Afrigather 
Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari started his tenure with a London medical journey to deal with an ear an infection. He’s ending the tenure with a London journey to deal with tooth drawback.
Buhari got here into workplace in Might 2015 a sick man who hid the truth of his debilitating well being from voters and therefore denied them the chance to make rational alternative choices.
In a rustic the place vigour; bodily and psychological vitality usually are not official necessities for holding public workplace, the nation’s eighty-one-year-old chief has spent nearly a yr of his eight years in workplace attending to his flailing well being.
Final week, the presidency introduced with none embarrassment or disgrace that the president would stay in London for an extra week, on the behest of his Dentist.
“The specialist requires to see the President in one other 5 days for a process already commenced,” Particular Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, introduced in a press release.
Buhari had joined different world leaders to attend the coronation of King Charles III on Might 6, 2023.
On twenty first February, 2015 on the Chatham Home in London whereas campaigning for the workplace of president of Nigeria, Mr. Buhari queried, “What’s the distinction between me and people who elected us to signify them; completely nothing. Why ought to a Nigerian President not fly with different Nigerian public? Why do I must embark on overseas journey as a president with an enormous crowd with public funds? Why do I must go for overseas medical journey if we can not make our hospitals purposeful? Why do we have to ship our youngsters to highschool overseas if we can not develop our college to compete with overseas ones?”
In April 2016, months after his first medical journey to London, Buhari condemned the usage of Nigerian sources on worldwide medical bills.
Learn additionally: Buhari to see dentist in London, two weeks to handover
“Whereas this administration is not going to deny anybody of his or her elementary human rights, we will definitely not encourage expending Nigerian hard-earned sources on any authorities official in search of medical care overseas, when such could be dealt with in Nigeria,” Buhari mentioned, based on a press release from the Well being Ministry on the time.
But, in an inconsistent and hypocritical repudiation of his promise, on February 5, 2016, eight months after assuming workplace, the President went on his first medical journey to London, the UK, spending six days.
His second medical journey adopted 4 months in a while June 6, 2016. He spent 10 days treating an undisclosed ear an infection after which he rested for 3 additional days earlier than returning to Abuja on June 19, 2016.
That yr, Osahon Enabulele, present president of the World Medical Affiliation, mentioned it was a “nationwide disgrace” that Buhari went to the UK for therapy when Nigeria had greater than 250 ear, nostril and throat (ENT) specialists, in addition to a Nationwide Ear Centre.
Buhari, he urged, ought to lead by instance by utilizing Nigerian medical doctors and services, and guarantee authorities officers don’t go overseas on “frivolous” medical journeys, he added.
The UK had greater than 3,000 Nigerian-trained medical doctors, and the US greater than 5,000, Dr. Enabule mentioned, accusing the federal government of failing to deal with the mind drain by bettering working situations and well being centres.
On January 19, 2017, Buhari departed on his second longest medical journey. He returned to Abuja on March 10, 2017, spending 50 days away.
In Might of the identical yr, barely two months after his final journey, the President, departed for London, famous a nationwide day by day, “for his longest medical pilgrimage lasting 104 days.”
Public protests on the president’s unbridled medical tourism abroad at tax payers’ expense possible put a brief cease to Buhari’s journey because the President wouldn’t go to London for one more medical check-up till a yr later in Might 2018 when he spent 4 days on “medical evaluation.”
In late March 2021, Buhari departed for London once more for a “routine medical check-up” that lasted 15 days.
His journey got here amid a labour disaster within the well being sector, which noticed members of the Nigerian Affiliation of Resident Medical doctors commencing an indefinite strike over unpaid allowances.
On March 6, 2022, the President jetted out to London for a medical journey, which lasted 12 days.
On October 31, 2022, the President departed Owerri, the Imo State capital, for London on one other medical check-up lasting about two weeks. He returned to the nation on November 13, 2022.
For a president that likes to go to London to be handled for essentially the most microscopic an infection, Buhari by no means deemed it match to construct a top quality public hospital within the nation to satisfy his wants and people of different residents who don’t have the posh of their infections being handled at prime medical services abroad at authorities expense.
“Buhari’s value of quite a few medical journeys overseas is taking its toll on Nigeria’s already dying financial system,” Adetutu Balogun famous on Twitter in Might 2018 in response to a New York Occasions report denouncing the president for his insensitivity and opportunism in embarking on persistent medical tourism to the UK.
“Throughout campaigns in 2015, Buhari particularly promised to finish medical tourism in Nigeria by constructing world class hospitals. However as we speak, Buhari has change into the most important medical vacationer wherever on the planet,” Uche Emmanuel tweeted on Might 11, 2023.
