Despite Ruling For 16 Years, PDP Blames Buhari For Poor Healthcare System

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which ruled Nigeria from 1999 to 2015, has blamed President Muhammadu Buhari for the poor state of healthcare in the country. 

The opposition party, in a statement on Friday, asked Buhari to fix hospitals in the country so that citizens who cannot afford foreign medical treatment could enjoy good healthcare. 

The PDP spoke against the backdrop of the postponement of Buhari’s scheduled medical trip to London on Friday. 

The party suggested that the rescheduling of the president’s trip may have resulted from “demands for travel restrictions against officials of the Buhari Presidency” in the light of alleged abuse of human rights under the administration. 

THE WHISTLER earlier reported that no reason was given for the postponement of Buhari’s trip. 

Presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina, had announced in a statement on Friday that “The medical follow-up visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to United Kingdom earlier scheduled for today, Friday, June 25, 2021, has been postponed.

“A new date will be announced in due course.”

But in a statement by its National spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP asked Buhari to “come clean on the real reason his scheduled medical trip to London was canceled at the last minute.” 

The party added, “While Mr. President is left to sort out whatever impediments or constraints that led to the sudden cancellation of his scheduled medical trip, our party urges him to use this period to have some introspection on the sorry situation in which his incompetent, divisive, vindictive and suppressive administration has pushed our nation into in the last six years.

“Our party urges President Buhari to use this period to reflect on the suffering of millions of Nigerians who do not have access to foreign medical treatment, but who are dying on daily basis because of his failure to pay attention to our healthcare system, which has become decrepit under his watch.

“In his consideration, Mr. President must also reflect on how he has wrecked our country’s once robust economy that was handed over to him in 2015 by the PDP, to the extent that Nigerians can no longer afford to feed because their purchasing power has become depressingly low while he (Mr. President) recedes further into the luxury and the safety of the Aso Rock Villa at the expense of the well-being of the ordinary citizens.

“Nigerians are also dismayed that Mr. President has consistently failed to honour his pre-2015 campaign promise not to embark on medical tourism if elected President. 

“President Buhari therefore ought to be aware that the only condition in which history will be kind to him, as he has always wished, is if he honours his own words as well as use this period to resolve the impasse between the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) and his administration, fix our hospitals and confront other challenges facing the health sector in our country.”