Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has broken his promise to end medical tourism by seeking treatment for an ear infection in the U.K., according to a senior doctor.
Dr Osahon Enabulele, a former president of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), said in an open letter to the president that about $1 billion was spent funding foreign medical trips in 2013, mostly for Nigerian public officials.
Buhari traveled to London on Monday for a 10-day holiday, during which he will see an ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist for treatment of a persistent ear infection. The president has canceled several high-profile engagements in recent months, including a planned trip to the restive Niger Delta region to launch a clean-up operation in Ogoniland, a community affected by multiple oil spills in recent years.
The 73-year-old leader, who was elected in March 2015 on an anti-corruption ticket, said in a speech to the NMA in April that the government would cut back spending on sending public officials abroad for treatment when there was evidence of expertize in Nigeria. The office of the Nigerian presidency said Buhari traveled to London after being evaluated by his personal physician and an ENT specialist in the capital Abuja.
Enabulele, who is also the vice-president of the Commonwealth Medical Association, said it was a “national shame” that Buhari was seeking treatment in London, despite the presence of more than 250 ENT specialists in Nigeria and a National Ear Center in Kaduna state, northern Nigeria. Enabulele stated that the U.K. had some 3,000 Nigerian-trained doctors, most of whom had emigrated due to the Nigerian government’s failure to address problems in the West African country’s health service.
Enabulele even stated that he himself had received treatment from an ENT specialist in Nigeria in April “in line with my patriotic commitment to the Nigerian dream” and said he believed that Nigerian physicians “are skilled enough, and with the right equipment in place can handle any complicated ENT problem in Nigeria.”
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Nigeria football legend Stephen Keshi dies at age 54
A former captain of the Nigeria national team, Keshi was one of only two men to win the Africa Cup of Nations both as a player and a coach.
He also managed Togo and Mali, and his playing career included a spell for Belgian club side Anderlecht.
He is thought to have suffered a heart attack, local media reported.
As a player, Keshi was part of the Super Eagles team that won the Nations Cup in 1994 and narrowly missed out on a World Cup quarter-final place the same year.
He coached the national side over three spells, leading Nigeria to the 2013 Nations Cup title in South Africa and the last 16 at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
His contract was not renewed after the World Cup but he later returned on a match-by-match deal following the team's failure to reach the 2015 Nations Cup finals.
He was then sacked as caretaker coach but reinstated after intervention from then Nigeria president Goodluck Jonathan. He was sacked for a final time last July.
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Video - Impact of Nigeria's oil pollution
Take a look at the effects of decades-long oil spills in the Niger delta region on farming. Although a program to mop up the oil spills was launched recently-it could take another three decades before the environment in the area is fully restored. CCTV's Kelechi Emekalam spent a day with a farmer in the Ogoni land and filed the following report.
Tomato crisis in Nigeria might be coming to an end
Nigerian scientists believe they have found a cure to a pest that has ravaged the country’s tomato crop and seen the price of the fruit increase more than 30-fold.
The tomato leaf miner moth, also known as Tuta Absoluta, has destroyed around 80 percent of the tomato farms in the northern state of Kaduna, leading the local government to declare a state of emergency. Prices have skyrocketed and a basket of tomatoes that cost $1.20 less than three months ago now sells for more than $40.
Nigerians have been desperately searching for a solution to the crisis, which has even been blamed on the Boko Haram insurgency by Nigerian Information Minister Lai Mohammed. The minister said that the lack of tomato farming in the northeast was a direct result of the armed group’s campaign, which began in 2009 and has displaced more than 2 million people.
The shortage of what is a common ingredient in many Nigerian dishes has also forced many to close their farms, including business mogul Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, whose Dangote Tomato Processing Factory suspended operations in May due to the shortage.
Now Nigeria’s National Research Institute for Chemical Technology says it has come up with a pesticide that can be used to tackle the moth. The institute’s public relations officer, Alhaji Bala Aliyu, told the News Agency of Nigeria that the vaccine had proven to be “very effective” during testing and that the institute was working with regulatory agencies to getting the pesticide certified and distributed to farmers.
