Why NHIS ‘Debtors’ Want Me Sacked – Executive Secretary

The Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Professor Usman Yusuf, has explained why some “NHIS agents” want him removed from office.

Prof. Yusuf, in a chat with the BBC Hausa Service, gave the explanation in the wake of the crisis currently rocking the Scheme.

Recall that two unsuccessful efforts have been made to suspend the Executive Secretary over allegations of misconducts levelled against him in some petitions.

Yusuf was first suspended in July by the Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, over similar allegations. He was however reinstated by President Muhammadu Buhari after some months.

Last week Thursday, the Chairman of the NHIS governing council, Dr Enyatu Ifenne, announced the Executive Secretary’s suspension for the second time.

But reacting, Yusuf said he wasn’t going to accept his suspension because the governing council lacked the powers to suspend him as he is a presidential appointee and as such could only be suspended by President Muhammadu Buhari.

He restated his stand while speaking to BBC on Tuesday, saying: “The governing board has no right to suspend me as the Executive Secretary.

“I notified them in a written document that they lack constitutional rights to suspend or even block me from entering my office.

“From the country I came from, if you say someone is a thief, you have to prove that. But since I came on board, I have been going through unnecessary accusations of fraud.

“They’re doing that just to intimidate and stop me from doing my good work. They have failed, I will never secumb to their ploy, I think they have to change plan.

Yusuf recalled that he had been warned beforehand by “a handful of people that I have to succumb to NHIS agents or a face a battle.”

He said, “I told everyone when I came on board that the public funds in the commission belongs to Nigerians, no one should tamper with that money, including myself.

“If I’m corrupt, EFCC and ICPC are currently recovering billions of naira from my whistleblowing in the commission and I have never been indicted by the anti-corruption agencies.

“My ordeal as the Executive Secretary of NHIS may be connected with NHIS agents who think that I stepped on their toes and you know these people are powerful and they are well established in the previous administration.

“Those NHIS agents, I told them to pay back their debts which has already run to billions of naira. After initial investigation, I learnt that so many abnormalities need to be corrected,” he said.