In November 2022, Omoyele Sowore the presidential candidate of the African Motion Congress (AAC), bashed President Muhammadu Buhari for junketing to London, United Kingdom whereas his authorities did not construct any commonplace hospital in Nigeria for over seven years in workplace.
Sowore, whereas addressing Nigerian pharmacists on Thursday on the ninety fifth annual pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria held in Jos, Plateau State, mentioned that the Buhari-led authorities failed Nigerians within the healthcare sector.
In accordance with Sowore, though Buhari knew from the start of his administration that he wanted a world class commonplace hospital for medical providers, he reasonably selected to patronise the UK, leaving over 200 million Nigerians to languish within the nation with a dilapidated, non-functional healthcare system.
Buhari’s desire for abroad therapies is at variance with that of his deputy. Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, who in June 2022, underwent surgical procedure to restore a stress fracture sustained to his proper leg on the Duchess Hospital in Lagos.
Osinbajo went on to state that not solely did he bear Orthopaedic surgical procedure in one of many Duchess Hospital’s “state-of-the-art theatres”, he spent a complete week on admission post-surgery in what he described as “maybe probably the most snug hospital lodging wherever on the planet.”
In accordance with him, “The Duchess Worldwide Hospital has proved to be world-class, each within the high quality of its medical personnel and its administration, and it’s residing as much as its mission to reverse medical tourism by delivering the very best requirements of care utilizing essentially the most superior know-how and coverings to offer the quickest, most handy entry to the very best medical experience out there wherever on the planet.”
There are certainly world class hospitals in Nigeria, A particular report by BusinessDay, mirroring over 20 of the very best hospitals in Lagos taking the enterprise of healthcare to world heights, reveals that native choices can be found.
Lagos, as an example, has not solely skilled entry of recent services, internationally recognized manufacturers reminiscent of Evercare additionally dived in, simply because the bodily and operational growth of acquainted manufacturers like Lagoon Hospitals, St Nicholas, Reddington, and Eko Hospitals went on.
Abuja additionally possesses very environment friendly well being services, together with Cedarcrest Hospital, the place Buhari’s son was handled after he was concerned in a bike accident in January 2018.
In March 2018, first woman, Aisha Buhari praised the 90-bed hospital sited in Abuja’s Apo District for saving her son’s life after the crash.
Aisha Buhari emphasised the significance of retaining well being care supply prepared for emergencies as had befallen her son, citing controversial feedback she had made about poor state of services on the State Home Clinic.
The feedback, she mentioned, have been to maintain hospitals prepared within the occasion that “one thing occurred to anybody.”
“And it occurred to my son. He nearly misplaced his life, however this hospital saved him,” the primary woman mentioned.
“Even after he was flown overseas for additional medical consideration, they (hospitals and surgeons overseas) didn’t do something for him. They requested the place the accident occurred, the place the surgical procedure befell, I mentioned Nigeria. They mentioned wonderful.
“I consider in making Nigeria a greater place. I don’t consider in spending our sources overseas. We now have all it takes to have a hospital like this,” she mentioned.
The president clearly doesn’t share the emotions of his spouse concerning the reliability and capability of well being services within the nation. His love affair with costly overseas medical therapies on the detriment of the event of native well being infrastructure smacks of rascality and incompetence to Inibehe Effiong, a Human Rights Lawyer.
“In the entire of Nigeria, there isn’t a single dentist or dental hospital to deal with Buhari of no matter dental ailment or problem he has. He needed to spend extra one week in UK with taxpayers’ cash to see his dentist. He couldn’t construct a single hospital in 8 years for his wants,” he famous.
“Buhari is an ideal instance of how a rustic that’s blessed with human and capital sources could be ruined by a parasitic and incompetent management. This can be a man that vowed to result in change. Eight years later, we’re questioning why he turned such a horrible curse on Nigeria.
“A scandalous a part of this show of rascality, is the shamelessness that typifies Buhari’s pathetic chain of failed guarantees. When the historical past of Nigeria could be advised in generations to return, Buhari shall be remembered for his atrocious detachment from the issues of Nigeria.”
Eight years after, it’s apparent that the president cares little concerning the opinion of Nigerians to his never-ending medical tourism overseas.
He has spent billions of naira caring for himself whereas hundreds of Nigerians die from malaria and typhoid fever as a result of Nigeria’s public hospitals don’t work and personal hospitals are too costly.
Mr. president cares solely about himself.
