₦airaland Forum

IF the Federal Government and state governments had not been paying lip service to healthcare funding, Nigeria would have been at a vantage position to combat the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic sweeping across the world.
In the last 12 years, the Federal Government allocated N3.346 trillion (4.48 per cent) of its N74.70 trillion budgets to Health. In 2019, the Federal Government, 36 state governments and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja allocated N1.119 trillion (6.17 per cent) of their collective N18.134 trillion budgets to Health, according to Saturday Vanguard checks.

These are far cries from the World Health Organisation, WHO’s recommendation of 13 per cent or the Abuja 2001 Declaration by the African Union of 15 per cent. Medical facilities at the federal level would have been better if the Federal Government had spent N11.21 trillion (15 per cent of N74.70 trillion) on healthcare in the last 12 years.

COVID-19, a blessing in disguise – Cardinal Okogie

Looking at the scenario, respected Catholic Priest, Anthony Cardinal Okogie, said the COVID-19 outbreak has exposed Nigeria’s poor leadership and government.

Okogie lamented how President Muhammadu Buhari administration was spending billions on cars for lawmakers and ignoring the health sector.

He said in a statement that the ravaging global pandemic “has been a dangerous yet revelatory moment in Nigeria. It is dangerous because this deadly pandemic has infected over a million and killed thousands of citizens of our planet. No one seems to know when and how it will end.

“But COVID-19 is also revelatory, a blessing in disguise because it has exposed Nigeria as a country where quality of leadership is of low grade. What we have known but denied for so long is now shown to us as an incontrovertible fact: that the quality of leadership in our country must improve.”

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/04/healthcare-funding-covid-19-exposes-govts-failures-2/amp/?utm_source=&utm_medium=twitter&__twitter_impression=true

Covid-19 has exposed a lot of things.

Greystone:
Covid-19 has exposed a lot of things.

Very true.