Little patronage from targeted patients
President Buhari and his family are known for shunning Nigeria’s underfunded hospitals, including the State House Clinic, to get medication abroad.
The president was widely criticised for spending more than five months in the United Kingdom in 2017 despite his repeated promise to end medical tourism.
“Despite the restriction on foreign trips, most key government officials who have resources at their disposal still prefer to go to private hospitals here in Abuja and in Lagos instead of the State House Clinic,” a source said.
“Some of them are mounting pressure on the National Hospital and some of the government hospitals in Abuja because they don’t have the option of going abroad. This is the time for them to reflect and make the system work, there is no place like home. The State House Clinic is a world class facility, it is only suffering because of the interest of some people,” he said.
Kyari had said in a statement that he made his “personal care arrangements” to avoid further burdening the public health system which faces many pressures. His decision to go for “special treatment” without two of his aides who had contracted the virus as a result of their contact with him also remained a subject of discourse in many quarters.
Kyari had also been criticised for violating the World Health Organization (WHO) and National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC’s) guidelines for his refusal to self- isolate after returning from Germany.
Besides, sources said the fact that he went to a private facility in Lagos instead of any of the government’s designated isolation centres violated the norm.
“This could put other people at risk considering the contagious nature of the virus,” sources said.
Daily Trust reported how Kyari mingled with the president, cabinet members, governors and officials of the ruling APC and other elite before he was found to be positive for COVID-19, raising fears that he might have exposed several others to the virus.
The chief of staff to the president was reportedly flown to Lagos in an air ambulance, and the location where he is being treated has not yet been made public. The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi said on Tuesday last week that he had “exchanged messages with him (Kyari) via WhatsApp but did not know his whereabouts. When asked about Kyari’s refusal to receive treatment at a public facility, a presidency source told our correspondent to only ask him “about the president.”