Senate minority leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe has labelled President Muhammadu Buhari a ‘medical tourist’ for travelling to London for just medical check-up.
Abaribe stated this on Wednesday when he featured on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme.
He described the idea of President Buhari travelling to London, United Kingdom for routine medical check-up as a “crying shame”.
The senator representing Abia-South Senatorial District said it is morally wrong for the president to seek medical treatment abroad, since Buhari had previously condemned the practice.
“What is a medical tourist? You leave your country to go to get medical attention elsewhere and that’s not your country. So, what are you? You’re nothing but a medical tourist,” the lawmaker said.
“I think it is a crying shame that we have lost so much to the extent that just to do a medical check-up, you have to go all the way to London.
“Like I said before, we just see people who say something and do the exact opposite. People come from outside the country to come and get medical treatment here; which means we have the facilities in certain local hospitals.
“There are many great Nigerian doctors who could also do that, but it seems to me that the commander-in-chief is fixated on always running to another country.”
The senate minority leader expressed disappointment that despite the promise that the COVID-19 pandemic would offer an opportunity to upgrade the country’s medical facilities, nothing much has been done.
“This is the president that told us he will never go on any medical check-up or trip abroad, and usually condemns the huge amount of money spent on medical treatment outside before he was elected in 2015,” he said.
“When the COVID business started, we were assured that medical facilities in Nigeria will be upgraded and that there will be no need for our monies to be spent abroad.
“We’re just surprised that nothing has changed. He is still depending on foreign facilities than in Nigeria.
“Everybody would have expected that the state house clinic would have the minimum to do medical checks for him.”
WITHIN NIGERIA recall that President Buhari on Tuesday afternoon departed Nigeria for London, United Kingdom in one of the jets in the presidential fleet through the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja.
While in the UK, Buhari will see his doctor for medical checkup and would return to Nigeria around second week of April, 2021.
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