Covid-19: SGF indicts Buhari govt for healthcare system helplessness

The chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 has somewhat spited his paymaster President Muhammadu Buhari when he told the leadership of National Assembly his wide-eyed discovery of the bad state of the nation’s heath care system.

Boss Mustapha, who is also the secretary to the government of the federation, told the NASS leaders he never knew things are that bad, thus reinforcing the complaints by many Nigerians that the leaders are disconnected from the nation’s reality.

“I can tell you for sure, I never knew that our entire healthcare infrastructure was in the state in which it is. Until I was appointed to do this work,” Mustapha said on Thursday while briefing the lawmakers the activity of the taskforce in effort to contain Covid-19 in Nigeria.

The nationa has had to rely on China and donations from Europe to beef up its capital and human resources in response to the viral diseases that has infected over a million, and killed close to 100,000 people around the world.

He added  that the pandemic has provided the opportunity to examine the state of the national health care systems which is in dire need of reforms and funding.

Mustapha, however, assured that the government will swing into action with  plans to lay a legacy foundation for the immediate, medium and long-term development of the health system.

He also updated the lawmakers on how funds and material the task force raises will allocated

For the sake of t transparency and accountability, he said the task  force will not be directly involved in the collection and disbursement of the cash donations for COVID-19.

“The Accountant General of the Federation has already published the account details for collection through some commercial banks and also provided the modalities for its utilisation. All the main COVID-19 accounts shall be domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria.

“However, all non-cash donations shall be duly received by the PTF, acknowledged, documented and appropriately deployed,” he said.