State House clinic gets N9bn in 10yrs

The clinic was established to provide medical services to the president, the vice president, their families as well as top government officials.

Analysis of budgetary allocations to the presidential clinic revealed that about N8.82 billion was allocated to the facility between 2008 and 2017.

The breakdown of the 10-year-allocation  has  shown that the medical centre got its highest allocations of N2.825 billion in 2017; followed by N1.209 billion in 2011 and N1.208 billion in 2008.

The centre’s least allocations were N137 million in 2015, N293 million in 2009, and N332 million in 2017, the official documents revealed.

Other annual votes to the first family’s health facility are N863 million (2014), N620 million (2013), N884 million (2012), and N449 million (2010).

Despite these huge allocations over the years,  the clinic remains without commensurate facilities and equipment, while common drugs and other items such as paracetamol, Vitamin B-complex, cotton wools, and syringe are not available. 

This development, which forced successive presidents to travel abroad for medical attention, also drew the ire of some key members of the first family.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s daughter, Zahra, fired the first salvo when she complained about lack of basic medical amenities in the clinic.

Zahra wrote on her Instagram page thus: “More than N3 billion budgeted for the State House clinic and workers there don’t have the equipment to work with? Why? Where is the money going to? Medication only stocked once since the beginning of the year? Why?”

Only last week, her mother, Aisha Buhari, corroborated Zahra’s claims when she lamented the lack of basic amenities despite the allocations to the hospital. 

President Buhari who prohibited public officials from traveling abroad for medicals had so far spent about 170 days abroad seeking medical attention since he came to office on May 29, 2015.