President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday, January 3, said Nigerians should discontinue the trend of going abroad for medical treatment.
According to him, “Nigerians have suffered so much going abroad for medical treatment. This is not good for us and it must stop because we can’t afford it again.”
Represented by the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu at the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, during the inauguration and handover of completed projects to the management of the hospital, the President stated that the project was executed to check flooding and gully erosion in the hospital.
He said, “We have paid very serious attention to the health of our people and will continue to do so. The projects you celebrate their completion today were seriously affecting the workings of this teaching hospital.
But today, we can say their completion have started helping to improve on the performance and welfare of both the staff and patients of this hospital.
“I wish to use this medium to congratulate the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, and his team in the Ecological Fund Office; the project contractor, Messrs Amayaro Nigeria Limited, as well as the project consultant, Messrs Kanode and Associates Limited, for their commitment to ensuring timely and speedy completion of the project.”
According to the President, siting the project in Ebonyi State shows an end to the era where some parts of Nigeria were neglected as a result of corruption and favouritism.
He further explained that the location of the project in major teaching hospitals across the country showed that no part of the country would be neglected again.
Mr Buhari has on several occassions travelled to the United Kingdom for medical treatment. It could be recalled that in 2016, a budgetary allocation of 3.87 billion naira was set aside for the upgrade of the State House Clinic, however, the Nigerian Leader hasn’t rescinded from overseas treatment.
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