CSOs Ask Buhari To Release NHIS Probe Report

Over one month after receiving the probe report on the crisis rocking the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), President Muhmmadu Buhari has yet to act on it.

President Buhari’s delay in acting on the investigative report submitted to him on December 25, 2018, has raised concerns among some civil society organisations and human rights activists.

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The report was on the controversy that trailed the suspension of the Executive Secretary of NIHIS, Prof. Usman Yusuf, on two occasions over allegations of N919 million fraud.

President Buhari had reinstated Yusuf in February, 2018, after his first suspension in July 2017 by the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole. The Executive Secretary was again suspended indefinitely by the Scheme’s Governing Board on October 18, 2018, and was replaced by Sadiq Abubakar in acting capacity.

Yusuf, however, rejected his suspension, saying the Board lacked the powers to suspend him as he was appointed by the President and can only be removed by the Presidency. The defiant Executive Secretary resumed office on October 22, 2018 in the company of over 50 policemen who helped him gain access into his office amidst protests of his resumption.

The protests prompted President Buhari to ask the Executive Secretary to embark on administrative leave, while ordering investigation into the misunderstanding between him and the NHIS Board.

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But since receiving the probe report on December 25, 2018, the President has yet to act on it, leading to questions being asked by the CSOs. The groups want Buhari to quickly treat the NHIS crisis with the same pace at which he recently acted on the recommendation of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) to suspend Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen.

The Chairman of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, Mr Debo Adeniran, said Yusuf’s case ought to be treated with equal passion by the President.

Adeniran said, “What we believe is that government should treat all cases with equal passion and whenever they don’t do that they owe the public an explanation. Double standard application of rules and regulations is not good for the interest of the populace. There is hardly anything we can do when the panel report is in the hands of those who should execute it and they have not.”

In the same vein, the Executive Director, Civil Society and Legislative Advocacy Centre, Mr Auwal Rafsanjani, warned against the use of double standard in the prosecution of corruption cases.

He said, “Compared to the case of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, it is creating an impression that the anti-corruption fight is targeted at people that the government is not comfortable with. The corruption fight has to be fought in a holistic manner, no matter who is involved. The failure to do this will be tantamount to an abuse of the anti-corruption war and it will encourage impunity.”

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A former Vice-President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr Monday Ubani, told Punch that, “What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. If you do it for A, extend it also to B. If that report has been submitted over a month ago and nothing has been done about it, it doesn’t speak well. Let’s get a nation that is working; whatever you are applying to A, apply it to B. It is when you do this that everybody will believe in the anti-corruption fight and support it.”

But responding to queries on what was delaying the Federal Government’s action on the NHIS probe report, the Assistant Director of Communication, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Olusegun Adetola, said there’s currently no update on the report which was received on December 24, 2018, by SGF Boss Mustapha.

“The report was submitted in December a few days before 2018 ended and the SGF said that it would be presented to President Muhammadu Buhari after which it would be made public. There is no other update more that what we have. The NHIS board meeting did not hold in December probably because the probe panel had not concluded its assignment at the time,” said Adetola.

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