The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Sunday charged President Muhammadu Buhari to lead by example and provide Nigerians with healthcare to reduce overseas treatment.
President Muhammadu Buhari, had Thursday, in Daura, Katsina state, said Nigeria must reduce dependence on medical treatment abroad.
PDP in a statement issued by its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, described as “ridiculous, a situation where a president, who patronises foreign hospitals for treatment and even check-ups; whose administration has failed to provide adequate healthcare in his country, could turn around to pontificate to other citizens against foreign treatment.
The statement read in part: “While the PDP do not approve of proliferated foreign medical tourism, especially by leaders and public office holders, our party holds that a leader who has failed to lead by example and whose government has neglected and wrecked our healthcare systems, lacks all rectitude to issue directives against foreign treatment.
“Consequently, the PDP urges President Buhari to show example by patronising a Nigerian public hospital on his next medical appointment so that he can experience the healthcare reality that our citizens have been subjected to under his government.
“Mr President can then discover that our health system has suffered untold neglect under his watch, leading to dilapidated infrastructure, empty drug shelves, decrepit and worn-out equipment, brain drain and a demoralised workforce worse than his 1983 recollections.
“It is even more disheartening that all the investments and robust programmes of successive PDP administration, including the comprehensive National Strategic Health Development Plan, Saving One Million Lives Initiatives, National Health Insurance Scheme, among others, have been degraded and impaired by the dysfunctional APC administration.
“Nigerians recall that under the PDP administration, new technologies and modern medical equipment were available in most federal medical institutions where cases such as cancer, kidney, heart and brain ailments for which Nigerians are now mostly seeking overseas treatment were effectively handled in our country.”
