Garba Shehu, presidential
spokesman, has absolved President Muhammadu Buhari of allegations of double
standard in the crisis rocking the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
Critics of the president have
accused him of shielding Usman Yusuf, executive secretary of the scheme, who
has been involved in different controversies since he assumed office in July
2017.
Yusuf was suspended by Isaac
Adewole, minister of finance, last year but reinstated six months later.
Last week the NHIS board also
suspended Yusuf over alleged corruption but he described the action as illegal,
saying only Buhari had the power to do so.
Subsequently, he returned to
office under the protection of the police.
Shehu said regardless of the
allegations against Yusuf, the ES has prevented the usurping of public funds.
He alleged that the NHIS had been
“ethnicised and politicised by some interest groups within and outside the
agency”, asking if Yusuf’s suspension followed due process.
“Did the board follow due process
in suspending this gentleman? There are opinions that said `no they haven’t’,”
Shehu said.
“Again we all have to do the
right thing all of the times. I don’t deny the fact that there is a lot of work
to do. The fact is that the whole thing about the NHIS has been ethnicised and
politicised.
“Even a political party was
issuing a statement on matters that are unknown to it. I’ll tell you one thing,
as we speak now, you know that no matter whatever mistakes this gentleman may
have made, and that is to be proven because I don’t have the records to say yes
or no, he has launched a major reform in that institution.
“Well, there is no double
standard there either than to say that the pictures that the government is
looking at many Nigerians perhaps may not be seeing those pictures.
“Money from the NHIS is not money
belonging to government, is money taken from your salary, from my salary. If we
have been enlisted, we are supposed to get treatments when we fall ill then you
should ask the question in 13 years of the NHIS how many Nigerians have
received the treatments.
“Yet you have HMOs, these
vendors, taking N5 billion every month, money that is just being shared and
somebody came and said, `look, this can’t go on’ and with strong support from
this administration the N5 billion has been reduced to N1.3 billion.
“And even at then, the
administration is not satisfied. We want to see healthcare delivered to the
citizens of this country. So there is a lot of work to do.”
He, however, said Boss Mustapha,
secretary to the government of the federation, and Adewole have intervened in
the crisis with a view to resolving the issues.
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