News

Presidency speaks on NHIS crisis, reacts to Buhari’s alleged bias on corruption fight

Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, has said that the presidency has stepped into the crisis rocking the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) following the purported suspension of its Executive Secretary, Prof. Usman Yusuf.

Yusuf resumed work on Friday, a day after his fresh suspension by the council.

But some workers acting under the aegis of Association of Civil Servants of Nigeria, and Medical and Health Workers Union of NHIS, almost prevented him from gaining entrance to the office on Monday.

Their colleagues of the Nigeria Civil Service Union in support of Yusuf mobilised themselves and countered the protest.

The situation that almost degenerated into security breach was, however, contained with the intervention of a combined team of police, civil defence and state security operatives.

On Tuesday, Shehu who featured on Channels TV Sunrise Daily in Abuja, said Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, and the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, had intervened in the NHIS crisis with a view to finding lasting solutions.

Shehu stated that the NHIS crisis had been ethnicised and politicised by some interest groups within and outside the agency.

“Did the board follow due process in suspending this gentleman? There are opinions that said `no they haven’t’.

“Again we all have to do the right thing all of the times. I don’t deny the fact that there is a lot of work to do – (the crisis) is complicated by the fact that the whole thing about the NHIS has been ethnicised and politicised.

“Even a political party was issuing a statement on matters that are unknown to it.

“I’ll tell you one thing, as we speak now, you know that no matter whatever mistakes this gentleman may have made, and that is to be proven because I don’t have the records to say yes or no, he has launched a major reform in that institution which had blocked access to public resources.

“Money from the NHIS is not money belonging to government, is money taken from your salary, from my salary.

“If we have been enlisted, we are supposed to get treatments when we fall ill then you should ask the question in 13 years of the NHIS how many Nigerians have received the treatments.

“Yet you have HMOs, these vendors, taking N5 billion every month, money that is just being shared and somebody came and said, `look, this can’t go on’ and with strong support from this administration the N5 billion has been reduced to N1.3 billion.

“And even at then, the administration is not satisfied. We want to see healthcare delivered to the citizens of this country. So there is a lot of work to do,’’ he said.

The presidential aide stated that he was not in the position to challenge the allegations of wrongdoings levelled against the executive secretary in some quarters.

Shehu, however, maintained that the two chambers of the National Assembly had previously cleared the Executive Secretary of the allegations against him.

He also dismissed the accusation of `double standard’ by the Buhari administration while dealing with cases of corruption being levelled against public servants or political office holders in the country.

He said it was wrong to compare the case of former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Babachir Lawal, and that of the NHIS scribe.

“Well, there is no double standard there either than to say that the pictures that the government is looking at many Nigerians perhaps may not be seeing those pictures,’’ he added.

OAdmiN

Recent Posts

Ford Trims Workforce: 4,000 Jobs to Go in Europe

US car giant Ford on Wednesday announced 4,000 more job cuts in Europe, mostly in…

2 days ago

Tinubu Dissolves UNIZIK Council, Sacks VC, Registrar, Otukpo Pro-Chancellor

  President Bola Tinubu has approved the dissolution of the Governing Council of Nnamdi Azikiwe…

2 days ago

Ekiti Workers to Earn N70,000 Minimum Wage as Govt Signs MoU with Unions

  The Ekiti State Government has reached an agreement with labour leaders in the state,…

2 days ago

N610bn Constituency Projects Under ICPC Scrutiny in 21 States, FCT

  The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has initiated the seventh…

2 days ago

Iraq Undertakes Historic Census After 40-Year Gap

Iraq is holding its first nationwide census in nearly four decades this week, a long-awaited…

2 days ago

Relief as Rep ‘Lafi’ Empowers 300 Constituents Through Skill Acquisition Programme

  Over 300 constituents of Akinyele/Lagelu Federal Constituency in Oyo State benefitted from a skill…

3 days ago