Wife of the President, Aisha Buhari, has criticised the management of the State House Clinic and called for a probe of its activities.
It comes one week after her daughter, Zahra, knocked the Permanent Secretary of the State House, Jalal Arabi, for his inability to equip the clinic with as little as Paracetamol, even with a budget of N3 billion.
Speaking on Monday at a stakeholders meeting on Reproductive, Maternal, Nutrition, Child Advocacy and Health and Nutrition (RMNCAH+N) at the State House, Mrs Buhari said she recently fell ill and was advised to travel to London for treatment.
She began with a reference to her husband who had to seek medical treatment abroad.
“If somebody like Mr. President can spend several months outside Nigeria, then you wonder what will happen to a common man on the street in Nigeria.
“Few weeks ago, I was sick as well, they advised me to take the first flight out to London, I refused to go. I said I must be treated in Nigeria because there is a budget for an assigned clinic to take care of us.
“If the budget is N100 million, we need to know how the budget is spent. Along the line, I insisted they call Aso Clinic to find out if the X-ray machine is working, they said it is not working. They didn’t know I am the one that was supposed to be in that hospital at that very time.
“I had to go to a hospital that was established by foreigners in and out 100 percent. What does that mean?
“So, I think is high time for us to do the right thing. If something like this can happen to me, no need for me to ask the governors’ wives what is happening in their states. This is Abuja and this is the highest seat of government, and this is presidential villa.”
Mrs Buhari also implied that her husband’s absence strengthened Nnamdi Kanu of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
“Going back to the same health issue in Nigeria, as a result of spending several months by the President outside Nigeria, a 40-year-old man who was still living in his father’s house, created a state out of a state and that is a major setback for the country and the health sector did not benefit,” she said.
