Over President Muhammadu Buhari’s extended vacation in abroad, the federal government has again moved to clear the air about his rumoured death and cautioned that there is no basis comparing his health with what played out during the Umaru Yar’Adua’s presidency.

According to Ceoafrica, Minister of information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, made the spirited defence yesterday when he briefed State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by acting President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He insisted that Buhari was neither ill, nor was he in any danger that calls for panic.

The minister also reacted to the charge that he had failed to provide hourly briefings on the status of the president’s health, even though he had challenged the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led government in 2010 to do the same when the late Yar’Adua was sick and later died in office.

According to him, it was like comparing apple with oranges.

He added that Buhari was not in a hospital in London and was not in any danger relating to his health, hinting that there’s no cause for alarm.

He explained that the controversy surrounding the health of the president had played out because of the nature of his transparency, stressing that he can say without any equivocation that Ptesident Buhari is well, hale, and hearty and no question about that.

He said further that “Mr President is not ill, he is not in hospital, and there will be no need to give anybody hourly bulletins about his health pure and simple”. the minister said.

He added: “Mr President, like I said elsewhere, is a victim of his own transparency, he was going on leave, he did what the constitution said he should do: he transmitted a letter to the National Assembly and an acting president was put in place and he said ‘while I am on leave, I am going to conduct some medical tests’, which all of us do without announcing it.

“And of course less than six hours after he got there, he was pronounced dead by some people. Even those who saw him climb the aircraft in Abuja said he was flown by air ambulance.

The information minister said that he could however not blame Buhari for his rumoured death that has followed his vacation abroad, because this is the third time he’s been declared dead.

When asked why Buhari went on vacation at a time Nigeria is in a recession, the minister answered and queried that “Our constitution guarantees that, did Obama not go on leave, do other presidents not go on leave?

Buhari left Nigeria on January 19 on a vacation for 10 working days and was slated to return on February 5 in order to resume work the next day.

However, on the day he was supposed to return to the country, the presidency issued a statement explaining that the president had decided to extend his vacation on the advice of his doctors. No date was given on when he would return.

Since his departure, Buhari has not been seen or heard from, fuelling speculations about his well-being.

Despite the photographs released by the presidency and close associates of the president, showing Buhari vacationing in the United Kingdom with his wife, among others; the concerns have not been doused.