Medical tourism: Lai Mohammed defends Buhari, gives reasons

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has defended President Muhammadu Buhari on his frequent trip abroad for medical attention.

It would be recalled that President Buhari recently returned from a three-week trip to London last week while resident doctors in the country embarked on a nationwide strike over poor working conditions and lack of adequate equipment.

The trip was President Buhari’s eighth since he assumed office in 2015.

Many Nigerians have been criticizing the President over his frequent trip abroad for medical treatments while the country’s health sector suffered from years of neglect by the government.

The minister, who addressed journalists after a meeting with international media organisations including the BBC and Bloomberg in Washington DC, United States, said those criticizing the President over his medical trips are unfair and making a watery attempt to de-market him.

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He stressed that Buhari’s medical trips do not mean that the country’s health system was in comatose.

He pointed out the President was not the first world leader to travel abroad for medical care.

Mohammed also highlighted the government’s efforts at checking insurgency, banditry and all forms of criminality in Nigeria.

Mohammed said: “As Minister of Information and Culture today, if I have had a history of using a particular doctor in my life and I have confidence in him, I don’t think the fact that I am now a minister will change that.

“Irrespective of the nationality of that doctor, it is my personal decision to choose the doctor to use

“Like I explained to them, he is not the only Head of State that has gone abroad for treatment.

“If Mr. President has a personal physician for over 30 years, who understands his case and has been managing him, why will it be an issue of contention to seek medical attention from him.