How Dr Obafemi, who treated Yusuf Buhari, committed suicide

A Nigerian doctor identified as Dr Obafemi, who was the first medical personnel who attended to President Buhari son, Yusuf Buhari after his accident, reportedly committed suicide.

Yusuf, who got married to Zahra, daughter of Nasiru Ado Bayero, the Emir of Bichi in Kano state last week suffered an injury to the head in a power bike in Abuja on December 26, 2017.

Yusuf was admitted to Cedarcrest Hospital in Abuja, following the bike crash in the Gwarimpa area of Abuja. He was discharged from the hospital on January 12, 2018, and flown abroad for further treatment.

Yusuf returned to Nigeria after his medical treatment abroad on Thursday, March 1, 2018. His mother, Aisha Buhari, announced his return to the country on Twitter, saying Yusuf was welcomed back by govt officials. “We thank God for the return of our son Yusuf today (Thursday) after his medical trip,” she wrote.

“Yusuf Buhari had a bike accident last night around Gwarimpa in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. He broke a limb and had an injury to the head as a result. He has undergone surgery at a clinic in Abuja. He is in stable condition.

“The President and his wife, Mrs Aisha Muhammadu Buhari, are thankful to Nigerians for the good wishes and prayers for their son,” Presidential media aide, Garba Shehu, had said in a statement.

But according to a top source who spoke to SaharaReporters on Sunday, Obafemi was the doctor who received Yusuf at Nisa Premier Hospital, Abuja on the night he had an accident on his power motorcycle He, however, facilitated his transfer to another hospital, Cedarcrest, when he saw how critical the condition of Yusuf was, the source said.

“When Yusuf had an accident at Gwarimpa with his power bike, he was rushed to Nisa Premier. There he met Dr Obafemi who was one of the most junior doctors at the facility. Dr Obafemi didn’t know he was Yusuf and didn’t bother to know.

“All he knew was that he is a son of ‘somebody’ for him to have been escorted by policemen. He sought to give him the best treatment primarily as a patient. After a brief examination, he realised that Yusuf was an orthopaedic case and their facility was not one.

“He called his Head of Department who didn’t pick up his calls and later called Dr Ibrahim Wada, the owner of the facility. None picked his numerous calls. When he realised Yusuf would die if he didn’t refer him to a hospital where he can get the best care, he referred him to Cedarcrest (where he knew they were are into such treatment),” the source told SaharaReporters.

The source revealed further that “shortly after Yusuf was sent to Cedar Crest, news got to Wada and the HOD that a ‘big fish’ was at their hospital, they all came in hurriedly to devour the loot. On getting to their hospital, reality dawned on them that ‘bloody Dr Obafemi had transferred Yusuf’, they were mad!”

The source said the transfer of Buhari’s son to another hospital so angered Obafemi’s superiors that they sacked him as they had lost an opportunity of making good money for treating the first son. Their madness led to the sacking of Dr Obafemi for having the audacity to transfer a patient without their authorisation.

“Fortunately for Dr Obafemi, there was a lady that works at Nisa Premier whose husband works at Cedarcrest. They discussed the issue at home and the husband told their boss about the sacking of the doctor that brought their ‘gold mine’ to them. The CMD then called Dr Obafemi to offer him a job,” the source said. The source went further to say the doctor (Obafemi) was “earning N120,000 at Nisa Premier and it was increased to N150,000 at Cedarcrest.”

The source continued, “Seeing life was unfair to him, Dr Obafemi gathered money together to go and take PLAB (Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board test) in the UK with the mind of relocating abroad (mind you he graduated at 24 from the University of Ilorin, so he was very brilliant).

“The majority of the money he got was a loan from the bank, to be paid back with interest – as his salary could barely feed and provide accommodation for him. Mind you, to take PLAB, you will need nothing less than N2.5 million, as at then, for the exams, flight and accommodation.” The source said Obafemi failed the examination and subsequently committed suicide.

“He was not given enough leave to study for PLAB because he worked in a private hospital, so he failed PLAB. The news of his failure, plus the army of creditors who daily hunted him for their money got to him and he checked into a hotel in Suleja and committed suicide.

“The hotel guys realised he was not coming out at 12pm and wasn’t responding to their knocks on the door, so they called the police who opened the door and found him dead, with his certificates in a file and a suicide note apologising to his parents.

“He was from a lowly background, so he wanted to change their lives after becoming a doctor and realised the system (Nigeria) was constantly against him. Even though we wouldn’t do that but our level of tolerance differs.

“That was the brief story of the doctor that made it possible for our ‘jobless boy’ to ever dream of a celeb wedding,” the source concluded.