Socialist Party of Nigeria condemns Buhari’s trip to London

Stephen Gbadamosi, Ibadan

The Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) has condemned the trip of President Muhammadu Buhari to London for a medical check.

The president departed Nigeria for the United Kingdom for yet another routine medical check on Tuesday.

The party, in a statement co-signed by its Acting National Chairperson, Bamigboye Abiodun; and the National Secretary, Chinedu Bosah, said the medical trip by the president “in the face of abject state of public healthcare and imminent nationwide doctors’ strike is insensitive and vexatious.”

SPN called for a peaceful mass protest in solidarity with the doctors’ strike and to demand improved funding of the nation’s healthcare.

“The Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) considers President Buhari’s trip to London on Tuesday, 30th March, for ‘routine medical checkup’ as insensitive, vexatious and an insult to Nigerians, especially the working and poor people who have no choice but to continue to patronize, at enormous risk to their lives, poor healthcare system.

“The trip is also an insult to health workers, especially doctors and nurses who have been risking their lives since last year with some paying the Supreme price to fight the coronavirus pandemic with very little support by the government in terms of basic protection kits, equipment to work with and welfare.

“It becomes all the more insulting and provocative, considering the fact that President Buhari has jetted out of the country for his own medical treatment and care, using public funds 48 hours to the commencement of a nationwide strike by resident doctors.

“The doctors, who had given a 60-day strike notice since January 25, are preparing to withdraw their services from today (yesterday), 1st of April, on issues bordering on payment of arrears of house officers across the country, hazard allowance, and others.

“This will, no doubt, imperil the health and lives of many ordinary Nigerians who may lose their lives, not because their ailments are terminal, but because they are unfortunately governed by a self-serving president and ruling capitalist political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), which does not care about the interests of the working people.

“Therefore, beyond mere condemnation, the SPN believes concrete actions are needed to send a note of warning to the capitalist elite that workers, the poor and the youth will not continue to tolerate their failures to improve the conditions of our life, neither would we continue to overlook their temerity and shamelessness in rubbing salt into our collective wound by their insensitive conducts and actions.

“It is for this reason that the SPN calls on the trade union organizations, specifically the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and their affiliates, including the civil society organizations, youth groups, and all angry Nigerians to respond to the insult by embarking on a mass protest starting from Thursday, 1st April when the nationwide strike of resident doctors is to commence to solidarize with the doctors’ demands.

“This is to condemn Buhari’s medical tourism and also to demand improved funding and democratic management of public healthcare in Nigeria.

“One of the things the coronavirus pandemic has done is to expose the weakness of the nation’s underfunded public healthcare sector and the urgency of improving the healthcare system, in order to improve the lifespan and quality of life of Nigerians and to also prepare the country for the next pandemic.

“Unfortunately, President Buhari’s medical tourism shows that the regime has learnt no lesson. Very little has changed in the quality of the healthcare sector in Nigeria. According to a May 18, 2020 publication by the Journal of Global Health Reports, Nigeria accounts for at least 20 percent of global maternal death (death of pregnant mothers during childbirth). This meant a Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) of 814 per 100,000 live births.

“Similarly, the lifetime risk of a Nigerian woman dying during pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum or post-abortion is one in 22, in contrast to the lifetime risk in developed countries estimated at one in 4900.

“In the same vein, very little efforts have been made to expand medical facilities as there are only 34, 000 Primary Health Centres (PHC) for a rapidly growing population of over 200 million.

“It took the threat of strikes and actual shutdown of hospitals by doctors last year before the Federal Government provided insurance cover for health workers and, even till now, many doctors, nurses, and other frontline health workers are still not covered in many states.

“Despite the immense sacrifices, the hazard allowance of doctors in Nigeria is still a measly N5,000 per month, way below what the president, governors, ministers, lawmakers and even local government chairmen and councilors spend to feed their pets in a week,” the SPN said.