Henceforth, President Muhammadu Buhari should be treated at Nigerian hospitals anytime he falls sick, the Senate Committee on Federal Character and Inter-Governmental Affairs said Thursday.
The chairman of the committee, Senator Danjuma Laah, said this when the State House Permanent Secretary, Tijani Umar, appeared before the panel to defend his 2021 budget estimates.
The State House official had presented a budget of N19.7bn for 2021 out of which N1.3bn was proposed for the State House Clinic.
Laah said the committee would approve the budget for the State House Clinic but that President and other top officials of his government should no longer be flown abroad for medical treatment.
“The president cannot be travelling or taken out of the country anytime he falls sick, he must be attended to in our hospitals here in Nigeria,” Laah said.
“We must ensure our hospital are fully equipped to world class standards so that no matter the issue of emergency, our hospitals should be endowed with that capacity to attend to them before flying out when the need arises,” he added.
Addressing reporters, Umar said arrangements would be made to meet the medical needs of the president and other top officials once the budget was approved.
Meanwhile, Laah later told newsmen that “What I actually tried to explain was that, we should have a medical facility where we can stabilise the president if he falls ill before he’s flown abroad. That was what I said.”
