The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Sunday said the President, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) was leading on the medal table of Nigerians who travel overseas for medical treatment.
Buhari, represented by the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, during the inauguration and handover of completed projects to the management of the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki on Friday, said Nigerians should not continue going abroad for medical treatment.
He had said, “Nigerians have suffered so much going abroad for medical treatment. This is not good for us and it must stop because we can’t afford it again.”
But the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement said Buhari’s comment was self-indicting and raised public apprehensions on alleged high-level deceits in governance.
He said it was ridiculous, a situation where a President, who patronised foreign hospitals for treatment and even check-ups; whose administration had allegedly failed to provide adequate healthcare in Nigeria, could turn around to pontificate to other citizens against foreign treatment.
He stated that the PDP did not approve of proliferated foreign medical tourism, especially by leaders and public office holders.
He urged Buhari to show example by patronising a Nigerian public hospital on his next medical appointment so that he could experience the healthcare reality that Nigerians had been subjected to under his government.
Ologbondiyan said, “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 administrations, 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.”
He stated that the perceived APC administration’s neglect for the national health need was reflected in successive budgetary allocations under Buhari.
