The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), was on Thursday sighted with a face mask for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic started.

The Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 had recommended the compulsory use of face mask while in public as one of the guidelines meant to curtail further spread of the virus in the country.

But while visitors to the Presidential Villa are always seen with face masks, Buhari has never been seen with one.

But in a photograph shared by his personal photographer, Bayo Omoboriowo, on Thursday, the President adorned face mask in Bamako, Mali.

The photograph showed the President with the white face mask as he disembarks the presidential jet.

Omoboriowo captioned the photograph as “@MBuhari arrives Bamako, Mali for the peace mission by the ECOWAS Head of states. 23rd July, 2020.”

Buhari and some West African leaders are currently in the Malian capital to find a solution to the worsening political crisis in the francophone country.

We earlier reported that Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, announced Wednesday that his principal would join his counterparts from the West African regional bloc on a peacekeeping mission to Mali.