Nigeria: Buhari's Toothache and Our Heartache On Medical Tourism

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Sadly, the associated fee to the general public treasury of Buhari’s well being tourism shouldn’t be recognized.

It looks like an epilogue to a badly choreographed drama that President Muhammadu Buhari is present process toothache remedy within the UK, after spending greater than 225 days on related holidays, simply three weeks to the tip of his eight-year Presidency on 29 Could. The president had jetted out to London on 3 Could, to hitch a galaxy of world leaders within the coronation of King Charles III on 6 Could, however determined to increase his keep by one week, to allow him get pleasure from good healthcare, another time, at public expense. We wished that he had not dedicated this injudiciousness.

The disclosure of his ailment by his Particular Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, final Tuesday, whereas speaking the delayed return was one of many uncommon public intimations of the character of his illness, in his serial medical tourisms that ignited huge fulminations. The extended-stay, we dare say, is a tragic reminder of how his medical tourism started after solely eight months in workplace. One nationwide newspaper put the overall variety of days he spent overseas for this objective at 225 days as at 4 December, 2022. Mr President, that toothache is treatable in Nigeria; and the kilos sterling it would incur and value of parking the presidential jet for an additional week, are waste of public funds.

Buhari undertook his first medical journey to the UK on 5 February, 2016, and this lasted for six days. On January 23, 2017, he launched into one other one which lasted 50 days, as he returned on 10 March. The longest medical journey that yr spanned 104 days, for an undisclosed sickness. These medical peregrinations occurred all via his presidency, in a report surpassing that of Umaru Yar’Adua, who spent 172 days overseas on the identical grounds. The Yar’Adua/Buhari well being challenges moderately justify the view in some quarters that the well being standing of the president needs to be of public data.

Sadly, the associated fee to the general public treasury of Buhari’s well being tourism shouldn’t be recognized, and should by no means be, as opacity and lack of accountability outline governance within the nation. However with the over 40 nations he visited in about 84 journeys, and the N50.75 billion price of sustaining the Presidential Air Fleet on the finish of 2022 – as one nationwide day by day reported, this presents a chicken’s eye view of the quantity his unwell well being has price the nation.

Painfully, Nigeria’s healthcare supply has been lacking in all of this. The president by no means for as soon as bought himself handled domestically, whether or not in a public or personal hospital, irrespective of how minor the ailment has been. It’s a perverse incentive to different public officers like governors to repeatedly take pleasure in the identical at public expense. Buhari’s lack of belief in our public well being system stems from the federal government’s poor consideration to human improvement considerations, which has earned him thumbs down via a lot of his presidency.

It’s infuriating that Aso Rock Clinic, which must have taken care of the well being considerations of the president and his household shouldn’t be match for objective, regardless of the billions of naira allotted within the nationwide price range yearly to it. In 2022, a complete of N20.8 billion was supplied for the development of the Presidential Wing of the clinic. Even the First Girl, Aisha Buhari, and her daughter, Zahra, had been vehement of their denunciation of the inefficiency of the system in 2017. Aisha had then screamed, “I known as the Aso Clinic to seek out out if they’ve an X-Ray machine, they mentioned it isn’t working. Ultimately, I needed to go to a hospital owned and operated by foreigners 100 per cent.” There was no syringe, she mentioned. The daughter, on her Instagram deal with, cynically inveighed that “extraordinary Paracetamol” was not accessible within the Clinic.

If a hospital for the nation’s first household is so dysfunctional, it’s a provided that no public hospital in Nigeria is prone to be in good condition. This explains why medical medical doctors in tertiary public well being establishments are at all times on strike, leading to threats to lives and, in some circumstances, the demise of sufferers. Buhari will return to satisfy the fury of the Nationwide Affiliation of Resident Medical doctors (NARD) and expiration of their ultimatum over a slew of welfare calls for that have to be met, or its members will go on complete strike.

The physique desires the rejection of a Invoice in search of to stop medical medical doctors from being issued full practising licences till after 5 years in service, as deterrent to their travelling overseas to ply their commerce after being educated at extremely subsidised prices by the federal government. It’s also asking for a 200% wage increment; fee of 2014, 2015, 2016 wage arrears; and people from minimal wage consequential changes, amongst different points. That Invoice is discriminatory and infringes on medical doctors’ rights. Subsequently, it needs to be thrown away. A labourer deserves his wages. Since these arrears had been collected below Buhari’s tenure, his authorities ought to clear them earlier than he vacates workplace.

The NARD constitution of calls for, together with the underfunding of public well being establishments and never fostering an enabling atmosphere for a personal, world class healthcare supply system to thrive within the nation, underscore why medical personnel are main the japa caravan – the excessive emigration of Nigeria professionals to the UK, different elements of Europe, the US and Saudi Arabia, for greener pastures. About 10,296 Nigerian medical doctors are practising within the UK alone, says the Nigeria Medical Affiliation (NMA).

Instructively, the hospitals that handled Buhari these previous eight years are privately owned. King Edward VII’s Hospital, for instance, which handled the late Queen Elizabeth II, is a personal hospital. And no UK Prime Minister or US President travels exterior their nations to hunt medical consideration. As Buhari failed to understand this reality and its import to our sovereign picture, his successor, Bola Tinubu mustn’t.