Human Rights Writers Association
Of Nigeria, HURIWA, has berated President Muhammadu Buhari for his failure to
stop the members of his inner caucus from embarking on medical trips abroad.
HURIWA also lamented Buhari’s
lack of political will to set up a panel to investigate the allegations of
corruption at the State House clinic.
According to the rights group,
the President Muhammadu Buhari government has shown no interest into investing
massively in reviving the moribund health sector despite the brunt of the
COVID-19 pandemic.
The group pointed out that annual
budgetary allocation of the State House Clinic is a lot more than what is
allocated to each of the 16 major teaching hospitals across the country with
over a total of N13.59 billion having reportedly been budgeted for it since the
administration came into being.
“A breakdown of the total
budgetary provisions within this period showed that N3.94 billion, N3.87
billion and N3.20 billion were budgeted in 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively.
While in 2018, 2019 and 2020, the budgetary provisions dropped to N1.03
billion, N823.44 million and N723 million respectively,” HURIWA said in a statement
to DAILY POST on Tuesday by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko.
“Despite these huge allocations
it receives, the Clinic has left more to be desired as those the facility is
meant to serve are still spending millions of taxpayers’ money to seek
treatment in other private facilities within and outside the country on health
matters that could be well managed here in the country, yet no panel of
investigation has been set up to investigate the scandals and allegations of
corruptions oozing out from there even as a bulk of the allegation had come
from members of the first family.
“In 2017, the wife of the
President; Aisha Buhari had attacked the management of the State House Clinic
over poor equipment and non-availability of drugs. This attack by the Wife of
the President had followed the earlier criticism by her daughter; Zara Buhari,
who took to one of her social media accounts to criticise the Permanent
Secretary of the State House; Jalal Arabi, for his inability to provide even
Paracetamol tablets to the clinic despite a budget of N3 billion for the
provision of drugs to the hospital.
“Although in October 2017, the
House of Representatives said it would investigate the “deplorable condition”
of the State House Clinic but till date the outcome of that inquiry remains
unknown.
“Again, President Buhari in the
build up to his election in 2015, had on his campaign trail, itemized the
abolition of medical tourism as one of his key objectives in government.
“Although his administration
officials vowed to put an end to the practice, Buhari has been Nigeria’s most
prominent medical tourist. He has visited the United Kingdom for at least five
medical trips since becoming president, including an extended stay of more than
five months in 2017.
“According to the calculations
made in one of the editions of Saturday Punch Newspaper, in the first three
years of his first tenure from May 2015 to May 2019, President Buhari was
outside the country for a combined 404 days (one year and 39 days) in 33 countries.
“In 2016, President Buhari spent
a total of 17 days in a London hospital treating an undisclosed ailment.
Shortly after that, in 2017, he reportedly spent a total of 152 days in London
on medical vacation when he became inaccessible, except for a few politicians.
He equally made frequent trips to the UK on ‘private visits’ believed to be for
medical reasons. On May 8, 2018, he again embarked on a six-day medical
vacation to London.
“More worrisome is that the
medical treatments of the President are still an official secret as Nigerians
are not told how much of their cash has been deployed for the medical
treatments of the President for months.
“Apart from the Nigerian
President, his son; Yusuf, in December 2017 was flown to Germany after suffering
injuries from a bike accident in Abuja. These trips were embarked upon despite
a huge sum of above N10bn allocation to the State House Clinic from 2015 to
2018.
“In a recent development, the
Wife of the President; Aisha Buhari, and a Nephew and close confidant of the
President defied the lockdown and the shutdown of airports to gallivant all
over UK and Dubai for the so called medical tourism.
“In addition, if he is spending
his money how is it that the Presidency is being quoted by newspapers to be saying
Mamman Daura is not ill and the phone conversations are being shown to
Nigerians through the instrumentality of the publicly funded media office of
the President?
“That of the first lady is more
shocking because she was said to have neck pains and that was the reason for
deploying a presidential jet to jet off to Dubai for weeks at public costs.
“HURIWA is pleased and indeed
happy that God was on our side to have stopped an unforeseeable air disaster
from ever happening following the reported incidents with the homebound
Presidential jet in connection with the weather, but to convey the idea that
the First Lady had to fly out to treat neck pain is to tell the World that the
Nigerian health sector has totally collapsed. This is sad and unfortunate,” he
said.
The human rights group demanded
that “This penchant of government officials and those close to the corridor of
power jetting abroad to receive medical care for undisclosed ailments even as
the rest of the population relies on an underfunded and overworked public
healthcare system has been the bane of our health sector and the economy has
been worse hit for it.
“The problems associated with the
poor healthcare system also indict the governors of the 36 states because in
those states, there are virtually no functional health centres to care for the
residents. However, the pathetic situation afflicting the State House Clinic is
even more disturbing.
“The expenditures of the released
budgetary funds for the State House Clinic over the years must be investigated
in addition to a comprehensive audit of the spending on the State House Clinic
and the health sector in the country.
“It is unjustifiable that the State
House Clinic would be guzzling billions of taxpayers’ money and those the
facility is meant to serve would still be spending millions to seek treatment
in other private facilities within and outside the country.
“If the N13bn budgetary
allocations over the years have been actually used for the State House Clinic,
the situation would have been different and same applied to the general health
sector in the country
“Therefore, the failure of
President Muhammadu Buhari in setting up a panel to investigate the scandals
that is happening at the State House Clinic is a deviation from the cardinal
trails of a government who rode to power on the mantra of integrity.
“This is because clearly there
are issues of corruption as alleged by Aisha Buhari, which is the simple
explanation for the frequent medical tourism by the first family and their
cronies.
“Whether the Presidential
Officials are persons of integrity is a big question, but how would one
classify the integrity of a government that has been in place for five years
but till date the President and other government officials embark on several
trips abroad; many of them enveloped to look like official travels when in fact
they are for medical reasons?
“We demand to know what the
$3.4bn World Bank loan on covid-19 has been used for. We condemn the fact that
till date the Covid-19 pandemic, which allegedly claimed the life of the
powerful former Chief of Staff to the President; Abba Kyari and other top
political office holders is not strong enough to assist in confronting not only
the State House Corruption, but also compelling the government to invest
massively in reviving the moribund health sector.
“We are strongly disappointed
that General Sani Abacha who is abused as a thief could build several Federal
Medical Centres and his wife built the National Hospital in Abuja but yet this
government has been in power for five years and has built no single tertiary
Medical Centre of repute in any part of Nigeria but the officials frequent
foreign jurisdictions for medical treatments. This is a monumental shame on
this government.
“This is perhaps the time to
declare a state of emergency to transform the nation’s health facilities to
bring them up to speed with the 21st century.
“As such, the time for the
government to champion the complete overhaul of the health sector by
instituting and implementing the necessary reforms to transform the sector.”
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