers.
“This medical examination is very necessary and all
Nigerians of goodwill should join this call for the unveiling of the
real facts behind this façade presented to Nigerians.”
Leave a Reply