The Presidency has disputed the claim that the State House Medical Centre located inside the Presidential Villa in Abuja received allocations amounting to N11.01 billion between 2015 and 2017.
The allegation gained public prominence when Hajia Aisha Buhari, the First Lady and wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, demanded the probe of the allocation to the medical centre at a public function.
Speaking at a stakeholders meeting on Reproductive, Maternal, New Born, Child, Adolescent Health and Nutrition in Abuja, where the Governors Wives Advocacy Group on reproductive health in the country was launched, Hajia Buhari said: “I would like to be realistic to say a few words concerning health delivery system in Nigeria.
“It is very poor, sorry to say that.
“I am happy that the MD of Aso Clinic is here.
“Dr. Manir, I am happy that you are here.
“As you are aware for the past six months Nigeria was not stable because of my husband’s ill health.
“We thank God that he has fully recovered now.
“If somebody like Mr. President can spend several months outside Nigeria, you wonder what will happen to a common man on the street in Nigeria.
“Few weeks ago I was sick as well.
“They advised me to take a first flight to London.
“I refused to go.
“I said I must be treated in Nigeria because there is a budget for an assigned clinic to take care of us.
“If the budget was N100 million, we need to know the way the budget is spent.
“And along the line I insisted.
“They called Aso clinic to find out if their X-ray machine was working.
“They said it was not working.
“They didn’t know that I was the person that was to be at that hospital at that very time.
“I had to go to a hospital that was established by foreigners in and out 100 per cent.
“What does that mean?
“I think it is high time for us to do the right thing.”
After the comment by Buhari, facts emerged that the allocation to the Clinic in the three years was N11.10 billion though the actual release could not be confirmed.
On Sunday, the Presidency said only 33 per cent of the N11.01 billion was released, without reference to Hajia Buhari’s comment.
According to the Permanent Secretary, State House, Jalal A. Arabi, out of the total Capital Appropriation of N2,941,062,044.00 and Recurrent Appropriation of N465,935,358.00 for the period under reference, only N969,681,821.53 (representing 32.97%) for Capital and N225,575,200.60 (representing 48.41%) for Recurrent was actually released.
Arabi said it may interest the public to know that there was zero capital allocation for the Medical Centre in 2017, while out of the N331,730,211.00 being recurrent appropriation for 2017, the actual amount released up to September was N91,370,053.60 (representing only 27.54%).
The Permanent Secretary emphasised that the above figures are verifiable from the Ministries of Finance, Budget and National Planning.
He observed that during the three-year period under review (indeed two years since no capital allocation for 2017), and despite the shortfalls between budgetary provisions and actual releases, the Medical Centre continued to provide free services to the over 10,000 registered patients annually.
In addition, the Centre has continued to execute ongoing projects.
Giving further insight into the scope of the Medical Centre’s clientele, Arabi stressed that apart from the Presidency, other beneficiaries of the free services include political appointees, the military, para-military, other security agencies, members of the National Assembly and the general public.
In the words of the Permanent Secretary: “Considering the unrestricted patronage base and free services of the State House Medical Centre, coupled with the funding hiccups and periodic receipts, it may not be far-fetched to notice gaps between demand and supply of medical equipment and consumables at certain stages of the budget circle.”
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