Anxiety trails non-release of probe report on suspended NHIS boss

…Stakeholders demand immediate release of report on Yusuf

…Health ministry keeps mum

Doosuur Iwambe, Abuja

Barely four months after the Federal Government ordered the embattled Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Prof. Usman Yusuf, to proceed on administrative leave, Nigerians are waiting anxiously for information on the outcome of the panel set up to probe allegations of corruption levelled against him. The report of an investigative committee set up to look into allegations of fraud against Prof. Yusuf was said to have been submitted to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha few days to the end December 2018. However, more than one month after its submission, the report has not been made public by Federal Government. Meanwhile, a top anonymous source from the NHIS, who spoke with The Daily Times on Monday warned the Federal Government not to dream of idea of sweeping the report under the carpet. The source, who wondered why the report has not been made public more than a month after its submission, urged the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to be transparent, accountable and just in handling the matter which he described as “sensitive”. “Sweeping the report under the carpet will erode public confidence and cast doubt on the sincerity of government and its fight against corruption,” the source added. The report of the panel was submitted to the SGF amidst speculation that some powerful individuals in the corridors of power had attempted to sweep the matter under the carpet. Those who held the opinion expressed the fear that the report and the recommendations of the panel on the crisis, despite its submission, might never be made public or implemented. While receiving the report in his office in December, the SGF, Boss Mustapha, had defended the lateness of the submission of the report of the seven-man independent fact-finding panel, saying the need for a thorough investigation of the crisis in the NHIS compelled the panel to complete the assignment more than seven weeks after it was inaugurated, instead of the two-week period given it. He also said the report would be made public after its presentation to President Buhari. In the meantime, civil society organisations and human rights activists have questioned the delay by Federal Government to act on the investigative report on the suspended NHIS ES. They wondered why the Federal Government had failed to take action on the investigative report which was submitted by the probe panel set up by President Buhari since December 24, 2018. Speaking, Chairman of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, an anti-corruption group, Mr. Debo Adeniran, called on President Buhari to also treat Prof. Yusuf’s case with equal passion with which he treated the allegation of non-assets declaration by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen. 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. “We are using the dispatch with which the Onnoghen case was treated to assess the sincerity of the government and benchmark what is going to be happening to other cases of alleged corruption”. Also speaking, a former Vice President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Monday Ubani, said: “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”. When contacted, the Assistant Director of Communication, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Olusegun Adetola, told our correspondent that the report of the NHIS investigation panel, which was submitted to the SGF, Boss Mustapha, on December 24, 2018 would be made public at the appropriate time. “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 than 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,” he said. Also, a source at the Federal Ministry of Health, when contacted, declined to comment on the issue, saying, “The matter is above me. I can’t speak about it please”. Meanwhile, NHIS spokesman, Ayo Osinlu, said the board overseeing the affairs of the scheme had not been dissolved. “The board still exists. There is no directive from the Federal Government that the NHIS board should be dissolved even though it did not hold its meeting in December,” he said. The Daily Times recalls that Yusuf’s trouble began when the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, suspended him in July 2017 over an alleged N919 million fraud. President Buhari, however, overruled the Health minister and reinstated Yusuf in February, 2018. In reinstating Yusuf, the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, said the NHIS boss had been “admonished to work harmoniously with the minister”. However, the Governing Board of the NHIS on October 18, 2018 announced the indefinite suspension of Yusuf and appointed Sadiq Abubakar as the acting Executive Secretary. Yusuf, however, spurned his suspension by the NHIS Governing Board and went to office in the morning of October 22, 2018 accompanied by about 50 policemen, who fired tear gas canister at staff that attempted to stop him from entering the NHIS premises. Intervening, President Buhari converted Yusuf’s suspension to an administrative leave and set up a probe panel on November 2, 2018, to look into the allegations against Yusuf. The President gave the probe panel two weeks to submit its report, but the report was not submitted until December 24, 2018. Over a month after the report was submitted, the Federal Government has not spoken on Yusuf’s case.