Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has said the medical tourism embarked upon by Nigerians (especially the political class) is draining the nation’s reserves while noting that the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration will do everything possible to ‘stop the trend’
He made this known on Thursday in an opening remark at the commencement of a two-day national health dialogue organised by the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism, PTCIJ, the Project for Advocacy in Child and Family Health, PACFaH, and the Project Pink Blue.
The event held at the Musa Yar’adua Centre in Abuja.
The health dialogue was chaired by the vice president, and hosted by the Minister for Health, Isaac Adewole.
The Emir of Kano and former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Muhammadu Sanusi II; acting Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance scheme, Attahiru Ibrahim; the DG of the National Agency for the Control of Aids, NACA, Sani Aliyu; the executive director, Nigeria Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Faisal Shuaib, were among keynote speakers at the health dialogue.
In his speech, Osinbajo, represented by the director general, Voice of Nigeria, Osita Okechukwu, said medical tourism has cost Nigeria billions of dollars.
“We want to stop that trend because it is draining our reserves,” he said.
TheNewsGuru.com reports that President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday returned from London after spending 103 treating an undisclosed ailment.
TheNewsGuru.com reports that presidential spokesman recently revealed in an interview on Channels Television that ‘Nigeria was most likely paying for the president’s heath bills’ while in London.
Adeshina while responding to a question on who was responsible for the president’s treatment for over a hundred days that he stayed in London, said: The President is entitled to some things and this includes matters regarding his health. Nigeria is most likely paying for the President’s bill.”
Despite the administration’s resolve to provide adequate health care to Nigerians, TheNewsGuru.com reports that the President and some top government officials have continually sought medical attention outside the shores of the nation.
Nigerians have however condemned the action, insisting that government officials must lead by example by patronising local medical practitioners.