A video of President Tinubu leaving the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital Paddington in London surfaced online on Friday.
According to SaharaReporters, the president’s penchant for foreign medical trips has increased since his coming to power in May 2023, with citizens lamenting how this impacts on public funds and limits his attention to key issues of governance and policy making.
Tinubu departed Abuja for China on August 29, 2024 and departed China for London, United Kingdom, via Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) on September 6.
His whereabouts had first remained unknown until he visited King Charles III at Buckingham Palace in London on Wednesday, September 11.
However, a video seen by SaharaReporters showed him leaving the Lindo Wing at St Mary’s Hospital in London being assisted into a black Mercedes Benz by his aides including his Aide-De-Camp, Lt Colonel Nurudeen Yusuf.
According to Imperial NHS UK, the Lindo Wing at St Mary’s Hospital is a dedicated private facility within Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.
“It has a heritage of delivering excellence in healthcare since 1937, when the Lindo Wing was opened by Queen Elizabeth, subsequently Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother,” a post of the website describing the health facility read.
“The Lindo Wing provides world-renowned maternity services but also specialises in a range of complex surgeries including trauma, weight loss, vascular, gynaecology, urology, ear, nose and throat, and general surgery.”
Before the 2023 general elections, Tinubu’s health was a source of concern for many Nigerians.
SaharaReporters reported how the former Lagos governor spent over four months patronising hospitals in France, the United States and the United Kingdom where he underwent several surgeries between 2020 and 2022.
He was flown out of the country some days before Christmas in 2020 to Paris, France. The President returned to Nigeria on January 24, 2021, after a month’s absence from Nigeria.
He also went for a medical check-up in France in June 2021 and was conspicuously absent from a one-day working visit of then-President Muhammadu Buhari to Lagos State. Tinubu, amidst death rumours, was forced to return to the country on Tuesday, June 15, 2021.
This is among so many other health challenges recorded by the newspaper before the 2023 election.
SaharaReporters also reported that Tinubu was hospitalised in Maryland, the United States in July 2021.
On August 9, the APC leader had another knee surgery at the Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Maryland, U.S.
The APC chieftain, it was learnt, left the U.S. for the United Kingdom on crutches, a few days after the surgery.
Sources close to Tinubu had told SaharaReporters that he wanted the surgery in Paris, France but changed his plan over rumours of his death.
In August of same year, his predecessor, President Buhari paid a visit to Tinubu in London and the latter was seen with a walking stick during Buhari’s visit, confirming SaharaReporters’ story that he had undergone surgery in the US.
Upon his return in October 2022, Tinubu confirmed that he underwent surgery on his right knee as well as post-surgery physiotherapy on the said knee during his medical trip abroad.
SaharaReporters also reported how the President, after the May 29, 2023 swearing-in became exhausted and went on a bed rest.
Tinubu returned to France to see his doctors, weeks before his inauguration on May 29, 2023.