Labour and Employment Minister Chris Ngige said on Friday
that President Muhammadu Buhari’s has the right to seek medical treatment in
London.
He said Buhari’s current medical trip to the United Kingdom
(UK) is to enable him seek a second opinion on his health as he has been doing
in the last 40 years.
But the minister, who is a medical doctor himself, did not
say what ails the president.
Overseas treatment, according to him, is part of the perks
of office of a sitting President, former presidents and some judges in the
country.
Ngige, who spoke exclusively to our correspondent, said
Buhari’s shuttle to London has nothing to do with the sorry state of Nigerian
hospitals.
He said: “Buhari has the right to travel for medical abroad
for three reasons. Number one, you don’t constraint people on their choice of
who will treat them for any ailment or who will be their doctor. That is number
one. You have a choice there.
“Buhari is the head of the government of Nigeria and he has
a physician attached to him as per the office. And if he runs test or does any
diagnosis with his physician, he has a right to what we call ‘Second Opinion’.
“I, Chris Ngige, as small as I am and a medical doctor, I
have been doing a Second Opinion on my health in the last 30 years.
“The third reason is that Buhari, as a head of hovernment,
there are certain perquisites/ perks of office and conditions of service
attached to offices and appointments in Nigeria.
“Some government officials and members of the Judiciary have
in their appointment free medical treatment at home and abroad there. And the
only thing you need to qualify for this is to do what is called Medical Board
Evaluation. It is in our government books.
“So, Buhari has been
doing Medical Evaluation for himself at home and abroad in the last 40 years,
even as an army officer and a former head of state. In fact, all former heads
of state, by our books, are entitled to free medical treatment abroad.
“So, the thing Buhari is doing is right.”
Asked why Buhari cannot fix Nigerian hospitals for a second
opinion on his health at home, Ngige said:
“It is because he has been going there in the past 40 years. He has his
doctor there. And don’t forget that he has the right of choice.
“It is not because of the state of our hospitals that he
went to London. He has been going there for the past 40 years. It is not that.
“Let me tell you. I use National Hospital for my First Line
treatment. If you go there, you will see my chart there.
“If you also go to the State House Clinic, you will also see
my chart for my eyes. I have some eye problem related to cataract for my age
but I take second opinion from abroad. It is within my right,
“It is not a luxury for the President at all. If it is not a
luxury for former Presidents, how can it be a luxury for a sitting President.
He qualifies on both sides. He is a former head of state and a sitting head of
government. So, in all categories, he qualifies.
“Much more importantly, he has the right of crosschecking
and that is what we call medical check. He has the right to crosscheck with his
doctors or a doctor that has his medical history. It is allowed.
“Or are you in the group which says he should not go abroad
for medical check because he is now the President?
“When he was a private man, he was taking the bills. What
should stop him from taking it now?”
Buhari, on his return home from a 49-day medical vacation in
the UK in March 2017, said then that he
had never been so sick in his life.
He did not specify the nature of his ailment but said he
went through series of tests and even had a blood transfusion.
He said: “I have rested as much as humanly possible, I have
received I think the best of treatment I could receive. I couldn’t recall being
so sick since I was a young man, including the military with its ups and downs.
I found out that technology is going so fast.
“?Blood transfusion, going to the laboratories, and so on
and so forth, but I am very pleased that we, when I say we, I mean the
government and the people all over are trying to keep with technology.
“I couldn’t recall when last I had blood transfusion, I
couldn’t recall honestly, I can say in my 70 years, I can’t remember this drug
that Nigerians take so much, very common.? I think one of our terrible things
is self-drug administration.
“We have to trust our doctors more and trust ourselves more,
the places I visited they only take drugs when it is absolutely necessary, they
don’t just swallow everything.”
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