Its a national shame: Read what Commonwealth doctors are saying about Buhari’s medical trip

The vice president of the Commonwealth Medical
Association, Dr. Osahon Enabulele has condemned
President Buhari’s medical trip to London
– He said it was tragic blot on Nigeria’s collective
professional and National image
– According to him, the president failed to show
leadership by example by not staying back to receive
medical treatment in Nigeria
– He said receiving treatment in Nigeria would
inspire confidence in the health sector
Dr. Enabulele Osahon, the vice president of
Commonwealth Medical Association has expressed
disappointment over President Muhammadu Buhari’s
medical trip to London for an Ear, Nose and Throat
(E.N.T) infection.
He said it was a national shame of immense
proportions that the president had to be
recommended for foreign medical care despite the
presence of over 250 ENT specialists and professors
in Nigeria, as well as a National Ear Centre located in
Kaduna state, Vanguard reports.
Buhari departs Nigeria for London on a 10-day
vacation
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‘illness’, asks Nigerians to pray for him
He said: “ I am very constrained to state that this
foreign medical trip flies in the face of the federal
government’s earlier declaration of her resolve to halt
the embarrassing phenomenon of outward medical
tourism, which as at the end of the year 2013 had led
to a humongous capital flight of about $1billion
dollars, particularly from expenses incurred by
political and public office holders and their
accompanying aides, whose foreign medical trips
most of which are unnecessary, were financed with
tax payers’ resources .”
Osahon noted that most of the public and political
office holders who seek foreign medical care abroad
are handled by Nigerian trained doctors in foreign
lands particularly in the United Kingdom which has
over 3000 Nigerian trained medical doctors, United
States of America with over 5000 Nigerian trained
medical doctors, amongst other foreign countries.
He said most of the doctors emigrated because of
government’s perennial failure to address certain
issues such as poor working conditions and health
facilities, insecurity, unpredictable and poor funding
of Residency Training Programme, uncompetitive
wages and job dissatisfaction.
According to him, Buhari has lost a golden
opportunity to assert his change mantra by not
leading by example and staying back to receive
medical treatment in Nigeria.
Osahin said receiving treatment in Nigeria would
inspire confidence in the health sector which
currently boasts of medical experts that can
favourably compare with medical experts anywhere in
the world.