President Jonathan and his
colleagues in government are enjoying first class medical treatments
while ordinary Nigerians make do with rundown hospitals with dilapidated
facilities
The VIP unit of the presidential hospital will receive N705 million, while an entire teaching hospital will get about N300 million for new projects.———————————————
The federal government will this year
pump more cash into constructing an elite wing of the presidential
clinic in Abuja where only a few big and mighty will receive attention, a
spending that dwarfs the total funds allocated by government for entire
developmental projects of two federal university teaching hospitals.
Under the proposed 2014 budget laid to
the National Assembly last December, the “Construction of a VIP Wing at
the State House Clinic will cost N705 million.”
That amount surpasses the government’s
budgeted cost for the building of new wards (buildings), laboratories
and all other developmental projects in two university teaching
hospitals.
For instance, the University of Ilorin
Teaching Hospital and the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, have
been allocated a total of N662 million for capital expenditure this
year.
The two medical facilities are only part
of a long list of teaching hospitals which have their capital spending
this year outdone by the VIP budget, tagged in the budget as SHMC- State
House Medical Clinic.
Among 17 tertiary hospitals in the
nation compared with the State House clinic, University of Ilorin’s
allocation of N310 million will be the least if the National Assembly
approves the budget as submitted.
Other similar hospitals receive a little above N310 million, and some up to N550 million.
The only teaching hospitals with capital
budgets exceeding the spending for the Aso Rock elite facility are
Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, with N727 million; and the University
of Nigeria, Nsukka, with N1.9 billion.
The skewed allocations are only the
latest revelation from Nigeria’s scandalous national budget, tainted for
years by spending plans that provide more funding for services
available to a few powerful public officials, from the president and his
ministers to federal lawmakers, while relatively little go to those
that should benefit the public.
Analysts have for years criticized the allocations and have struggled to draw government’s attention for serious corrections.
“A country like Nigeria with its
negative developmental indices cannot fritter away resources that are
best conserved for national development,” said Ikeazor Akaraiwe of The
Rule of Law Collective, a Nigerian civic platform which first raised
concerns with the presidential medical spending.
In a statement to the media on Monday,
the group described the 2014 budget before the National Assembly as the
worst ever proposed in the nation’s history, and laid the
responsibility on the finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
“It is an affront to the sensibilities
of the teeming poor in our country when a budget that smacks of
profligacy and utter waste is tabled before the National Assembly to be
passed into law in their name,” the group said.
“This budget and the 1,820 pages in
which it was written, in all likelihood, will go down in history as one
of the worst budgets ever proposed. It represents a complete detachment
from reality. It is a shame that this budget proposal was tabled under
the watch of Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. So much more was expected of her
and it is disappointing that she has let this budget proposal proceed
under her hand. The ultimate responsibility, though, must lie with
President Goodluck Jonathan.”
The group also raised concerns with what
it reflected as the lopsided allocation on military spending versus
spending on the rehabilitation of ex-militants. Read their full statement here.
On Monday, in a rare admission of that
possibility, the Director General, Budget Office of the Federation,
Bright Okogu, acknowledged there were multiple errors in the new budget,
but said they were “glitches” caused by the use of the Government
Integrated Financial and Management Information System, GIFMIS, a new
budgeting tool.
He referred to the allocation of
millions of naira to non-existent projects like the huge sums allocated
to the Mathematical Centre, Sheda, Investment and Securities Tribunal
and other agencies for fuelling and maintenance of aircraft, boats and
railway equipment.
Those agencies however own no aircraft, boats or even railway equipment.
“What happened was that GIFMIS, being a
new system, had some glitches that reflected in some of the provisions.
It is not totally strange,” Mr. Okogu said at the presentation of the
budget details on Monday, by Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala. “Many of you have read
about the Obamacare and the challenges they had in actually implementing
it. It is a big system, bigger than ours, but with the same features.
The State House Clinic, pointed out by
the Rule of Law Collective, is not open to the public. Currently, only
staff of the State House are allowed services.
But the planned wing is expected to be
used to provide exclusive services to the president and his vice, and
senior government leaders visiting the presidential villa.
The N705 million allocated for the VIP
wing of the hospital will not be the first, as the same construction had
earlier received N300 million in 2012-totaling N1billion for just that
unit.
Meanwhile, upgrades, repairs and
construction in the entire hospital cost at least N506 million in 2011,
N401 million in 2012, and over N300 million in 2013.
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