Our attention has been drawn to the statement by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, (riddled with grammatical errors) the self styled National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (a position not known to either the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria or that of the APC itself), which purported to be a condolence message to the family of the late great former Chief of General Staff, Admiral Mike Okhai Akhigbe of blessed memory.While decent people the world over did the honourable thing and condoled with the family without casting aspersions and playing politics, Tinubu, in his usual uncouth manner, chose to use his own condolence as an opportunity to throw stones.
Tinubu sought to lay blame by calling “on the Federal Government to heavily invest in state-of-the-heart (sic) medical facilities in local hospitals, especially in the area of diagnosis and detention (sic), so that this disease can be early detected and treated before it becomes life-threatening”.
In making the above statement, Bola Tinubu failed to note that the Federal Government has invested heavily in the health sector and continues to do so.
Some of the investments the Federal Government has made include the establishment of National Trauma Centers at the University of Abuja and the National Hospital also in Abuja. The Federal Government also established new National Cancer Screening Centers nationwide, including at the Federal Medical Centre, Gusau in Zamfara, The University of Port-Harcourt Teaching Hospital and the National Obstetric Fistula Centre in Abakaliki.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration of President Goodluck Jonathan also established 3389 health centers nationwide as first line primary health providers where early detection of various ailments can be made. This is in addition to modernizing the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital and the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) amongst others.
These investments in the health sector have led to outstanding feats of medical surgeries in Nigeria where the recently modernized hospitals made history by successfully carrying out the first stem cell transplant in Nigeria in February of 2012. This feat was followed by the University College Hospital Ibadan becoming the first Nigerian hospital to perform an open heart surgery in October of 2013.
From the above, it is clear that the President Jonathan led Federal Government is indeed investing in the health sector to ensure good health for all Nigerians.
But we may also like to ask what Bola Tinubu did for the health sector while he was governor of Lagos state? Lagosians are still heavily reliant on Federal Government health facilities such as the Lagos University Teaching Hospital and the National Orthopedic Hospital Igbobi amongst others. Did Bola Tinubu do what he is now advising the Federal Government to do while he held power?
For the sake of objectivity, we will now quote what the Guardian newspaper columnist, Sonala Olumhense wrote concerning Bola Tinubu in his own tribute to Vice Admiral Akhigbe. Said Olumhense, ‘A former governor of Lagos State, Chief Bola Tinubu, who is richer than half of the country but has yet to build anything to serve the people, went further; “I call on the federal government to heavily invest in state-of-the-heart medical facilities…so that this disease can be early detected and treated before it becomes life-threatening. We owe that much to the memory of Akhigbe.”-Guardian Newspaper, November 3rd 2013.
In fact, we would like to ask Tinubu how much was spent on his last birthday party? Various media reports indicate that at least one Billion Naira was squandered on Tinubu’s 60th Birthday which lasted for a week and almost shut down the state of Lagos. Bola Tinubu has not denied these reports most likely because they are true. One billion naira is enough to set up a cancer treatment hospital, but did Tinubu do so?
