BUHARI’S MISERABLE DEATH IN FOREIGN LAND
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| Late former President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari. |
- By Erasmus Ikhide
THE demise of former President Muhammadu Buhari in a
London clinic is a tragic testament of his failure in leadership as evidenced
in his grand sleaze — ruinous and decayed state of Nigeria's healthcare system,
enveloped by dust and rust.
During his tenure, the Presidency allocated nearly a
N100 billion for the reconstruction and equipping of the Aso Rock Villa Clinic,
a facility intended to provide top-notch medical care to the President and
government officials, even after leaving office. Despite these alleged
investments, the clinic remains a pigsty fitting only for the dregs, as if
we're in the ancient society of hunters-gatherers.
The Aso Rock Clinic was conceived as a
state-of-the-art medical facility that would meet the healthcare needs of the
President and other high-ranking government officials. However, the clinic has
been plagued by controversy, with allegations of corruption and mismanagement
of funds allocated for it. The clinic's poor condition and lack of basic
medical supplies have been well-documented, especially following the outburst
of President Muhammadu Buhari's wife on the state of decay of the Aso Villa
Clinic at the time.
The allocation of hundreds of billions of naira for
the clinic's reconstruction and equipping has raised suspicions of corruption
and mismanagement of funds. Many Nigerians believe that the funds were looted
by government officials, leaving the clinic underutilized and poorly equipped.
The lack of transparency and accountability in the management of the clinic's funds
has further fuelled these allegations.
As expected, Femi Adesina, the former Special Adviser
on Media and Publicity to the late former president Muhammadu Buhari, claimed
on Tuesday that his principal’s death would have come sooner if he had entrusted
his health to Nigerian hospitals.
That unpatriotic, shameless and revisionist statement
has been the recipe upon which Nigerian healthcare system has been hanging in
the balance. While Adesina claimed that Buhari needed time to ix the country’s
healthcare at the time, the former president did say on April 28, 2016 that his
government would no longer sponsor medical trips abroad for government
officials, including himself.
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Two months later, Buhari travelled to the UK on June
6, 2016, for what Adesina described as ‘precautionary’ treatment for a
persistent ear infection. At the time, Adesina also said his principal had been
consulting the London-based doctors since the 1970s. By December 4, 2022,
Buhari had spent 225 days outside Nigeria for medical reasons alone. In March
2021, the then-president was in London for 15 days while members of the
Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) were protesting unpaid
allowances.
During these medical trips, it was unclear how much
the Federal Government was spending on his health, but in 2017, at a time all
the hospitals across the country were all, and still in decrepit states,
including the National Hospital Abuja, in the Federal Capital Territory.
The crisis rocking the healthcare system in Nigeria
has once again been spolighted in the miserable demise of a former President
who chose to die in a foreign land, instead of utilizing the humongous
resources allocated for healthcare for himself, while he was President for 8
turbulent, crisis-ridden, and bloodletting years!
Unfortunately, no lessons have been learnt by
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu from the demise of Buhari since he himself has
already found France as the convenient location for his health tourism.
Perhaps, it might be the easiest way of fulfilling their life time ambition to
die in foreign lands.
Ø Erasmus
Ikhide contributed this piece via: ikhideluckyerasmus@gmail.com.
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