All these affect the health sector. Maternal mortality is still high in the country. Also , a couple of months ago, we had the experience of meningitis in a number of states. It’s a really challenging situation.

Your committee just had an investigating hearing on activities of HMOs, what are the findings so far?

We have not concluded. We just did the first leg and we will be going to the second leg. But you could really see from the presentations made that the HMOs have been performing below expectations.

The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) is a very good initiative meant for the less privileged to have access to quality health care. Giving the number of years, about 12 years now, nobody will be proud that this scheme has really worked. In fact, it has failed woefully partly because money might have been diverted. Close to N351bn had been paid to the HMOs, but the number of people that are supposed to benefit don't get it.

Out of the population of about 180 million Nigerians, it's only about 1.5 million Nigerians that have been covered so far. That is really very sad. The question is: where has the money gone? Was it spent on Nigerians or it went to private pockets? You could hear the lamentations from the enrollees, that the HMOs have not been working and that they have failed Nigerians.

The next part is that we'll do a forensic audit of all the HMOs, 57 of them. We've assembled a team that will go round to corroborate some of the revelations that have been made. We wouldn't want to reach a conclusion now until we exhaust all the issues on ground.

What do you think made the HMOs not to perform well?

There is corruption on the side of the HMOs and the NHIS staff, especially the ICT department based on the submission of the Executive Secretary. He said anti-corruption agencies have carried out investigations and names of people were mentioned. He said he did the best in packing the report and sending it to the Minister of Health, but according to him, there was no action taken since then. We are also interested in the report to see those staff who had a hand in that.

As we're preparing our report, we'll also recommend sanctions to all those people that participated. If money was truly diverted by those people, they will be made to refund it since its tax payers' money.

When will the committee report be ready?

We want to do a good job and the HMOs are 57. We will require at least a month. All things being equal, the report should be ready before the end of August.

Being an educationist, what

has been your experience as deputy chairman of the committee on healthcare services?

Let me thank Almighty God for giving me this position. Health is very important. The APC government promised to bring development, and health is one of the areas that the government gives priority. Likewise in the National Assembly, health is part of the agenda we give priority. Happily, I was given this chance.

There are many challenges that I see in the health sector. Since we came on board, part of our efforts is getting collaborations and advocacy to make our government do the right thing and to get money allocated to health.

Health isn't like infrastructure, where you'll invest and see the result immediately. It takes time before you see it. As far back as 2001, the Abuja Declaration came into existence, where African heads of states met to look at health sector. Part of the decision taken was that the best way to address health challenges in Africa was to vote sufficient amount of money. They resolved that at least 15 percent of annual budget should be allocated.

Sadly in Nigeria, the situation isn't like that. A lot of African countries that are not up to Nigeria, like Ghana, Botswana, Zimbabwe and others were able to go beyond the 15 percent. Nigeria is still wobbling between 4 and 6 percent.

There is the issue of one percent in the National Health Act, which would have amounted to billions, but three years down the line, nothing is achieved. All these affect the health sector. Maternal mortality is still high in the country. Also, a couple of months ago, we had the experience of meningitis in a