The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Sunday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to show example by patronizing a Nigerian public hospital on his next medical appointment.
The party said by doing so Buhari would be able to experience the healthcare reality that Nigerians have been subjected to under his government.
The opposition party was reacting to Buhari’s recent comment through the Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, that Nigerians should stop going abroad for medical treatment.
The PDP in a statement by its National Spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, said that the comment is “self-indicting and raises public apprehensions on high-level deceits in governance”.
The statement read in part: “Our party describes as ridiculous, a situation where a President, who patronizes foreign hospitals for treatment and even check-ups; whose administration has failed to provide adequate healthcare in his country, could turn around to pontificate to other citizens against foreign treatment.
“While the PDP do not approve of proliferated foreign medical tourism, especially by leaders and public office holders, our party holds that a leader who has failed to lead by example and whose government has neglected and wrecked our healthcare systems, lacks all rectitude to issue directives against foreign treatment.
“Consequently, the PDP urges President Buhari to show example by patronizing a Nigerian public hospital on his next medical appointment.
“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 demoralized workforce worse than his 1983 recollections.
“It is even more disheartening that all the investments and robust programmes of successive PDP administration, 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”.