As well as depriving Nigerians of a favored food stuff, the scarcity has also seen citizens of the West African country casting envious eyes at Spain, where residents of the eastern town of Bunol celebrate the festival of La Tomatina each August by throwing tonnes of near-rotten tomatoes at each other. Nigerians took to social media to poke fun at the disparity in the amounts of the red fruits available in the two countries.
The tomato leaf miner moth, also known as Tuta Absoluta, has destroyed around 80 percent of the tomato farms in the northern state of Kaduna, leading the local government to declare a state of emergency. Prices have skyrocketed and a basket of tomatoes that cost $1.20 less than three months ago now sells for more than $40.
Nigerians have been desperately searching for a solution to the crisis, which has even been blamed on the Boko Haram insurgency by Nigerian Information Minister Lai Mohammed. The minister said that the lack of tomato farming in the northeast was a direct result of the armed group’s campaign, which began in 2009 and has displaced more than 2 million people.
The shortage of what is a common ingredient in many Nigerian dishes has also forced many to close their farms, including business mogul Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, whose Dangote Tomato Processing Factory suspended operations in May due to the shortage.
Now Nigeria’s National Research Institute for Chemical Technology says it has come up with a pesticide that can be used to tackle the moth. The institute’s public relations officer, Alhaji Bala Aliyu, told the News Agency of Nigeria that the vaccine had proven to be “very effective” during testing and that the institute was working with regulatory agencies to getting the pesticide certified and distributed to farmers.
As well as depriving Nigerians of a favored food stuff, the scarcity has also seen citizens of the West African country casting envious eyes at Spain, where residents of the eastern town of Bunol celebrate the festival of La Tomatina each August by throwing tonnes of near-rotten tomatoes at each other. Nigerians took to social media to poke fun at the disparity in the amounts of the red fruits available in the two countries.
Nigeria says it has recovered $9.1 billion in looted funds
The Nigerian government says it has recovered assets and funds totaling $9.1 billion as part of its anti-corruption drive. The recovered assets “include monies withheld by past government officials, monies kept in private accounts, monies diverted to private pockets and monies in possession of government officials not disclosed after leaving government,” a spokesman said. The funds were recovered during president Buhari’s first year in office.
The news of the recovered funds signals gains made by president Buhari’s anti-corruption drive as he remains intent on ensuring transparency in state institutions and agencies previously known for being opaque and corrupt.
The recovery will also likely enhance Buhari’s reputation internationally as being intolerant of corruption despite aspersions cast inadvertently last month by David Cameron, prime minister of Britain. Cameron had described Nigeria as “fantastically corrupt” in the run-up to an anti-corruption summit in London but Buhari responded strongly asking Britain to return Nigeria’s stolen assets kept in the country.
But while the news of recovered funds has been hailed as a major win by the government, it has been received with a healthy dose of skepticism from many Nigerians. The skepticism is because the government did not release any names of persons and officials the assets were recovered from. This was despite an earlier promise by president Buhari to “make a comprehensive report” on “what has been recovered in whatever currency from each ministry, department and individual.” The report was expected to come during the president’s democracy day address on May 29.
The government says it cannot release names of looters for legal reasons but various groups within the country have questioned and criticized the government’s decision to withhold the names. Critics say by not naming the looters, there is little deterrent to prevent others from looting funds as they suffer no reputational damage. “These people will do it again and again,” said a comment on one of the country’s biggest newspapers. “Because all you have to do in the eventuality that a government changes, is that you simply return the money and you wait until you can do it again.”
The timing of the recovery of the funds is crucial for Nigeria’s stumbling economy. The recovered funds are set to come in at a time when the government is doubling down on efforts to diversify its oil-dependent economy and fund a record $30.6 billion national budget. With oil prices falling and state revenue dwindling as a result, Nigeria’s economy has had a rough year typified by job losses, investor reticence and slowed GDP growth.
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