Buhari’s medical trip: Commonwealth doctors react

The vice president of the Commonwealth Medical Association, Dr. Osahon Enabulele has condemned President Buhari’s medical trip to London – He said it was tragic blot on Nigeria’s collective professional and National image – According to him, the president failed to show leadership by example by not staying back to receive medical treatment in Nigeria – He said receiving treatment in Nigeria would inspire confidence in the health sector Dr. Enabulele Osahon, the vice president of Commonwealth Medical Association has expressed disappointment over President Muhammadu Buhari’s medical trip to London for an Ear, Nose and Throat (E.N.T) infection. He said it was a national shame of immense proportions that the president had to be recommended for foreign medical care despite the presence of over 250 ENT specialists and professors in Nigeria, as well as a National Ear Centre located in Kaduna state, Vanguard reports.

He said: “I am very constrained to state that this foreign medical trip flies in the face of the federal government’s earlier declaration of her resolve to halt the embarrassing phenomenon of outward medical tourism, which as at the end of the year 2013 had led to a humongous capital flight of about $1billion dollars, particularly from expenses incurred by political and public office holders and their accompanying aides, whose foreign medical trips most of which are unnecessary, were financed with tax payers’ resources.” Osahon noted that most of the public and political office holders who seek foreign medical care abroad are handled by Nigerian trained doctors in foreign lands particularly in the United Kingdom which has over 3000 Nigerian trained medical doctors, United States of America with over 5000 Nigerian trained medical doctors, amongst other foreign countries. He said most of the doctors emigrated because of government’s perennial failure to address certain issues such as poor working conditions and health facilities, insecurity, unpredictable and poor funding of Residency Training Programme, uncompetitive wages and job dissatisfaction. According to him, Buhari has lost a golden opportunity to assert his change mantra by not leading by example and staying back to receive medical treatment in Nigeria. Osahin said receiving treatment in Nigeria would inspire confidence in the health sector which currently boasts of medical experts that can favourably compare with medical experts anywhere in the world.

The former NMA president urged Buhari to lead by example at curbing medical tourism and saving Nigerians the great loss incurred through numerous trips abroad for medication. “Mr. President should make a clear public pronouncement on his resolve to show leadership by example with respect to the utilization of the medical expertise and facilities that abound in Nigeria by him and other members of the Federal Executive Council, particularly in concrete expression of section 46 of the National Health Act which seeks to address the abuse of tax payers’ resources through frivolous foreign medical travels embarked upon by political and public office holders,” he said. Osahon said Buhari should have invited a consortium of Nigerian trained ENT specialists in Nigeria to Abuja to re-evaluate and treat him or he should have identified any Nigerian trained ENT specialist practicing anywhere in the world if he feels the medical expertise is not available in Nigeria. “If it is a case where the health facilities/equipment are unavailable then the President should have used his current medical situation, though unfortunate, to commence the Federal Government’s plan to re-equip Nigerian hospitals with modern state-of-the art health facilities, by ordering for the needed medical equipment to enable the locally available Nigerian trained ENT specialists to attend to him, and thereafter use same facilities to attend to other Nigerians with similar conditions. “Indeed, it will be a win-win situation for Nigeria as Mr. President will not only get managed with the imported medical facilities and expertise; he would save Nigeria the capital flight that would result from his planned foreign medical trip,” he noted.

For days, there has been speculation surrounding the state of health of President Buhari, saying he is suffering from ear infection hut the presidency kept denying this. However, on Sunday, June 5, the presidency confirmed that president had a ‘persistent ear infection’ and would be leaving for London on a 10-day vacation where he will see an E.N.T. specialist ‎for the infection. On different occasions, the president cancelled official trips within and outside the country due to the infection and was represented at those events by Yemi  Osinbajo, the vice president. Last weekend, Osinbajo represented him in Papua New Guinea where the 8th Summit of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States held. He also represented the president at the 48th Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) which held in Dakar, Senegal. Last week, the president also cancelled his trip to Ogoni land in Rivers state and directed Osinbajo to represent him. Prior to this, the president unable to travel to Lagos state to inaugurate some projects executed by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode despite elaborate preparations to receive him.