The Coalition of United Political Parties on Sunday said President Muhammadu Buhari; former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and all other candidates contesting the 2019 presidential election should be subjected to mental health test.
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 state of the mental health of the presidential candidates “so that any person who does not pass the examination should not be allowed to participate in the election.”
He stated, “A country of about 200 million people cannot be living and thriving under the situation of being in doubt of the mental stability of the man who holds their mandate to lead and who is seeking an extension of that mandate.
“The international community is also expressing a similar doubt, hence their reactions to the economy and the withdrawal of their businesses from the country. At no other particular time in the history of Nigeria has the number of businesses that closed down in the almost four years of the Buhari presidency happened before in Nigeria.
“It is on these premises that we demand an independent team of experts in mental health issues to examine President Muhammadu Buhari and indeed all other presidential candidates to ascertain their mental stability before the polling day so that any person who does not pass the examination should not be allowed to participate in the election.”
He said 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 for the general interest of Nigeria.
Ugochinyere also urged Buhari to be speaking 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 many of who have questionable characters and mostly dish out fake news to citizens?
“Is it not to hide the mental status of the President that the yet-to-be-identified two or three people who have hijacked the Presidency, according to the wife of the President, that the President has been directed not to speak outside his written speeches?
“Was this directive not also part of the confessions of the wife of the President when she named persons who were with her who were not going to be happy if she went outside the already prepared speech?
“Nigerians want to know the identities of the persons that write these speeches, their ideologies and their stake in the Nigerian project because many a time, the President reads speeches that are not in tune with the reality as he did during the presentation of the 2019 budget and was rightly booed by the 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.”
