Aisha Buhari’s Medicals in Dubai
The First Lady, Aisha Buhari returned to the country extremely excited after her 21-day medicals in Dubai. It was for the treatment of a neck pain. In this clime, those in government, who should put our medical facilities in shape, run abroad for all manner of medicals. What a country! Hospitals in mother Nigeria are still not up to the standard that could take care of ordinary neck pain. That is what Aisha has demonstrated. I thought the First Lady would return to chastise her husband, who after over five years, has failed to raise the quality of healthcare in Nigeria. Rather, she came back telling Nigerian healthcare providers to take advantage of Central Bank’s N100 billion healthcare facility to expand the frontiers of the health sector. Over five years after the Buhari government assumed office, Aisha is still talking about “building/expanding the capacity of the Nigerian health sector and ultimately reducing medical trips and tourism outside the Country.”
This First Lady is obviously just showboating. Her son was flown abroad for medicals after his bike accident. Her husband, until the COVID-19, was also persistently on foreign medicals. I am horrified by the First Family’s persistent medical trip abroad. Unfortunately, there is no law stopping them from doing this. The burden on them is more of a moral one, considering that President Buhari had doggedly preached that we should look inwards for our needs to strengthen the Naira and save our limited forex earnings. My foremost issue with the first family is that they are spending public money abroad for medicals; more so in a recessed economy.
This must not be allowed to continue in a country where millions of Nigerians are wallowing in abject poverty. The other day, our President spent about $50,000 treating ear infection. That was after he clearly stated that taxpayers’ money would not be used to pay for foreign medicals of public servants. As a reminder, Buhari announced in April 2016 that his administration would no longer provide allowances for medical trips by government officials, unless the case can’t be handled in Nigeria. He stated this at the opening ceremony of the 56th Annual General Conference and delegate meeting of the Nigeria Medical Association in Sokoto. The President, who was represented by the then Health Minister, Prof. Isaac Adewole said: “The government would not encourage medical tourism with the nation’s resources. While this administration will not deny anyone of his or her fundamental human rights, we will certainly not encourage expending Nigerian hard-earned resources on any government official seeking medical care abroad, when such can be handled in Nigeria.”
With focused investment in equipment and manpower by a forward-looking government, I doubt if there is any health challenge that can’t be handled in this country. Five years is more than enough for any serious government to put healthcare in shape in our dear country.