President Muhammadu Buhari and other top government officials are to be barred from travelling abroad for medical treatment, if the directive of the Senate is adhered to by the Executive branch of the Nigerian government.
The Senate declared on Thursday that henceforth, the President would receive medicare at the State House Clinic built for that purpose, even as the lawmakers approved N1.3billion for the facility.
The directive was handed down to State House officials by the Senate Committee on Federal Character and Intergovernmental Affairs, with a direct instruction to restrain the President, from making such trips henceforth.
Buhari, who had gone to hospitals abroad to treat medical conditions, such as ear problems, had spent the better part of four months between May and August, 2017 in the UK, on medical grounds, sparking off a lot of anxieties and complaints across the country.
But all that must now stop, the Senate said on Thursday, giving one of the reasons, when the State House Permanent Secretary, Tijani Umar, appeared before the panel to defend his 2021 budget estimates, as the need to ensure the State House clinic becomes functional this year.
Reacting to the proposal, for a budget of N19.7bn for 2021, out of which N1.3bn was proposed for the State House Clinic, the Chairman of the Senate panel, Senator Danjuma La’ah, said the committee would approve the budget for the clinic, but the President and other top officials of his government should no longer be flown abroad for medical treatment.
Umar, however, told reporters after defending his budget that every necessary arrangements would be put in place to meet to medical needs of the President and other top officials once the budget was approved.
