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problem is corruption and one of the three Sir as a Medical practitioner, you’ve
pillars this government has come in with is Q been on both sides, civil servant and
to make sure it fights corruption and every- politician, the state and standard of our
body can testify even in the media that this health facilities have been of great concern,
government has been trying hard and just what do you think is the way forward.
recently the EFCC did published their own , well the way forward in fact during
track records and that they have prosecut- Athe budget defense by the Hon Min-
ed and gotten conviction for over a thou- ister of Health I TRIED TO TELL HIM that
sand cases and for this I say kudos to the look we can do better than what we are
Government. Now the economy is one area doing. One if you go outside where I ac-
where this government has done very well tually did my post graduate in the Uk and
particularly in trying to diversify the econo- I know the state of affairs of what is hap-
my to go away from the monolithic nature pening outside most of the best doctors
it has been for the last 30 something years, in the world are NIGERIANS WORKING IN
in fact recently in the house we have to ask THE DIASPORA either in Europe or Ameri-
the government to intervene because of ca even Australia you find Nigerians there,
the crash of prices of Cereals, which is our in the best of specialties. Now that is an
steady food in this country, we discovered important resource we cannot ignore, be-
that when you sell a 100kg bag of Maize, cause they can easily bring those expertize
you will not get enough money to get a back home, our greatest problems as you
bag of fertilizer, which is not a sustainable rightly pointed out are latest equipment
way for sustaining agriculture, we had to in our hospitals and I told the Minister that
intervene and tell the government to buy I’m of the view that starting with the Na-
off all the grains from the farmers so they tional Hospital, they can pick one hospi-
can have enough resources for farming tal and make it state of the heart with all
next season, this is just to show how suc- specialties and bring in experts in diaspora
cessful this government has gone in that to train our Doctors in Nigeria on how to
part of the economy. I would say this gov- use this equipment. I myself when I went
ernment has been trying in implementing for my post graduate, I saw lots of equip-
budgets that have been approved for it in ment which I had knowledge of in theory
the last few years, the security situation has but was able to see them work practical-
been improved, there is good governance, ly. This will help curb these avalanche of
corruption is been fought to a standstill medical tourism, to nip this in the bud, the
and of cause the diversification of the Government has to focus on making one
economy particularly in agriculture, and hospital in each geopolitical zone a referral
you’ve been hearing the pronouncement center starting with the National hospital,
of the Government as regards solid miner- in 2020 bring all the equipment needed to
als to diversify the economy even further, tackle all medical cases and situation, af-
small scale industries are been empowered ter that, 2021 pick two more hospital from
particularly local common women traders 2 different zones and get them equipped
in the market, the Vice President has been also to the same level, the doctors that
going all over the country giving millions of were trained for the first hospital becomes
traders 10 thousand Naira or more so they trainers for the upcoming Doctors , anoth-
can have a startup capital to continue with er year pick another two Hospital and get
their lives, yes the budget is still in line with them equipped too. If we have up to six
that and this budget is not different from hospitals in all geopolitical zones that can
the previous budget that the National As- handle all medical issues, medical tourism
sembly has been approving to enable the will become zero. I suggested this during
President execute his programs. the budget defense to the Hon. Minister of
health and I believe they will implement it,
in fact that’s the only way out.
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