The attention of the All Nigeria Peoples Party [ANPP] has been drawn to a media report yesterday about an assertion by the Senate Committee on Health that the country is losing N80billion annually to medical trips abroad by Nigerians. Also in the report, the Minister of State for Health, Dr. Mohammed Ali Pate, said the Ministry of Health got N278billion in the 2013 budget, out of which N14.5billion was for capital expenditure. Bearing in mind that it is only the affluent in the society who can afford to travel for medical tourism, our great party condemns this outrageous trend. More so, it is abominable that this PDP government and its self-centered public officers abandon health reforms in Nigeria, in their misguided confidence that they could always buy proper medical treatment overseas. We believe that health is not the prerogative of the rich only; it is the right of every living Nigerian.
Furthermore, it is unacceptable for the government to map out a budget for the health sector with less than ten percent for capital expenditure. Capital projects are needed for innovative intervention in the diminishing health status of the Nigerian people. Is it not a shame for a manifest giant of Africa that life expectancy in Nigeria is now 47 years, making it the lowest among West African countries? Yet this position is 30 per cent below the world’s average life expectancy, a situation that is attributable to some health factors, including high death rates in children and women, spread of polio virus, deaths due to carnage on Nigerian roads and other epidemics. Surely, this horrible statistic is a direct result of the country’s inefficient health system, which is getting worse by the day. In saner climes this is enough to make a government either bow out or own up to the abuse of the people’s mandate.
The ANPP therefore calls on the National Assembly to have health reform entrenched in the ongoing constitution amendment as this is the only way to ensure that Nigerians get basic minimum package of health that is affordable, accessible, sustainable, equitable and qualitative. What is more, we urge the Senate to fast-track the passage of the revised version of the long overdue National Health Bill. Our party believes that a healthy nation is a wealthy nation, and a reformed health sector will give the nation a new lease of life, where the innate productiveness of the great Nigerian people shall be tapped for the good of all, and the building of our great country. We are positive that with proper reforms our dear nation can still achieve the Millennium Development Goals as it concerns health.
Signed:
Hon Emma Eneukwu
National Publicity Secretary
ANPP
