The National Association of Seadogs (Pyrates Confraternity) has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of his latest medical trip to the United Kingdom.
In a statement signed by the NAS Capoon, Mr. Abiola Owoaja on behalf of the organization titled: “President Buhari’s Foreign Medical Trip: Symptom of a National Malady” stated that, if Buhari was to be a private citizen, he reserves the right to do as he wishes but as a President of Nigeria, “It is both unethical and embarrassing that the President would so publicly signal a vote of no confidence in the healthcare system of the country he presides over.”
The NAS Capoon stated that “We need no reminders that millions of Nigerians are left to the weak and inefficient healthcare system that their President so visibly disdains since they cannot have foreign medical trips paid for from the public treasury.
The NAS Capoon also said, “The timing of this latest medical tourism is tragically poignant, coming the same week the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) commenced an indefinite strike over the failure of the Federal Government to implement the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) it signed with the association and meet other demands which include payment of entitlements as basic as hazard allowance for routine professional hazards and the extraordinary demands of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Owoaja accused Buhari of not being able to fulfill his campaign promises to revamp the health sector and put a stop to medical tourism.
He said, “In the six years that he has been in office, President Buhari has abysmally failed to make hospitals in Nigeria functional to the extent that it can be entrusted to handle his health and that of other top government officials.
He said, “It is even more disappointing that the Aso Rock Clinic, the object of inexplicably huge budgetary allocations, is demonstrably incapable of meeting the demands of the most senior resident of Aso Rock Villa,”.
Owoaja faulted how successive administrations in the country have contributed to the parlous state of Nigeria’s health sector, while also challenging Buhari to use the remaining years of his tenure to work for the improvement of the healthcare delivery system.
According to Owoaja, “Successive administrations in the country had contributed to the parlous state of the health sector, but expectations by Nigerians that Buhari would revamp the health sector in line with his campaign promises.”
Owoaja said, “He should as a matter of priority put efforts in motion leading the charge and galvanizing state governments across the country to ensure the upgrading of public healthcare facilities in the country in line with global best practices.
He said, “His administration should summon the required will and mobilize the needed funds to address the structural problems in Nigeria’s healthcare ecosystem. These include the conducive working environment, improved infrastructure, tools, eliminating the ongoing brain drain, improving the welfare of medical and healthcare workers in the country as well as strengthening the organic link between primary, secondary and tertiary levels of healthcare.”
He stated that “President Buhari’s preoccupation, as he enters the sixth year out of his eight-year tenure, should be how to develop Nigeria’s healthcare system such that no President after him would need to travel out of the country for a routine medical check-up. Nigerians want a leader who would inspire confidence in the country’s health facilities. President Buhari should strive to be such a leader if he cares about the verdict of history.”
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