The vice
president of the Commonwealth Medical Association, Dr. Osahon Enabulele has
condemned President Buhari’s medical trip to London, He said it was tragic blot on Nigeria’s
collective professional and National image – According to him, the president
failed to show leadership by example by not staying back to receive medical
treatment in Nigeria,
He said it
was a national shame of immense proportions that the president had to be
recommended for foreign medical care despite the presence of over 250 ENT
specialists and professors in Nigeria, as well as a National Ear Centre located
in Kaduna state, Vanguard reports. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Buhari
departs Nigeria for London on a 10-day vacation Buhari departs Nigeria for
London on a 10-day vacation
He said:
“I am very constrained to state that this foreign medical trip flies in the
face of the federal government’s earlier declaration of her resolve to halt the
embarrassing phenomenon of outward medical tourism, which as at the end of the
year 2013 had led to a humongous capital flight of about $1billion dollars,
particularly from expenses incurred by political and public office holders and
their accompanying aides, whose foreign medical trips most of which are
unnecessary, were financed with tax payers’ resources.” Osahon noted that most
of the public and political office holders who seek foreign medical care abroad
are handled by Nigerian trained doctors in foreign lands particularly in the
United Kingdom which has over 3000 Nigerian trained medical doctors, United
States of America with over 5000 Nigerian trained medical doctors, amongst
other foreign countries. He said most of the doctors emigrated because of
government’s perennial failure to address certain issues such as poor working
conditions and health facilities, insecurity, unpredictable and poor funding of
Residency Training Programme, uncompetitive wages and job dissatisfaction.
According to him, Buhari has lost a golden opportunity to assert his change
mantra by not leading by example and staying back to receive medical treatment
in Nigeria. Osahin said receiving treatment in Nigeria would inspire confidence
in the health sector which currently boasts of medical experts that can
favourably compare with medical experts anywhere in the world.
The former
NMA president urged Buhari to lead by example at curbing medical tourism and
saving Nigerians the great loss incurred through numerous trips abroad for
medication. “Mr. President should make a clear public pronouncement on his
resolve to show leadership by example with respect to the utilization of the
medical expertise and facilities that abound in Nigeria by him and other
members of the Federal Executive Council, particularly in concrete expression
of section 46 of the National Health Act which seeks to address the abuse of
tax payers’ resources through frivolous foreign medical travels embarked upon
by political and public office holders,” he said. Osahon said Buhari should
have invited a consortium of Nigerian trained ENT specialists in Nigeria to
Abuja to re-evaluate and treat him or he should have identified any Nigerian
trained ENT specialist practicing anywhere in the world if he feels the medical
expertise is not available in Nigeria. “If it is a case where the health
facilities/equipment are unavailable then the President should have used his
current medical situation, though unfortunate, to commence the Federal
Government’s plan to re-equip Nigerian hospitals with modern state-of-the art
health facilities, by ordering for the needed medical equipment to enable the
locally available Nigerian trained ENT specialists to attend to him, and
thereafter use same facilities to attend to other Nigerians with similar
conditions. “Indeed, it will be a win-win situation for Nigeria as Mr.
President will not only get managed with the imported medical facilities and
expertise; he would save Nigeria the capital flight that would result from his
planned foreign medical trip,” he noted.
For days, there
has been speculation surrounding the state of health of President Buhari,
saying he is suffering from ear infection hut the presidency kept denying this.
However, on Sunday, June 5, the presidency confirmed that president had a
‘persistent ear infection’ and would be leaving for London on a 10-day vacation
where he will see an E.N.T. specialist for the infection. On different
occasions, the president cancelled official trips within and outside the
country due to the infection and was represented at those events by Yemi
Osinbajo, the vice president. Last weekend, Osinbajo represented him in Papua
New Guinea where the 8th Summit of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of
States held.
He also
represented the president at the 48th Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and
Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) which held
in Dakar, Senegal. Last week, the president also cancelled his trip to Ogoni
land in Rivers state and directed Osinbajo to represent him. Prior to this, the
president unable to travel to Lagos state to inaugurate some projects executed
by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode despite elaborate preparations to receive him.
Comments
Post a Comment