Health ministry and anti-graft war

The recent revelation by wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari, on the deplorable condition of the Aso Rock Clinic, Abuja, was quite disturbing. Making the disclosure at the opening of a stakeholders’ meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Mrs Buhari, who couldn’t hide her umbrage, reprimanded the Chief Medical Director of the State House Medical Centre, Dr Hussain Munir, and sought accountability over the utilisation of more than N3bn budgeted to the clinic.
As the matriarch of the nation’s First Family and its chief caregiver, Mrs Buhari owes her family the sacred duty of ensuring that their well-being and health care needs are met at the State House health facility in Aso Villa, and thus was compelled to make the disclosure.
But more importantly, Mrs Buhari’s exposé affirms the widely held notion that all is not well with the nation’s health sector. If the State House clinic, which is supposed to be the primus inter pares among other health facilities in the country, is not better than a glorified consulting centre, one can only imagine the dire straits other hospitals are in. When this is weighed on the crucible alongside the recent strikes by the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors and the Joint Health Sector Unions, as well as the face-off between the health minister, Prof. Isaac Adewoye, and Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, Prof. Usman Yusuf, our health sector may soon enter a state of shock.
Particularly, the allegations of fraud and other disreputable issues emanating from the Ministry of Health, following the suspension of Yusuf by Adewole deserve some scrutiny. The NHIS boss, who was suspended over allegations of fraud and abuse of office, was quick to counter the action, describing it as a witch-hunt. He alleged that he was suspended because he refused to grant several monetary requests from the Federal Ministry of Health. According to sources close to Yusuf, he drew the anger of the minister for turning down the various requests from the ministry, which included hiring aircraft for Adewole and sponsoring of its officials to foreign events.
It is instructive that such allegations of corruption, official recklessness and unethical conduct among parastatals, agencies and committees in the health ministry are not new to the institution.
Nigerians are victims of corrupt practices in the health sector as well as other sectors of the economy; and the President himself is not immune to it. If there were an efficient, functional and corruption-free health care system in the country, there would be no need to seek medical care outside the country. The corruption in the health sector is the reason health care service is priced beyond the average Nigerian who cannot afford medical tourism, which is the vogue among the affluent.
The Buhari administration must begin to walk its talk in its fight against corruption by cleansing the Federal Ministry of Health. The allegations of corruption in the nation’s health sector are too grave to be ignored, considering the critical nature of services it provides and thus should be given serious thoughts and met with firm actions.

Rasheed Adegeye,
Abuja, [email protected]

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